One-Bowl Carrot Cake

What a great cake! I love spice cakes and carrot in particular is a favorite. My mom actually made this cake over the Easter weekend from a post from Baking Bites, a fabulous food blog.

This One-Bowl Carrot Cake with orange cream cheese frosting is so easy to put together and really flavorful. It is moist and full without being too dense, as many carrot cakes are. Allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon combine nicely to give it a nice amount of spice and the flavor/texture actually improves on the second and third days.

I appreciate that the recipe makes an 8x8 cake--the perfect size for a spice cake. Double and triple layer carrot cakes are just too much. But the best part about it is the ORANGE! Both and icing and the cake have orange juice and zest. Orange, carrots, and spice---Yum!! Continue for recipe.

One-Bowl Carrot Cake

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups shredded carrot (from 2-3 large carrots), patted dry

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8×8-inch square baking pan.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and eggs until smooth. Beat in melted butter, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla, spices and salt.
When combined, sift in the flour and baking soda and gently stir it into the batter until no streaks remain.
Stir in shredded carrot, then scrape into prepared pan.
Bake for 36-42 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

Cream Cheese Carrot Frosting
Nicole Weston from bakingbites.com

4 tbsp butter, softened
4-oz cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
2 tsp orange zest
red, yellow and green food coloring (if you want to pipe little carrots on top of cake)

Beat together butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl.
Add in confectioners’ sugar, orange juice and zest and beat until smooth.

Spread this in a single layer on the cake, or make frosting carrots to top the cake. For the carrots, divide frosting into two bowls. Dye one orange (yellow and red) and one green (green and yellow). Scrape into two piping bags and use a plain tip for the body of the carrot and a slanting tip for the carrot top. Practice on a plate until you get the shape down.