Birthday Carrot Pineapple Nut Cake

I don’t remember where I got the recipe, probably off the back of some box or bag of something, but it’s AWESOME! This is the cake I’m making for Sophia’s birthday:

Carrot Pineapple Nut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound carrots
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1½ cups vegetable oil
4 eggs beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
1½ cups chopped walnuts
1½ cups shredded coconut
2 8-ounce cans crushed pineapple drained

1. Peel and coarsely chop carrots. Cook until tender; puree. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
3. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in oil, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. Fold in reserved carrot puree, walnuts, coconut, and pineapple.
4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan.
5. Cool in pans 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack. Fill and frost cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Top with chopped nuts and carrot strips if desired.

*tip: I don’t know how most people cook carrots for a puree but I boil mine in a little bit of water (not even enough to cover them) and cover with a lid to get the steam going. Then to make puree I use the water they were boiled in to help with moisture. If there wasn’t enough water in the pot I add some of the oil from the cake recipe to help the pureeing process along, but not water it down too much.

Also, I don’t trust Sophia to not choke on chunks of walnuts so I poured some of the batter in one 9×9 dish and then added nuts to the rest of the batter, which goes in a 9×13 dish.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 ½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together in mixing bowl until blended. Blend vanilla.
2. Gradually beet in sugar, mixing well after each addition until frosting is smooth.