Ease Level: Labor intensive, but simple overall!
Time: 3 hours including prep, baking and cooling. Additional 30 minutes to frost.
Getting coffee a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a local amateur baking competition. I thought, why not give it a go! I was allowed to bake at home and drop it off for tasting the morning of the competition. The tricky part was deciding on a potentially award winning cake.
My family is full of amazing bakers, but there is one cake recipe that has stood out as a fan favorite. Behold, the carrot cake with ginger cream cheese frosting recipe: Here! Everyone including myself is likely thinking, carrot cake is not a winning recipe! However, this cake won over my husband and brother who do not even like carrot cake. I think it is the fresh ginger juice in the frosting 🙂
This cake takes a good deal of prep. Shredding carrots, shredding the orange zest, shredding the ginger…lots of shredding. This cake also has a lot of ingredients. All that is forgotten when you taste this thing.
Sadly, the carrot cake was not a winner. I lost to some fancy banana cake. Thankfully, I have carrot ginger cake to drown my disappointment.
Ingredients
For the cake:
Cooking spray
2 3/4 cups chopped walnuts – Watch out, only 3/4 cup actually go in the cake. The rest are for the outside.
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour – I have used whole wheat or all purpose white flour.
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger – If you don’t have this and are mentally irritated that you are already buying fresh ginger, you can use grated fresh ginger instead.
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1/2 cup smooth applesauce – Is chunky applesauce just unfinished? I used unsweetened applesauce that did not appear to have chunks, but also didn’t admit to being smooth.
Finely grated zest of 1 orange – Keep this orange for the juice in the frosting! Oranges that have been zested do not keep long.
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrots (about 4 medium) – The size of the carrot hugely subjective. The cake is forgiving and I error on the size of more rather than less carrots.
For the frosting:
1 4-inch piece ginger – If you have never bought ginger, don’t worry about factoring in all of the offshoots of the ginger. Just eyeball 4 inches worth. You are only using this for the juice.
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice – Juice the orange that you used for the zest. Whatever comes out is what you can use for the frosting. Don’t stop at 1 tablespoon.
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted – Sifting is a luxury not all of us can afford. It is fine to not sift ever.
Directions
- Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat two 9-inch-round cake pans with cooking spray (or use crisco on a paper towel if you don’t like the aerosol spray); line the bottoms with parchment paper. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Let cool, then finely chop. – I do not toast the walnuts and it still tastes great.
- Sift (pft, again with the sifting) the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt onto a large piece of parchment (or into a medium bowl). Beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar and vegetable oil in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium high and add the eggs, one at a time; beat until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the applesauce, orange zest and vanilla and beat until just smooth. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Add the carrots and 3/4 cup walnuts and beat until just combined.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool 10 minutes in the pans, then remove to the rack to cool completely; remove the parchment. (The cake layers can be made a day ahead; let cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap.) – Fun fact, the cake doesn’t need to cool completely to cover! Whaaaaaaaaat?!?! I discovered this in a desperate Google attempt as my cake wasn’t finished until 10:30pm and I wanted to go to bed with the cake covered. I let it cool until it was warm, not hot, and then wrapped in plastic wrap. It kept a lot of good moisture in the cake, but wasn’t slimy or saturated.
- Make the frosting: Peel the ginger and grate onto a piece of cheesecloth (They mean a paper towel instead of cheesecloth that you can throw away when you are done). Wrap in the cheesecloth and squeeze the juice into a small bowl (you should get about 1 tablespoon)(I added as much juice as I could. At least 2-3 tablespoons). Add the orange juice and vanilla to the bowl. Beat the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the juice mixture. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until smooth, about 2 more minutes.
- Place 1 cake layer on a platter, rounded-side down. Spread with 1 cup frosting, then top with the second cake layer, rounded-side down. Cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting. Press the remaining walnuts into the sides of the cake. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. – Finally, a recipe that doesn’t ask you to cut parts of the cake off to make it level!
Some of you may be thinking, why should I listen to you if you didn’t win. Of course you don’t have to take any shortcuts here, but as I’m writing this my husband is enjoying a slice and muttering about how this is a winning cake. So either way, you will not be disappointed!
Food Proxy 
That cake is delicious and I don’t even like carrot cake. It is totally the frosting that makes it great!
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