Carrot Cake!

*Enter the giveaway for the jewelry frame here, it ends Friday!
As I have mentioned each Wednesday, Sean and I belong to a couples' bible study and I bake something sweet as a treat for our study each week. Last week, I had a special request, carrot cake for a 30th birthday for someone in our bible study. It was his favorite type of cake. I wasn't expecting carrot cake to be honest and I think this was the first carrot cake I have ever made so I was up to the challenge. The results are excellent my friends! If you want a great carrot cake, use this recipe. I even had comments after eating the cake such as, this is best carrot cake I have ever eaten, so seriously folks made this cake. I didn't post this recipe last week because my father-in-law graciously donated a legit camera to me, more than just my normal point and shoot. I didn't have the right cable to connect the camera to retrieve the photos. Now I do and the quality of my photos I hope you will notice are a whole lot better.

First, gather together your ingredients. For the carrot cake, you need: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 3 eggs, 2 cups white sugar, 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 3/4 cup buttermilk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 2 cups grated carrot, 1 can 8 ox. crushed pineapple, drained, 3 1/2 ounce flaked coconut, 1 cup chopped pecans or walnut. 

For the buttermilk glaze: 1/2 cup white sugar, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1/4 butter, 1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

For the cream cheese frosting, 3/4 cup butter, softened, 11 oz. cream cheese, softened, 3 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

The recipe calls for 3 layers of cake but I managed to do just 2 layers. Line your 9 in. cake pan with parchment paper, and grease and flour the parchment paper circles.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 

In your mixing bowl, add the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract.

 Beat these ingredients together well. Add into your mixing bowl the flour, the baking soda 

and ground cinnamon. 

Fold the grated carrots, crushed pineapple, coconut and nuts into the mixing bowl. 

Mix all the ingredients very well. Divide the batter equally into the baking pans. 

Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

While the cake is baking, make your buttermilk glaze because once the cake comes out of the oven, you will drizzle the glaze onto it. 

To make the buttermilk glaze in a sauce pan, add the sugar, baking soda, buttermilk, 

butter and corn syrup.

 Cook the ingredients until they come to a boil continually stirring the glaze. Once you reach a boil, remove your saucepan from the heat and add in the vanilla and stir completely. 

When your cake are completely baked, pull them out of the oven and drizzle the glaze over the cakes while they are still in the tin. 

When the cakes are completely cool, remove them from the pans and then ready to frost them!

To make the frosting, cream the butter. 

Then add in the cream cheese until the two ingredients are creamy. 

Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla and then give the ingredients a good whipping!

Frost the bottom layer cake, then add the other layer on top and completely frost the entire cake. 

Then serve, eat and enjoy!