I am making a cake for a lady that will be a hot air balloon.. It will stand up with 2 square cakes and 4 wooden dowels then a real balloon on the top.. Anyways cant wait it will be fun to make Unfortunally she wants carrot cake.. With cream cheese frosting.. So i need not only a carrot cake but a cream cheese frosting that will support the basket weave !Lol
What we get ourselves into.. LOL so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.. Thanks in advance kathy

Are you looking for a scratch recipe or dr'd mix? If you want a scratch recipe I can recommend this one..

http://cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6073-0-Carrot-Cake-Straight-Up.html

It's a great tasting and moist cake that is easy to make. Nothing funky in it.. just carrots and spices. It's the best carrot cake I have ever tried.

CAKE

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 3/4 cups white sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 3 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups shredded carrots
* 1 cup flaked coconut
* 1 cup chopped walnuts
* 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

FROSTING

* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 1/4 cup butter, softened
* 2 cups icing sugar

Directions

1.
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.
2
Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
3.
3
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; make a well in the center and add sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla.
4.
4
Mix with wooden spoon until smooth.
5.
5
Stir in carrots, coconut, walnuts and pineapple.
6.
6
Pour into 9x13 inch pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
7.
7
Don't panic, the centre will sink a little.
8.
8
Allow to cool; when cool, ice the cake.
9.
9
You can certainly use your favourite cream cheese frosting to ice this cake, but the one I've included is highly recommended (I usually leave the cake in the 13x9 pan and just ice the top).
10.
10
To make the frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth; add the icing sugar and beat until creamy.

There is a crusting cream cheese frosting recipe in the recipe file. I am using it on a Pina Colada cake this weekend. It sounds good.

I have to make a carrot cake in December. I have to give these a try.

Thanks

I used this crusting cream cheese recipe last week and it held up great for basketweave. It also tastes super good! You can see the icing on my Thanksgiving 08 cake.


http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html

Jeanne, thanks for recommending that scratch recipe.

The Carrot Cake Straight Up has 3 cups of carrots so it's a must try.

(I have one that is pretty good, but not great - however I like it because it uses 4 cups of carrots....)

kathy777, if you're looking for doctored mix recipes:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-561322-.html

Best cream cheese frosting recipes thread:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605468-.html

The truth about cream cheese frosting:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-582086-.html

Sugar as a presevative:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-582561-.html

Either one or both of the above threads has a recipe for shelf stable cream cheese frosting.

Why cream cheese frosting isn't good for decorating:
(Has recommended cream cheese frosting recipes.)

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-606414-.html

HTH

Here's my grandmother's recipe for cake and frosting. The cake is a basic carrot cake, no coconut or pineapple. It's a favorite in my family and now that I've served it to friends and coworkers they all go ga-ga over it...even my friend who doesn't eat carrot cake! It's my most requested cake!

The frosting is quite soft so you'll probably want to add more powdered sugar to it to stiffen it up. I have used it to do basketweave, which you can see in the photo below - one of my first basketweave cakes after taking the Wilton course.

My most recent picture in My Photos, the Autumn Leaves cake, was made with this recipe, baked in three 9" layers. I didn't stiffen up the frosting enough, so it was wonky...but delish!!!!

Here's how the recipe appears in my file:

This recipe was handed down from my maternal grandmother, Edwina Crowder Hebert. I've copied it exactly as she wrote it. Note that she baked three separate layers. I learned that this is because it doesn't torte easily.

2 C flour
2 C sugar
3 C grated carrots
1 C oil
4 eggs
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C nuts, chopped
1 t salt
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon

Mix ingredients and beat until fluffy. Pour into three greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees 30 - 35 minutes until firm and light brown. Cool completely.

Icing:

Mix 1 large Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and 1 stick of butter. When creamy, add 1 t vanilla and then, with mixer on low add 1 box confectioners sugar. Then turn mixer to high and mix until really smooth. Spread over very cool cake.

Keep refrigerated after first day.

P.S. - 1 box of confectioners sugar equals one pound by weight. Oh, and I usually make a double batch of frosting since decorating the cake requires more than just covering it.

Thank you to all who responded it certainly is helpful and i will be using some of the recipes.. I love CARROT cake lol

I don't know if you like lots of "stuff" in yours but if you do, the one I posted is so good. I know a lot of people like a less chunky cake. :p I've always liked chunk personally. :p

Ruth.. Baby.. Ruth!!

I ***LOVE*** The Goonies.

But I like my carrot cake without stuff. It makes it easier to torte it too. I finely grate my carrots too so they don't get in the way when I torte the cake.

Hi, this is a recipe I posted. I got it from the most famous Cake Shop in my country (I'm friends with the owner ).

http://cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-4913-0-Carrot-Cake-XIII.html

Good Luck.

Here is the one I use and get RAVE reviews about. I have shredded so many pounds of carrots in the last few months, I could be a rabbit. I add applesauce for added moistness. ( is that a word?)

http://joyofbaking.com/CarrotCake.html


Amy