Carrot Cake

Simply put, my family loves carrot cake. Even Uncle Jimmy, who picks carrots out of everything, claiming them to be too boring to eat, will eat carrot cake.

Despite everyone's love of carrot cake it occurred to me that we really didn't have a good carrot cake recipe amongst my family, s0 I decided after chatting with my dad about what makes a good carrot cake, to create my own.

This carrot cake is pretty dense, the way we like it, and has a rich cream cheese frosting. I am usually pretty appalled by the amount of oil that goes into a cake such as this, so I used applesauce to cut some of the oil out yet preserve the moisture.

Em's Carrot Cake

Ingredients
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup drained crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped dates (depends on how much you like dates)

Frosting:

• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, pineapple, brown sugar, white sugar and teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and cloves. Stir in carrots, dates & pecans. Pour into 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. I check my cakes at 30, and then every 10 min. after that to be sure not to over bake!

Frosting - In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Do not frost cake until cooled! Store in refrigerator.

Enjoy!