I just love carrot cakes or maybe it is just the cream cheese frosting.

This weekend was more about resting and indulging comfort food so I made the carrot cake with a ginger cream cheese frosting for a change and decorated the cake with pecans instead of adding them to the batter.

I tried several recipes and came to this final one if you want a fluffy cake. As usual, I try to cut down as much as possible on sugar, I even tried to replace it with Agave syrup but the batter will get burnt quickly. Besides, it is always better to replace the vegetable oil with coconut oil or make it half half.

Ingredients:
400g all purpose flour
3 large eggs at room temperature
300g vegetable oil OR 150g vegetable oil & 150g coconut oil
300g sugar
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
3 cups of coarsely grated carrots
1/2 cup of chopped pecans (optional)

Frosting:
450g cream cheese, at room temperature
110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons of freshly finely grated ginger (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat vegetable oil (or both coconut and vegetable oil) with sugar until combined in the mixer. Then add eggs, one at a time, until each is incorporated.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in the mixer bowl on medium speed.
5. Stop mixing when ingredients are incorporated. Fold in carrots and nuts.
6. butter the pan and add a bit of flour then incorporate the batter and bake for 30-40 minutes.
7. Meanwhile prepare the cream cheese frosting, combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a mixer and beat until smooth.

Enjoy the weekend!

The Urban Apron