Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

As I was driving around with my kids, they complained of being hungry. So when we stopped at the grocery store, I allowed them each to select a snack.  Two of them chose your standard cookies in the snack aisle, but the third set his sights on the freshly baked carrot cake in the bakery.  Instead of buying something there, he liked the idea of making his own at home with me. I also liked that I had a good use for all those carrots in my veggie bin. This super moist, decadent cake is what we made.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

For the frosting:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

To make cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13inch pan. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugars and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in nuts, if you chose to include them. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter and cream cheese; beat until combined.  Add in confectioner's sugar, to taste ( you can stop at 3 cups for a stronger cream cheese flavor, or use more sugar for sweeter frosting) and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. (This is the point at which you could reserve about 1/2 cup of frosting to color in order to decorate the cake with little carrots. Color about a tablespoon green and the rest orange.  Then pipe using freezer storage bags to create the carrots.)    Stir in chopped nuts, if you chose to include them. Frost the cooled cake.  Store leftovers in the refrigerator.