Carrot Cake with Tia Maria Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe Photos are the Property of http://serveandeat.blogspot.com

I'm really excited about this recipe because I love this cake so much. The cake is extremely moist because it's an oil based cake not butter. This recipe was taken from The Multi-Cultural Cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago & The Caribbean Cookbook, which I own. Naparima Girls' High School is a top and prestigious high school in Trinidad and Tobago and my sister attented this school for seven years, which is one of the reason why I also love this cookbook. The CookBook is also named after the school. This book has been in my keep since 2004, and it was given to me by my Father on Christmas, Day, so there are many wonderful memories attached to this cookbook.

The last time I made a carrot cake was at University, almost 4 years ago, and this was a completely new recipe since the one I made at University was totally different. One mishap that occurred while baking this cake was the Oven. Every baker's nightmare, the oven we have is an electric and gas oven. The stove can use both electricity and gas independently but the oven is dependent on electricity to run the gas and the gas does finish at times. And that's exactly what happened. I had just placed my cake in the preheated oven and while it was baking the gas finished and I wasn't even aware.

When I did realise it was 45 minutes later when the cake was suppose to come out of the oven, which means my cake just sat uncooked in a nearly cooled oven. Gosh! I was in panic mode. Well I said to myself the cake is going to be completely spoiled. I got the gas tank changed and then baked it for the next 45 minutes according to the recipe. Well, here it is and it tasted mighty darn good too. My mom and sis absolutely loved it. I guess it came out good after all. The Recipe is below:

Carrot Cake with Tia Maria Cream Cheese Frosting

(adapted from Naparima Girls' High School CookBook)

Recipe Photos are the Property of http://serveandeat.blogspot.com

Now I adapted the recipe to suit my family's taste. Instead of using all purpose flour, I used cake flour and in place of the 1/2 cup of walnuts, I used 1/4 cup of glazed fruits and 1/4 cup of almond nuts. I also used two cups of brown sugar instead of granulated sugar. You can also use castor sugar.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Cake Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups grated carrots
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup glazed fruits

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
2. Grease and flour one 9 inch round cake pan. Put aside and begin to make the cake.
3. Sift Flour; add baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
4. Add sugar and oil and beat until fluffy and creamy.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. I found that after this stage then my mixture looked creamy and well blended.
6. Add carrots, pineapple, nuts and glazed fruits.
7. Pour into the cake pan.

8. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes until tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

Recipe Photos are the Property of http://serveandeat.blogspot.com

Tia Maria Cream Cheese Frosting

My family is not into frostings that much especially my mom who likes all her cakes plain. So I made a few adjustments to the frosting. Instead of using 3 and 1/2 cups of icing sugar, I used 2 cups and I added Tia Maria liquer to my frosting. I also reduced the amount of butter in my frosting, instead of 4 oz. I used 2 oz. I did not split my cake in half, I just frost some of the cream cheese on top.

INGREDIENTS

8 oz. cream cheese
2 oz butter
2 cups of icing sugar
2 tbsp Tia Maria Liquer
2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla and mix well.
2. Split cake in half; fill and frost.

I'm definitely going to make this cake again to see how the texture will turn out without the mishap. Please do enjoy, it's a lovely cake, moist and light.

Bon Appetite
Jannishal