BIG BROTHER CAKE

This morning I baked a Big Brother cake (aka Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting). Why a Big Brother Cake ? Well, Ju my blog partner and her husband recently welcomed baby number two - an adorable little girl. As per the Chinese culture, a one month celebration was held this afternoon and yes, the new mum was up at 8:00 am making traditional foods served for this special occasion. My favourite dish was the turmeric sticky rice with chicken curry (which I hope will make it to the blog sometime. No pressure Ju). Big boy A got to celebrate his new role with a candle on his Big Brother cake.

I have to confess that this is a first for me, mostly because I've eaten some terrific carrot cakes and had long decided to leave it to the experts. But this was a special day that called for the little man's favourite cake so I decided to give it a shot. In the course of searching for a good recipe I found variations with crushed pineapple and with nuts and then, to my surprise, my father mentioned that his 'go to' recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook! For those of you who know my father, baking is the last thing you would associate him with, but ma confirmed that he had indeed made it a few times. 
So here is my adaptation of that recipe but with two changes. I used 1/2 a cup of canola oil and 1/2 a cup of apple sauce instead of the 1 cup of oil as suggested. As always, I reduced the sugar, using 1 3/4 cup instead of 2 cups. 

Congratulations to the new parents and big brother. Welcome to our world baby E.

SKILL : EASY
SERVES : 10-12

INGREDIENTS
CAKE

• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 cup apple sauce

FROSTING

• 6 oz. cream cheese (3/4 cup) softened at room tempera
• 1/2 cup butter softened at room temperature
• 3 cups finely powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

1. Grease and flour a 9 x 3 inch round baking pan
2. Preheat oven to 350 degree F
3. In a mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients and stir together
4. Add eggs, carrots, oil, apple sauce to the dry ingredients and using an electric beater mix until combined
5. Pour into pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the baking pan
7. To make the frosting beat the butter and cream cheese until it has no lumps 
8. Add vanilla extract and sugar one cup at a time and beat well
9. Cool the cake completely before frosting