Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

Carrot cake has a never ending style to it. It is a rich cake with moisture and spices of cinnamon and nuts and pineapple crushed to endure the cake as a whole . To make things even more elegant it is gorgeous with a nice cream cheese frosting . I like the colour of the cake . A nice orangish tan of the grated carrots . 
Now some recipes might be having addition of apple sauce instead of pineapple crush. If your pantry has apple sauce it can be added ..just that you have to add atleast 1/2 a cup of it  to the batter instead of the pineapple crush ..

But personally I love the pineapple crush more .  The tanginess gives a nice kick to the recipe making it really so desserty..
Although carrots have a sweetness to it just like beetroot , I think it's a fair veggie to be added to making a wonderful cake .I have a caramel carrot cake here , that's a traditional cake which my mum used to bake every week for chai..and we used to love it all the more...

While baking this cake she gave her vote to the caramel carrot cake ... Well I love both as both ahve their own tastes and we cannot compare it at all. This cake has a frosting which is cream cheese based and a dash of vanila essence made wonders to it. It is said or I think a friend once told me that carrots usually comes from the Greek era and ' karaton' as they called it was given to soldiers everyday as a visionary diet which would obviously help them in the nights. But this recipe originates in the Euro sweets cakes as carrots are cheaper to find. So much for a timely history of the cake itself hehe ..
Here's the recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2 and 1/2 cups  raw grated carrot
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 large eggs ( at room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup , sunflower oil
• 226 grams  pineapple, crushed this is  optional

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon   vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon  lemon juice
• 340 grams full fat cream cheese, softened

Method

• First preheat your oven to 180 degree c .
• Grease and lay parchment paper into two tins 9×2 inches.
• Roast walnuts to brown colour.
• Grate carrots . Keep aside
• Sift all the dry ingredients, flour Baking Soda and baking powder,ground  cinnamon .
• Beat eggs to fluffy
• Add sugar and essence. Beat well.
• Add the oil in thin stream . Beat well for two minutes . Off the beater .
• Add the sifted ingredients. Combines all with spatula.
• Fold in the walnuts and carrots .
• Bake in oven for  40 minutes.
• All ovens may vary in time . So check after every 20 minutes.
• After the cakes are cooled after  baking ,remove the cakes  from pan and allow to cool for 10 minutes  . Cool further on wire rack . 
• The cook should cool completely before frosting.

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Cream Cheese Frosting: 

• Beat butter to smooth .
• Add powdered sugar and vanilla essence.
• Beat till fluffy for 2 minutes .
• Now add the cream cheese and scrape the sides to combine well.
• The frosting will be smooth.
• Assembling the cake .
• Cut the cakes to two layers each .
• Gently spread the frosting inbetween the cakes  and layer some chopped nuts which is optional.
• Serves around 12 to 15 people.
• Note the cake is super moist and just bake till it relieves from sides of pan.
• Baking time differs for each oven ..