Carrot cake, so moist and so satisfying...

Today is Valentine's day, the day to share with people you love. Well I think it is especially the day to share the food you love with your beloved ones. So of course I baked one of my favorite cakes: the moist and very satisfying carrot cake with cream cheese frosting :-D

This recipe is very easy to follow and the only difficult task is shredding those 500 g of carrots. I decided to coat the cake with cream cheese frosting but it is equally delicious without (and you still get to decorate it with marzipan carrots!).

This cake was also an occasion to celebrate my first 1st-author publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal! And last but equally important, today is the 1st-year anniversary of Laura's Gourmandises!!! So many things to celebrate clearly called for a cake and this carrot cake made for a great Gourmandise on this 14th of February 2014.

Recipe for a 35cm long carrot cake

500 g carrots, shredded
250 g ground almonds
4 eggs
1 pack baking powder (15g)
350 g flour (5 dl)
300 g sugar (3 dl)
200 g melted butter / oil
zest + juice of a lemon
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom

Cream cheese frosting (optional)


113 g cream cheese (philadelphia)
60 g butter, room T
4.8 dl powder sugar
a few drops of lemon juice
marzipan carrots (for decoration)

Beat up eggs + sugar until white. Add fat (I do 1/2 butter 1/2 oil) and mix. Mix flour, baking powder and spices, add to batter and mix. Add carrots, almonds, and lemon and mix. Transfer to a buttered and floured cake pan, bake in the oven 60 min at 180C. Unmold and let the cake cool.

Beat up cream cheese and butter together in a bowl. Add powder sugar and mix into a soft shiny frosting. Spread on top of the carrot cake and decorate with marzipan carrots. Let the frosting dry a bit and then enjoy this wonderfully moist cake :-D