Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I am currently sitting in the mountains of the poconos in Pennsylvania. I’m on vacation visiting all of my camp friends and it has been off to a wonderful reunion. After coming back after a whole year it feels like hardly any time has passed, funny how that happens right?

I thought I’d share this post with you while I was here at camp because something really sweet happened.

One of my campers follows me on instagram and she said that she used my key lime pie recipe for a mother’s day dessert. I couldn’t believe it. Any food blogger knows that when you hear someone that actually used your recipe that you put your love and sweat into that it’s really rewarding.

Especially from a 15 year old! So thank you Charlotte, you made my afternoon 🙂

Carrot Cake with

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

for cake
2 1/2 Cups of cake flour
3 Teaspoons of cinnamon
2 Teaspoons of baking soda
1 Teaspoon of salt
2 Cups of granulated sugar
1 1/3 Cup of canola oil
3 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 Carrots peeled and grated
1 Cup of raisins
1 Cup of walnuts

for frosting
8 Oz of cream cheese
1/2 Cup (1 stick) of softened butter
4 Tablespoons of pure maple syrup
1 1/2 Pounds of powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons of water for thinning if needed

adapted from Ina Garten

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. 

Trace two 9-inch cake tins onto parchment paper, cut out the tracings and set aside. Spray or butter your cake tins with non stick spray and sprinkle with flour. Place parchment paper cut outs on bottom of cake tins. Set aside. 

In a medium mixing bowl mix together dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt), set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl combine granulated sugar, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until pale yellow. Slowly add in flour mixture in two segments. The batter will be very thick, don’t over mix. Pour in grated carrots, raisins, walnuts and mix until just incorporated. Pour half of the batter into each 9-inch cake tin. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean. 

Cool for 30 minutes, run a knife around the edges and cool for an additional hour on a wire rack. 

In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and maple syrup until light and fluffy. Add in powdered sugar in three segments pushing down the frosting on the sides of the bowl after each addition. If you live in a dry climate you might need to add in a few tablespoons of water to thin it out. This was a ton of frosting for this cake! You might not need this much! 

Enjoy!