Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

  • Nonstick vegetable oil spray
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons bourbon
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 6 Tablespoons (3/8 cup) vegetable oil
  • carrot mixture
    • 1/2 pound carrots, peeled, coarsely grated
    • 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
  • dry ingredients
    • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
    • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • wet ingredients
    • 2 large eggs, room temperature
    • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
    • 6 Tablespoons (3/8 cup) (packed) dark brown sugar
    • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients

  • 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Generous pinch of kosher salt
  • 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Night before: Put out butter and cream cheese to let them come to room temperature.
  2. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare pans with parchment rounds and oil spray.
  3. Soak raisins in bourbon over low heat for a few minutes. Set aside and continue to soak while you do the rest of the stuff.
  4. Toast pecans at 350F until golden brown, about 8 minutes.
  5. Grate carrots into a medium bowl. Add buttermilk to carrots. Set aside.
  6. Prepare dry ingredients by combining flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
  7. Prepare wet ingredients by beating eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a stand mixer until pale and thick, about 4 minutes.
  8. Combine ingredients. Reduce stand mixer to medium-low and gradually stream in oil. Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with carrot mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients; mix until smooth.
  9. Fold in raisins and pecans with a rubber spatula. Scrape batter into prepared pans.
  10. Bake for 35-45 minutes, rotating halfway through, until a tester comes out clean.

Frosting Directions

  1. Using an electric hand mixer (not a stand mixer) on high speed, beat cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla extract and salt.
  2. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in powdered sugar. Increase speed to high and beat frosting until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Source

Bon Appétit recipe

Comments

2025-04-20 (Jack)

Mom and I made this today, and we should really cut the recipe in half next time. As such, I updated the recipe to use two 6” cake pans and half of everything else. There were a few things that didn’t halve nicely:

  • “3/4 teaspoon baking soda” should’ve become 3/8, but I rounded up to 1/2
  • “3/4 cup dark brown sugar” could’ve become either 3/8 cup or 6 Tablespoons, so I notated both
  • “3/4 cup vegetable oil” could’ve become either 3/8 cup or 6 Tablespoons, so I notated both

We also used pecans instead of walnuts and bourbon instead of run - both of which worked perfectly well. I updated the recipe with these alterations, and I generally rewrote it for clarity and conciseness.