Self-Love; Lady-T's Gourmet Carrot Cake. #TeachMe #Life'sJourney #WellnesWednesdays

Lady-T’s Gourmet Carrot Cake~

Ingredients:

For cake batter~

1) Butter for greasing the pan

2) Butter for the cake batter

3) All purpose flour

4) Baking powder

5) Baking soda

6) Fine sea salt or table salt

7) Ground cinnamon

8) Freshly grated nutmeg

9) Ground allspice

10) Light brown sugar.

11) Large eggs, at room temperature

12) Safflower or canola oil

13) Carrots, trimmed, peeled, and coarsely grated on the largest holes of a box grater or the fine grating blade of food processor.

14) Whole milk

15) Greek yogurt.

16) Buttermilk

17) Walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

18) Dark or golden raisins.

For cream cheese icing~

1) Cream cheese, chilled

2) Unsalted butter softened at room temperature

3) Vanilla Extract

4) Confectioners’ Sugar

Directions:

1) Preheat oven.

2) Set aside all your dry ingredients.

3) Add your brown sugar to your mixing bowl. Once your brown sugar is light and fluffy, add eggs on medium speed one at a time. Scrap the bowl as you go.

4) Once the mixture is thoroughly mixed, add butter, oil, and half of your flour mixture on low speed. Mix thoroughly scraping the bowl.

5) Add your greek yogurt and buttermilk. Scrap the bowl as you go.

6) Add the remainder of your flour mixture, scrape the bowl, then mix faster on medium to high speed until smooth, light, and creamy.

7) Finally, fold in your shredded carrots, pecans or walnuts (optional), and raisins (optional).

8) Lightly butter your baking pans (DO NOT OVER BUTTER). Distribute flour evenly around your pans. Shake out your excess butter; as an additional precaution, you may add parchment paper to the pan (optional).

9) Use a scooper to put your mix into each pan. If you don’t have a scooper, make sure both pans have the same amount of mixture, so one cake isn’t more prominent.

10) Place the cakes into your preheated oven—Bake for approximately 40 to 45 mins as needed.

11) For the icing~ in your mixing bowl, add butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and confectioners’ sugar.

12) Whip together until light and fluffy; scrape the sides of the bowl as you go.

13) Leave icing in the fridge to cool.

14) When your cake timer goes off, check to see if the cake is ready—Use a fork or knife to put in the middle of your cake. If the fork or knife comes out clean, your cakes are ready!

15) When cakes are thoroughly cooked, remove from the oven, placing them on a cooling rack.

16) Allow to cool (takes about an hour to an hour and a half).

16) Once cakes are 100% cool, begin to apply icing to your liking.

ALL DONE!