Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup crushed pineapple
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 2 cups packed freshly grated carrots
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 block cream cheese, warmed to room temperature
• 1/2 cup butter, warmed to room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups icing sugar

Instructions

• Heat oven to 300F. Chop pecans into small pieces, spread on a baking sheet on parchment, and bake for 10 minutes, swirling them around after five minutes. Pour pecans into a bowl and set aside.
• Grate the carrots using a fine (rather than coarse) grater. Don't use pre-grated carrots - you want fresh carrots for the moisture.
• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oil, eggs, crushed pineapple and vanilla. Stir in the raisins.
• In another large mixing bowl, stir together the brown sugar and white sugar until there are no lumps.
• Add the sugar to the first bowl and stir it all together until smooth.
• In yet another large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
• Heat the oven to 350F.
• Prepare two nine inch cake pans (or three if you're a daredevil): oil and flour the bottoms and sides, then line the bottom with parchment and oil and flour the parchment as well.
• Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and stir gently until mixed. Add the grated carrot and half the pecans (save the other half to garnish the icing) and stir gently until fully combined.
• Distribute the cake batter evenly into your two pans (or three if you're a daredevil), tap the cake pans a few times to make sure the batter is distributed smoothly and there are no air pockets, then place the pans into the oven.
• Bake for around 35 minutes (25 minutes if you are a daredevil baking three cakes) or a toothpick comes out the middle of the cake clean.
• Let the cakes cool on a wire rack for around an hour, then use a plastic spatula to gently work each cake loose from the pan and let it continue to rest on the rack until completely cooled. (If you try to rush the cooling, the icing will run off the cake. Ask me how I know this.)
• While the cakes are cooling, make the icing using a stand mixer. Add the cream cheese and butter to the bowl and beat for a few minutes until mixed, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the vanilla and mix it in. Then add the icing sugar, a bit at a time, and beat at high speed for a few minutes until it's blended smoothly. If the icing is too runny, add more icing sugar. If it's too thick, add a bit of milk.
• Once the cakes are cool, it's time to put it all together.
• Place the first cake on a cake stand, and using a long knife, slice the top off to make it flat and level and then turn it upside-down.
• Using an icing applier, dole out a generous amount of icing on top of the cake and spread it smoothly.
• On a separate surface, slice the top off the second cake to make it flat as well. (Protip: keep the sliced-off cake bits and enjoy them with a bit of leftover icing as a treat for all the work you did making this cake.)
• Place the second cake upside-down on top of the icing and ice the top of this cake as well. (If you're a daredevil who did three cakes, repeat the process one more time.)
• Spread icing around the sides of the cakes as smoothly as you can, merging with the top and trying to go for clean lines without visible cake crumbs. Note: the side is not quite as important as it will be hidden by pecans.
• Once the cake is iced as well as you think you can (YMMV but my cakes *at best* look like they were iced by a precocious five-year-old), spread the rest of the pecans around the sides from bottom to top.
• If you have leftover icing, you can separate two batches into their own bowls. Add some red and yellow food colour to one batch and some green to the other, and, using a piping bag, pipe a carrot with a tuft of greenery on top of the cake.

Carrot cake