Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

One of my besties is turning 21!  It's Lauren's 21st birthday tomorrow and in honor of the day, we are having a little birthday party tonight.  What would a birthday party be without the cake? Right?

It was requested that the lovely lady have a carrot cake for her birthday and of course I have an amazing recipe.  I really can't take full credit for this one though, this recipe is a Donna original.  My mom's recipe is absolutely fantastic.

Every year for Thanksgiving, my mom would make this great cake.  When I was around 5 or 6 I asked her if I could help.  When I found out what went into the cake, I refused to eat it.  Let me explain.  The secret ingredient in this cake is baby food.  I went around telling everyone how gross the cake was because it had baby food in it and as a 5 year old, baby food was disgusting.  I mean, I was a big girl now and I was soooo over baby food.

Baby food, now that I have had a ton of experience baking, is a genius idea.  You get all the carrot-y goodness, but you don't have to deal with shredding the carrots.  Also, everyone I know who is a non-carrot cake believer, isn't a fan because of the strange consistency due to the shredded carrots.  This carrot cake ends up being super tasty, but without the weird consistency.  It's amazing!

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 jars junior size baby carrots (Also known as #3 foods.  If you have trouble finding #3, you can do 4 jars of #2 baby food carrots)
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cloves
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a bundt cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.
3. Cream sugar and eggs in a large bowl.  Mix in carrots until well combined.  Alternate adding the flour mixture with the oil, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix in vanilla.
4.  Pour in prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
5. When cool, top with cream cheese frosting. (recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 8 oz packaged of cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk

Directions:
Cream butter and cream cheese until well combined.  Slowly mix in sugar.  Finally, mix in vanilla and milk until you have the desired consistency.

The Birthday Girl cutting into the cake!