My love affair with carrot cake is fairly young. That´s because I never thought cake and vegetables could be combined together. Little did I know that carrot cake doesn´t taste like carrots at all. Instead it tastes like cinnamon and almonds and Christmas and rainbows. Well, I finally tried a piece 2 years ago and since then I love it. Especially when combined with a cream cheese topping that makes everything even more delicious. Long story short, I think carrot cake is great. And for anyone who might still be skeptical: try it, you´ll love it!

What I love about carrot cake is that it is really juicy and moist. I am not a big fan of dry pastry, for me it has to be soft and juicy and creamy. Well, this recipe definitely works for me.

For the dough you´ll need:

375 g carrots (about 4-5)

250 g flour

3 TL baking powder

275 g sugar

A little bit of vanilla flavoured sugar

Salt

250 g butter

1/2 TL Cinnamon

4 Eggs

100 g chopped almonds

100 g ground almonds

1) First, peel the carrots and grate them on a finely on a grater. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla flavoured sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the butter and the eggs. Finally add carrots and almonds. Put the dough in a greased floured cake tin.

2) Bake the cake in the preheated oven at 150° for about 50 – 60 minutes. If necessary, cover the cake with tin foil for the last 20 minutes, so it doesn´t get too dark. Let the cake cool completely before adding the topping.

For the topping you´ll need:

200 g cream cheese

2 tbsp. cream

100 g powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese with the cream. Add powdered sugar and mix well with a mixer until you get a fluffy topping. Put the topping on top of the cake. It doesn´t have to be perfect, I like it when you can still see that it is homemade.