To Die for Carrot Cake

Ever since I started working out again, my natural impulse is to start eating healthy as well. I am a junk eater, my normal diet consists of carbs, sweets, junk food and more sweets. One day I was craving for cake and it was soooo hard to resist the temptation to make a chocolate one. Remembering that I have some carrots in the fridge, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and make a carrot cake! This recipe is by Trish of momontimeout.com, she named it "To die for carrot cake" and let me say, the night I made this carrot cake, my parents didn't go home until they got done at 10 pm. It smelled so heavenly that my mom asked to have one of the cake straight out of the oven, it was still hot that when i frosted one cake, the frosting turned to glaze. Not to worry, this recipe is for 2 round cake, so I saved the other one. I waited for it to cool down and here's what it ended up looking like 

My husband totally raved about it too, He loved that the cake was moist and the frosting not too sweet. 

To die for carrot cake ( adapted from Trish of momontimeout.com)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce or vegetable oil ( i used vegetable oil so my version is the not so healthy one)

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. allspice

2 cups finely processed carrots ( i put mine on the food processor so it looked like finely minced)

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup crushed pineapple in juice not syrup and not drained

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350f

- Combine the applesauce/oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla

- In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt

-In another separate bowl combine the carrots, coconut and pineapple

-Mix the dry ingredients to the wet one, once well mixed, add the fruit mix. 

- Pour into a lightly greased and floured 9x13 or two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans.

-Bake for 35-40 mins. or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

-Cool cakes completely  and frost with the "Best cream cheese frosting" 

Best Cream cheese frosting (recipe from www.bubblecrumb.com)

Ingredients:

Two 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

-Cream together cream cheese and butter until creamy

-Add vanilla and powdered sugar beat until creamy

- Frost and enjoy!