Tag: Cream Cheese Frosting

Best Ever Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is one of those cakes that’s full of potential, but somehow people always seem to mess with perfection. I mean, really, who decided that adding pineapples and raisins to carrot cake was necessary? No one sits around eating pineapples and carrots together. It makes no sense. I also personally only like the pecans on the outside of the cake, but that’s not a deal breaker. Don’t even get me started on people who use buttercream instead of cream cheese icing for carrot cake. Admittedly, all of these things are extremely trivial… Sometimes I surprise even myself with the amount of useless thought I put into food.

I’m sure you’ve all noticed that I’m a huge fan of Jaclyn over at Cooking Classy because her pictures are always beautiful and everything she posts is absolutely amazing. This cake is a perfect example because, well, this cake is perfect. It is hands down the best carrot cake I have ever made or tried. The only thing I changed is the amount of cream cheese icing (I did one and a half of the recipe). The recipe itself is flawless. I wanted to savor this cake for as long as possible, but it was so good I found myself cutting a piece every time I walked by the fridge. I have zero restraint. I hope you enjoy!

Best Ever Carrot Cake
Recipe from Cooking Classy

Serving Size: 12 Servings
Ingredients

4 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 cups lightly packed finely grated carrots*

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

2/3 cup chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting*
12 ounces (1 1/2 8 ounce packages) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup salted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar

*This is 1 1/2 times the original recipe. Scale it back if you like a bit less frosting.
Directions
  • Preheat
    oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 9″ round cake pans with aluminum foil,
    leaving an overhang on two side. Grease foil and dust with flour, set
    aside. (This cake can also be made in a 9×13 dish just increase baking
    time to 40 – 50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out
    clean, I have even halved the recipe and baked it in and 8×8 dish).
  • In
    a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt,
    cinnamon and nutmeg. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer,
    combine vegetable oil, applesauce, eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla.
    Slowly stir in dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Stir in
    grated carrots. Divide mixture evenly into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake
    cakes in preheat oven for 35-39 minutes until toothpick inserted into
    center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes in
    cake dishes before removing to a wire rack to cool. Lift cakes out of
    pan with foil overhang and allow to cool on wire rack completely before
    frosting (once cool I cut about 1/4″ off the tops to even them out
    before frosting, you’ll notice the centers don’t rise as high as the
    rest). Flip cakes upside down when frosting with Cream Cheese Frosting.
    Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Store cake in airtight container.
  • *Grate carrots on small grate of a grater. This is usually 6-7 medium carrots.
  • Cream Cheese Frosting
  • In
    a large bowl, using an electric mixer, whip together cream cheese,
    butter and vanilla until fluffy. Stir in powdered sugar and mix until
    well combine.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Skinny Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls

Oh, what sweet perfect madness this this?!

Two of my most favorite things combined into one wonderful collaboration of epic proportions! Red velvet and cinnamon rolls. Need I say more?

While these little devils may take some time and attention, they are absolutely worth the effort!

I basically took my base cinnamon roll recipe and made a few adjustments. I added some more red food coloring to the dough and I used cocoa in the filling mixture rather than the usual cinnamon one.

I also whipped up a cream cheese frosting to drizzle over the top to give that final decadent red velvety contrast that we all know and love!

I’m not even about to tell you that my three year old scarfed down two of these bad boys once they were done.

She waited quite patiently in front of the warm oven while they were baking. You know… as patiently as any three year old can manage anyway. So, I figured she deserved the bonus treat!

Skinny Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls
TheSkinnyFork.com

The Skinny:
Servings: 16 • Size: 1 Cinnamon Roll • Calories: 191.7 • Fat: 3.4 g • Carb: 37.4 g • Fiber: 2 g • Protein: 3.9 g • Sugar: 16.2 g • Sodium: 209.3 mg

Ingredients:
Cinnamon Roll Dough:
1 1/4 C. Hot Water
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/4 Tsp. Red Food Coloring
1 1/4 C. Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 1/4 C. Bread Flour
1 1/4 C. Whole Wheat White Flour
1/2 Tbsp. Dark Cocoa Powder
2 1/4 Tsp. Active Dry Yeast or Bread Machine Yeast
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Filling:
1/4 C. Light Butter, Softened
1/4 C. Light Brown Sugar
1/4 C. Sweetener (I used Stevia in the Raw.)
1/4 C. Red Velvet Cake Mix
1/2 Tbsp. Dark Cocoa Powder

Cream Cheese Drizzle:
3/4 C. Powdered Sugar
1 Oz. Cream Cheese, Softened
1/4 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Tsp – 1 Tbsp. Fat Free Milk

Directions:
Bread Machine: 
Place the ingredients for the cinnamon rolls into a bread machine in the order listed and set it to the ‘dough cycle’ setting.

No Bread Machine:
If you do not have a bread machine, you can combine the hot water and yeast into a bowl and allow the yeast to activate and foam up. Once the yeast is active you can combine the remaining ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment or knead by hand. Spray a large bowl with non-stick cooking spray and place dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to sit for an hour until doubled in size.

Once the dough cycle has ended or the dough has risen for it’s first time. Punch it down and allow to rise for another hour or until doubled in size once more.

While your waiting, lightly spray the insides of two rounded 8 inch cake pans or a 13×9 with non-stick cooking or baking spray.

Set butter and cream cheese out to soften and go ahead and mix up the dry ingredients for the filling. Set aside.

After the second rise, remove the dough to a floured surface and roll out into a large rectangle.

Spread the butter over the rectangle of dough.

Sprinkle the filling mixture atop the dough.

Roll it up into a tight, long, skinny log. Lengthwise.

Cut into 16 equal pieces. I use floss to do this! Yes. Floss. Place the floss around and under the dough and cross over the top (as seen in the picture), and pull opposite directions to cut. Wa-la!

Only have mint floss? That’s fine too! The flavor doesn’t transfer.

Place the cinnamon rolls into the prepared pan(s). Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.

If you’re making these ahead for the next day, you can toss them into the fridge rather than letting them rise for the remaining 30 minutes. In the morning, set them out for the final 30 minute rise prior to baking.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the cinnamon rolls for 15-20 minutes. In the mean time, combine the frosting ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until smooth and creamy.

Remove the cinnamon rolls from the oven and allow to cool slightly before drizzling the frosting over the top.

Skinny Purple Velvet Cupcakes & Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Birthday Kari!

These perfectly skinny purple beauties are a super fun alternative to the infamous red velvet cake that we all know and love.

Seriously. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love red velvet cake. Do you?

So anyway, why purple?

Well…

Red velvet cakes makes me smile. Purple velvet cake makes me grin like the Cheshire Cat and these are for my sister-in-laws birthday today! Purple is her most favorite color and I am more than happy to oblige.

You could just as easily make these any color velvet that you want. Just use the food coloring of your choice. Less or more.

The frosting? Oh. My. The. Frosting.

I’ve been searching for a while for a cream cheese frosting that was light, tasted amazing, and was stable enough to be piped somewhat.

Ta-da.

Only three ingredients for a magical cream cheese frosting that I was not licking out of the bowl.

Skinny Purple Velvet Cupcakes
TheSkinnyFork.com

The Skinny:
Servings: 24 • Size: 1 Cupcake • Calories: 134.3 • Fat: 3.4 g • Carb: 22.8 g • Fiber: 1 g • Protein: 3.3 g • Sugar: 12.6 g • Sodium: 191.9 mg

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1/2 C. Unsweetened Applesauce
1/4 C. Light Butter, Softened – Room Temperature
1 Egg
2 Egg Whites
2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/3 C. Light Buttermilk (I use 1 1/3 C. Fat Free Milk with 1 Tbsp. + 1 Tsp. White Vinegar; Let stand for 5 minutes.)
1 Tbsp. Purple Food Coloring
1 Tsp. White Vinegar
1 1/2 C. Cake Flour
1 C. Whole Wheat White Flour
1 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Frosting:
8 Oz. Neufchatel (1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese), Softened
1 C. Powdered Sugar
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake trays with liners. I also gave mine a light spritz of baking spray to prevent the cake from sticking to the papers.

Whisk the egg and egg whites together in a large bowl together. Add in the remaining wet ingredients and whisk until well blended. Set aside.

In another large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Stir together until well mixed.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix on medium-high speed for about a minute or until well combined.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared cupcake pans and fill each about 3/4ths of the way. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles in the batter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Set the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack. While cooling, mix up the cream cheese frosting ingredients together until well combined.

Once completely cool, frost the cupcakes as you desire.

Keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

I would not recommend setting these out for long, especially on a hot day! The frosting will soften and ‘melt’.

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