Triple Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

While we have yet to take a Lamaze or Healthy Baby class - I feel that I've learned quite a lot at this point in the pregnancy. The wife has been reading every what size/shape/fruit is my baby (today - 5 months, makes baby an onion - up from an avocado and on his/her way to being a sweet potato next week). What I have learned has been more in the way of general observations.

For example, I've learned that the almost any crisis can be rectified with a Cookout milkshake (peanut butter fudge, in this case) and OK or US magazines. I've also learned that a well stocked pantry can prevent a 10 PM cookout/ Ukrops bakery run when the "I want something sweet" bug strikes.

I've also learned what tends to bring on the "I want something sweet" bug. Paula Deen.

We were watching the Buttery Belle one Sunday afternoon when she the wife looked at the screen, looked at me and said "I could really go for some cake." Although this is our first pregnancy, I was astute enough to realize this was not a simple passing observation.

Into the kitchen I went. I dug out my handy, dandy Bon Appetit Cookbook.

Browsing the index under cake I diligently went down the list and asking myself "would this be the answer to her cravings."

One jumped out at me - probably because I'd just had it for dessert at Aziza's earlier that week.

The triple layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

The cake turned out perfect. It stayed moist for days, the frosting was a perfect contrast to the dense cake. When it first was frosted, The Wife instructed me to take the rest to work so it wouldn't be around the house to tempt her - but by that night she warned me I better not take it out of the house.

The only adjustments I made, after doing some research in my Alton Brown The Early Years cookbook was to use two egg yolks in place of one of the eggs. Alton says the yolk will make a denser, more moist cake. While I can't say how it would have tasted their way - we loved it my way. It also called for 1/2 cup of raisins, but I omitted them since neither of us are huge fans of raisins in carrot cake. I also swapped out the cream cheese for Neufchatel.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Bon Apettit Triple Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups of Sugar

1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil

3 large eggs and 2 egg yolks

2 cups All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

3 cups Finely Peeled Carrots (think microplane or smallest holes on a box grater - the smaller the carrot, the better)

1/2 cup Chopped Pecans

Frosting

4 cups Powdered Sugar

2 8-ounce packages of Neufchatel, at room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

4 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract.

Directions:

Cake:

Preheat your oven to 350°.

Lightly grease three 9 inch round cake pans and line the bottom with wax paper and grease the wax paper (I only had two - so we did this in batches.)

In your stand mixer (or using an electric mixer) mix together sugar and vegetable oil until combined. One and a time, add in your eggs, beating after each addition.

Sift you flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into the sugar, oil and egg mixture. Stir in your carrots and pecans.

Pour the batter evenly into your cake pans.

Being the kind blog host that I am I've saved you the time of guessing your measurements. You should be able to put 1 3/4 cups of batter in each pan. Keeping them equal will ensure they're the same size, and bake evenly. You can thank The Wife for this tidbit she picked up when making her decadent Smith Island Cake.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean - about 45 minutes (which means start checking at 30 minutes.)

Cool your cakes in their pans for 15 minutes then flip them out onto a wire rack to cool until room temperature.

I've found that you should place a dinner plate over top of your pan and flip quickly. This will help eliminate the chance of your cake breaking.

Frosting:

In your stand mixer (or with an electric mixer) mix all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Place one cake layer on your serving platter and spread 3/4 cup of frosting over the top. Top with another cake layer and spread 3/4 cup of frosting over the top.

Repeat with remaining cake layer. With a rubber spatula, spread the remaining frosting over the sides of your cake.

I found it beneficial to store the cake in the fridge, it helps the frosting to firm up.

I also found that it helps to feed any remaining frosting to your pregnant wife.

Enjoy!