Birthday cakes are a pretty big deal in my family, and my sister’s request this year was a carrot cake with thick cream cheese frosting.  We made this Alton Brown Carrot Cake back in 2010, which was pretty good, but there’s always room for improvement, right?

I found this Spiced Carrot Layer Cake recipe from Saveur and then my family pretty much did the rest.  My Mom managed the cake baking process and once again, my Dad was in charge of grating the carrots.  The frosting in the original recipe uses mascarpone cheese and probably tastes amazing, but we went with a more traditional cream cheese and powdered sugar frosting.  I did actually help with this part, and finally we were ready to sing.  Someone was pretty excited to help blow out the candles!

This carrot cake was really unique with fragrant spices, coconut, and orange juice and zest.  The orange flavor in particular really stood out and made the cake taste very fresh.  There are a lot of ingredients, but even my Mom agreed that this cake was worth the effort.  Be sure to note that the recipe makes an exceptionally large cake.  We actually ending up freezing the 3rd layer to use another time.  Then again, perhaps we should have had a larger party.  🙂

• Desserts