Recipe of the Week: Dreamz B-day Carrot Cake

Recipe of the week is awarded hands-down to my best friend Carrie's killer Carrot Cake she made on Saturday night. This was a request from my boyfriend for his birthday and she hit the ball outta the park. It was to die for!

Carrie got this recipe off of AllRecipes.com an adaptation of the "Best Carrot Cake Ever" recipe. She read all of the reviews of the recipe before starting and changed some things based on the suggestions. Apparently that worked out pretty well!

She thinks since there were changes we can rename the carrot cake....

Dreamz B-day Carrot Cake
(Dreamz is short for Dreamy which is short for Drew...)

Ingredients

CAKE
3-3/4 cups grated carrots
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup golden raisins
2 full eggs and 1 egg white
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup applesauce
1-1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup crushed pineapple (drained)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
1/4 lb stick butter (softened)
1 8oz package of regular cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb confectioner's sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Meanwhile, place raisins in a glass of warm water to hydrate. Set aside for 60 minutes, then drain raisins and stir into carrot mixture.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Press pineapple through a fine strainer and pat dry to remove most of the liquid, then stir into egg mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally, strain the carrot mixture and remove the majority of the liquid and stir into batter. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

Note: Although straining the pineapple and carrot mixture seems cumbersome, the negative reviews I read on the original recipe mostly said that the cake was too moist, soggy and pudding like. Removing most of the liquid from the pineapple and carrots still leaves you with a moist cake but with a much more appealing texture. I highly recommend including this step.

Bake for 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool at least 10 minutes before removing from pan. When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.

For frosting, simply combine ingredients and mix at a high speed until fluffy.
*Adapted from "The Best Cheese Cake Allrecipes.com

Recipe of the Week: Dreamz B-day Carrot Cake