Ingredients
Scale
Cake
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 pound carrots (grated)
- 1 in can crushed pineapple juice (20 oz, drained well)
Frosting
- 2 oz pkgs cream cheese (8 each, at room temperature)
- 2 lb sticks unsalted butter (1/4 each, at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pound confectioners’ sugar
Optional Decoration
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (I do think we used more than 1 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two (8″) round cake pans.
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In batches, add the flour mixture to the sugar/egg mixture. Gently add the walnuts, carrots and pineapple into the batter.
- Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or just until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set over a wire rack.
- In a bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla with mixer until combined and creamy. In small batches, mix in the the sugar until all has been added and is smooth.
- Place one layer of cake, bottom/flat side up, on a plate (or cake pedestal, like I did). Spread the top of this piece with frosting. Place the second cake layer on top of the first one, with the bottom/flat side down (rounded side up). Spread the rest of the frosting on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with chopped walnuts – if you are only using a few, you can put just some on the top. We decided to cover our top and sides with lots of chopped walnuts.
