Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Name: Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: Makes one 13 by 9-inch cake
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups, unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces; 354 grams); 1 1/4 teaspoons, baking powder; 1 teaspoon, baking soda; 1 1/4 teaspoons, ground cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon, ground nutmeg; 1/8 teaspoon, ground cloves; 1/2 teaspoon, table salt; 1 pound (454 grams), medium carrots (6 to 7 carrots), peeled; 1 1/2 cups, granulated sugar (10 1/2 ounces; 298 grams); 1/2 cup, packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces; 99 grams); 4 , large eggs; 1 1/2 cups, vegetable oil, safflower oil, or canola oil; 8 ounces (227 grams), cream cheese, softened but still cool; 5 tablespoons, unsalted butter softened, but still cool; 1 tablespoon, sour cream; 1/2 teaspoon, vanilla extract; 1 1/4 cups, confectioners' sugar (5 ounces; 142 grams)

148 comments

Appears in Cook's Illustrated March/April 2003, America's Test Kitchen TV

Desserts or Baked Goods

Vegetables

Cakes

Was there way to avoid dense, soggy carrot cake and produce a streamlined recipe at the same time?

SERVESMakes one 13 by 9-inch cake

TIME1½ hours, plus 2 hours cooling

has video

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

When developing our carrot cake recipe, we wanted to avoid dense, soggy cake while streamlining the procedure. For a moist, rich cake with a tight and tender crumb, we tinkered with the amounts of all-purpose flour, carrots, and oil to get ...

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