Carrot Raisin Cake

 INGREDIENTS:

• Yogurt. Yogurt gives this cake a tangy and super moist texture.
• Spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg are my faves for this cake with a bit of cloves, if you like.
• Sugars. For the cake you’ll use a combo of brown and white sugar and for the frosting, powdered.
• Peeled, grated carrots. Use your food processor to grat your carrots in a fast hurry.
• Raisins. Make sure you soak your raisins first to get them good and plump.
• Cream cheese. Room temp is a must for cream cheese frosting.
• Walnuts and dates – for garnish. Go ahead and skip these, if you like, but I love how they taste and look with my carrot cake.

OPTIONAL ADD-INS:

Ginger. A bit of ground ginger powder (or even finely minced) is lovely in this recipe.
Pineapple. I know that many like to put pineapple in their carrot cakes. Be sure your pineapple is well drained.
Nutmeg. A good dose of nutmeg adds a nice spice to this cake.

METHOD FOR BAKING CARROT CAKE:

• Preheat the oven and prepare the pan.
• Soak the raisins in water while you work on the dry ingredients. (this is the same tip that works brilliantly in my Lemon Blueberry Cake)
• In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients and spices.
• In another bowl, whisk the sugars, wet ingredients, and eggs.
• Incorporate the dry ingredients with the wet. Mix in the carrots, and raisins.
• Bake the cake and cool completely.
• For the frosting, beat cream cheese and add and beat the powdered sugar & heavy cream until the mixture is fluffy.
• Frost the cake when it’s completely cooled, garnish with walnuts and dates and enjoy.

• HOW TO STORE:

  You won’t have any left to store so we can assume that isn’t needed. But just for the sake of being thorough, store this cake in an air-tight container for only a few days.

  Friend, after you make this cake (which promise me you will like yesterday!), come back here and let me know about the wonder in your family’s eyes, the mmm mmm noises that you heard, and how quickly that cake was gobbled up.