Today we are bringing to you guys a carrot cake recipe. Not the American one, however. So, if you like giant chunks of carrots in your cake, this recipe is not for you. Open your heart to this smooth carrot cake and you will not be disappointed.

You’re gonna need:
-Food processor
-Mixer
-Oven
-Baking pan (I used a 9x9x2 inch square cake pan)

Ingredients for the cake:
-2 cups pastry flour
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-a pinch of salt
-7oz (200g) carrots, chopped
-3/4 cup butter at room temperature
-3/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 whole eggs
-1 egg yolk
-1 tsp orange extract
-1/4 cup whole milk

Instructions for the cake:

1- Pre-heat the oven to 340ºF. Cover your baking pan with aluminum foil or grease it and dust it, your choice here. We always pick the foil.

2- In a bowl, combine the pastry flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

3- In the food processor, beat the sugar, butter, carrots, orange extract and milk. Keep beating until all the carrot pieces are gone and you have a somewhat well combined cream. Some tiny bits of carrots might be unavoidable, and that is okay. Add in the whole eggs and the egg yolk, and beat some more, for maybe 2 or 3 minutes.

4- Pour the butter mix into the mixing bowl, and with the mixer on low, add in the dry mix to it, little by little, mixing just enough until everything is well combined. Don’t forget to scrape the sides.

5- Bake it for about 25 minutes (if you have the exact same size of baking pan, of course), or until the cake passes the toothpick test (that is, when you insert a toothpick right in the middle of the cake and it comes out clean or with very few dry crumbs). Let the cake cool off to room temperature before covering it with cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients for the cream cheese frosting:
-1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
-1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
-1/4 tsp salt
-2 1/2 cup powdered sugar
-2 to 3 tablespoons of heavy cream

Instructions for the cream cheese frosting:
-In the mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and salt. Beat it until very well combined.
-With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, little by little.
-Switch to high speed. Add the heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time, mixing very well after each addition, for about a minute. If you think the frosting is too thick at 2 tablespoons, add the third one (and if you still think it’s too thick after the third one, you know what to do). Now you just have to put it on top of your cake! 

Tip:
We always work on the frosting the day before we bake the cake. Just make the frosting, plop it into a plastic container and store it in the refrigerator until it’s time to be used. It might take a couple of hours to reach room temperature again, so keep that in mind when planning your cake.

Alright, that’s it for today! We’ll see you guys again soon!