This started life as the carrot cake recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Revised Edition. And then Anne tweaked it. Heavily.

Carrot cake

Ingredients

  • 2 1⁄2 cups spelt flour (all-purpose flour is acceptable)
  • 1 1⁄4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1⁄4 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
  • 1⁄8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 extra large eggs
  • 1 1⁄4 cups light brown sugar
  • 3⁄4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1⁄2 cups coconut oil (melted)
  • 1 1⁄2 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 2 pounds carrots, washed and grated (use a food processor, seriously)

Recipe

  1. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Lightly coat a 9x13 cake pan with butter then line the bottom with parchment paper.
  3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
  4. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a very large bowl until frothy and the sugar is dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes with an electric hand mixer.
  5. Continue whisking the eggs and sugar as you add the oil, until the mixture is completely emulsified, about a minute.
  6. Gently whisk the flour mixture in until there are no streaks left.
  7. Stir in the carrots, walnuts and raisins. This will be an upper body workout.
  8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
  9. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, assume a minimum of 50 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking.
  10. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours.
  11. Run a paring knife around the perimeter of the pan, invert the fake onto the rack, peel off the parchment paper, then invert the cake again onto a serving platter.

Icing

Ingredients

  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract (you can be liberal here)
  • 1 1⁄4 cups confectioner's sugar

Recipe

  1. Blend the cream cheese, butter, yogurt and vanilla until combined, 5 to 10 seconds.
  2. Add the confectioner's sugar and continue to blend on low until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed, 15 to 30 seconds.
  3. Spread icing on cooled cake.