Seasonal Recipe: Judy's Best Carrot Cake Ever

Posted byVirtual FarmgirlPosted inUncategorized
Tastes much better
than it looks.

When I first tried this recipe for the Best Carrot Cake Ever, I didn’t follow the directions precisely.

I only had two cake pans and I was supposed to make this with three. I also didn’t grease the pans near liberally enough. 

So when I found myself swimming in CSA carrots this week, I knew just the recipe to pull out.

This is also the first time I’ve made the cake since the recipe’s creator, Judy, passed away. I love that there’s a real person, a woman of quiet elegance, behind this recipe.

I thought about her and her family as I grated the carrots, blended the flour, sugar and cinnamon and cracked each of the four eggs, one at a time, and folded them into the batter.

Judy’s Best Carrot Cake Ever

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2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup oil
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and stir to blend. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Add carrots and mix well. Evenly divide batter between three well-greased and floured 8″ pans. Bake for 35 minutes. [With three pans, the batter is thin, so the layers were done for me in about 25 minutes.]

Cool completely on wire racks before icing.

Icing

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pecans/walnuts (optional)
1 cup coconut (optional)

Mix all ingredients. Add nuts and coconut. Ice tops and sides of cake. 

Test Kitchen Notes: I was told to use toothpicks to hold the cake layers together before icing and then to warn people there are toothpicks in the cake. I didn’t do this and the cake held together fine. Where it started to break apart, I used icing as a sort of glue.

The cake turned out great the second time around. I still need to work on presentation (even my husband said so). Part of the problem was patience. I was in a rush to get the cake iced so I could send some home with a friend breaking his fast at sundown.

I also don’t have proper grease for the pans. Oil and baking spray just aren’t adequate, especially for a batter this dense. I’ve quit using shortening in my baking. But I may need to keep some on hand just for greasing and flouring pans.

For sure, using the optional coconut would dress this up quite a bit. Unfortunately, coconut isn’t loved by all in my house.

Published by Virtual Farmgirl

Virtual Farmgirl is a communications professional with a dream of one day becoming a real farmgirl.

2 thoughts on “Seasonal Recipe: Judy's Best Carrot Cake Ever”

  1. This sounds delicious! I have never found the perfect carrot cake recipe (although I try every year or two) so I must try this.For larger/difficult cakes, I have a container of Wilton's Cake Release that I bought a few years ago (for some child's birthday cake) and, I don't know what's in the stuff, but it's amazing. You can buy it at Micheal's and it just stores in the pantry. – Jen

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  2. This sounds delicious! I have never found the perfect carrot cake recipe (although I try every year or two) so I must try this.For larger/difficult cakes, I have a container of Wilton's Cake Release that I bought a few years ago (for some child's birthday cake) and, I don't know what's in the stuff, but it's amazing. You can buy it at Micheal's and it just stores in the pantry. – Jen

    Like

    Reply

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