Carrot Sheet Cake With Cream Cheese Icing
A carrot cake made with applesauce and oil that should not sink when baked at 325 degrees F.
Servings 16
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup canola oil
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup light brown sugar light packed (7 oz)
- 1 cup granulated sugar 7 oz
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 9.8 oz**
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ cup toasted and chopped pecans
- 3 cups shredded carrots shredded then chopped after measuring**
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 ounces of softened butter
- 1 ⅓ cups powdered sugar plus more if desired
- ½ teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 inch metal pan with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, applesauce, both sugars and vanilla.
- In a second bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture until blended, then stir in carrots and chopped pecans.
- Spread evenly in the pan and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes or until cake appears brown all over and has pulled away from the edges.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Frost with cream cheese icing.
- To make the icing, beat together cream cheese and softened butter. Add sugar and beat until smooth, then beat in vanilla.
Notes
When I use 2 cups of flour, that amount normally weighs 9 oz. However, I think these older carrot cakes that call for 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of sugar were developed with heavier cups of flour (from scooping or packing or whatever). So for this recipe, I weighed 9.8. If you never weigh flour, don't worry about it, but for those of you who are diligent about carefully aerating flour, scooping and carefully leveling, you may want to take a more careless approach OR just weigh it.