Carrot Cake Trifle or Carrot Cake

I must confess,  I was trying to make a carrot cake for my  husband's birthday.  The cake did not come out of the pan, so viola,  Carrot Cake Trifle.  Taking cakes out of 9 inch cake pans is right up there with making fancy looking pie crust... the products may taste good, but they just won't work for me.  For regular birthday cakes,  I use 9 x 13 cake pans because I don't need to remove the cake from the pan.  Anyway..... To make a fancier looking trifle,  I should have doubled the frosting recipe.  I chose not to because the cake is very rich.  A huge success!  (and the trifle was solid enough to hold the birthday candle upright.)  

At the end of this recipe, I will give you a cake flour as well as a pastry flour recipe along with the directions to make this into a carrot cake.  (cake flour is an ingredient in pastry flour)

Cake:

2 cups sugar
1  1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups pastry flour  (1 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup cake flour)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups raw finely ground carrots  (mine were just shredded, and it worked)
4 oz finely chopped walnuts

Frosting:

1  1/2 lbs powdered sugar
12 oz room temperature cream cheese
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 oz room temperature margarine

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees bake
• In a mixing bowl, mix sugar, vegetable oil and eggs
• In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
• Fold dry ingredients into wet mixture and blend well
• Fold in carrots and nuts until well blended
• Place fitted round disks of parchment paper on the bottom of 3 - 9 inch baking pan
• Use cooking spray and spray baking pans, then flour
• Place 1/3 of batter in each pan
• Bake 50 - 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean
• Cool on a rack for approximately 1 hour
• While cakes are cooling, place powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and margarine in a bowl
• Beat on medium speed until well blended
• Refrigerate until needed

Trifle Formation:

• When cakes are completely cooled, take 1 cake and crumble up into medium sized pieces
• Place in the trifle bowl
• Layer 1/2 of the frosting and spread on top of cake
• Crumble 2nd cake in the same fashion and then spread the remaining frosting on top
• Crumble 3rd cake and place as top layer

Carrot Cake Formation:

• To remove layers from baking pan, turn upside down and tap edge of pan on a hard surface
• Remove paper from bottom of cake (keep cakes upside down on plate)
• Place 1st cake on cake stand and spread 3  1/2 oz of the frosting on the layer
• Repeat 
• Place 3rd cake on top and spread remainder of frosting on top and sides of cake

Cake Flour:

For every cup of flour, mix in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch

Pastry Flour:

For every cup of pastry flour, mix together 1/2 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup cake flour

This is complicated!!


-Queenie Cuisine