A Glazed Carrot Cake to die for......

Ok so are you ready for the best carrot cake recipe ever? Well here it is. My mom gave me a copy of a cookbook that she loves and it's called "A Pinch of Salt Lake". There is a recipe in the dessert section called "Glazed Carrot Cake" and beside the recipe my mom wrote "this is the best carrot cake", so with an endorsement like that from my mom who is a fabulous cook, I had to try it.

We were having my mother-in-law Pat over and my niece Claire who has recently moved to Tuscaloosa to attend the University of Alabama and I wanted to make sure to welcome her with a great dinner and a delicious dessert. This cake is moist, rich and full of flavor and truly melts in your mouth. Trust me on this one.....you will not be disappointed.

Glazed Carrot Cake

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots (approximately 5 large carrots)
3 1/2 ounces flaked coconut
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Start off by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Then grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan. Set aside.

Combine the first 4 ingredients, the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Sift these the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Then in a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) beat the eggs, add in the vegetable oil, buttermilk, sugar, vanilla. Mix well. Then add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Mix on Medium unit barely blended. Lastly add the pineapple, carrots, coconut and nuts. Mix on low for 1-2 minutes. Before I pour out the batter into the prepared pan I use a spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are blended fully. Pour the mixed batter into the prepared pan. Place in the oven for 50-55 minutes, checking it often to make sure that it does not over cook. I use a toothpick or butter knife and insert it until it comes out clean, that is how I know it is baked to perfection.

About 10-15 minutes before the cake is done baking, start working on the glaze for the cake.

Glaze

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small sauce pan combine the sugar, buttermilk, butter and corn syrup. Cooking over low heat, stirring constantly bring to a boil. Then remove from the heat and add in the vanilla.

Once cake is done and remove from oven, pour the warm glaze over the hot cake. Let the glaze absorb and the cake cool completely.

Then to top it off, I decided to add a cream cheese frosting to make this cake even more delicious than it already was. I used my favorite cream cheese recipe which is below.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
16 ounces confectioners sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a stand mixer combine cream cheese, butter, sugar. Mix at high speed for 5-6 minutes. The longer you mix frosting, the smoother the texture will be. Then lastly, add in the vanilla. Mix until completely blended.

Chill the frosting for about one hour and then spread onto a completely cooled carrot cake. And voila, you are done and ready to serve. So if you are a lover of carrot cake you have to try this recipe, it will be one of your new favorites...and that is a Rozlynn guarantee.