Jill's Carrot Cake
This is the carrot cake I've made for years—35 to be exact. It has the perfect balance of pineapple to carrot to cream cheese frosting. It was my husband's birthday cake of choice for years. In fact I...
This is the cake I started making when I was twelve. It has what I consider the real frosting, a delicate yet rich buttercream. The procedure is a bit finicky. You make a sauce from flour and milk, whisking furiously, so it doesn't get lumpy, then chill it. Add gradually to whipped butter and powdered sugar until a creamy beautiful consistency. It's not overly sweet, but a perfect complement to the cake.
Ingredients
SERVINGS: 16 Pieces
CAKE
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting
- 1 1/3 cups 2 percent reduced-fat milk
- 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- 1 1/3 to 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease three 8-inch layer pans or two 9-inch layer pans; line bottoms with wax paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat together vegetable shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, whisk cocoa and food coloring together with a fork until smooth; add to shortening mixture and beat until evenly blended. Add flour and salt alternately with buttermilk; beat until blended. Add vanilla, beat well.
3. Seperately mix baking soda and vinegar and beat into batter. Pour into prepared pans and spread evenly; bake 8-inch layers 20 minutes or 9-inch layers 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire racks. Remove cakes from pans, peel off wax paper and cool completely on racks.
4. To prepare frosting, place milk in a small saucepan and whisk in flour until flour is dissolved and no lumps remain (you may need to check with youur fingers). Cook over low heat, whisking continuously (watch carefully, mixture will get thick quickly) 2 to 3 minutes or until thick. Cool to room temperature or place in refrigerator to cool quickly.
5. In a mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in cool flour milk mixture. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy; beat in vanilla. Frost cake. Serves 16.
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