KBtotheBB

Below is the *original* recipe from allrecipes.com. My modifications - ones that are "kim" mods and mods suggested by the reviews - are below the recipe.

Carrot Cake III Submitted by: Tammy Elliott
Rated: 5 out of 5 by 922 members Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour Ready In: 2 Hours
Yields: 18 servings "I've tried many carrot cakes, and this is my favorite recipe. If you don't like pecans, feel free to leave them out."

INGREDIENTS:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese,
softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

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Modifications

• Instead of 1-1/4c of veg. oil, I used 3/4c canola oil + 1/2c applesauce
• Instead of 2 cups of white sugar, I used 1 cup white sugar + 1 cup brown sugar.
• Added an extra tsp of vanilla extract (cake batter, not frosting)
• Added an extra tsp of cinnamon
• Added a 1/4 tsp of nutmeg (same time as cinnamon is added to batter)
• Grated whole carrots using the bigger holes on the grater.
• Squeezed excess juice and moisture from grated carrots
• Added 8oz can of crushed pineapple, juice squeezed out (added at same time as the carrots)
• Did not use pecans in the batter or frosting

Sparqi

Did you calculate the WW pts for your version, Kim? I really want to make it and was curious about the points. If you don't know, no worries. I'll just plug it into recipe builder myself.

Gatsby

Perfect -- It's going straight to the recipe box, which only holds my "tried and true" recipes!

KBtotheBB

No, I didn't calculate WW points. I wonder if Splenda would work well with this (if you wanted to lower the points value)?

KBtotheBB

Oh, and the frosting is DELICIOUS. I want to put it on everything. It's so LIGHT and POOFY.

Sparqi

FYI...the recipe as written is

8 pts per slice for the cake.
Add 6 pts for the frosting.

I used 18 servings for the calculations.

I'll do KB's version later.

KBtotheBB

I got 5 pts per slice using my version. I also got 4 pts for the frosting since I used FF cream cheese (only thing I had available) and left out the pecans.

Sparqi

OK. Cool. I am going to have to recalc. I can't to FF dairy. Ever. ick. But, I am cool with leaving out the pecans, and that will save a ton of pts.

Thanks for sharing the recipe. I just bought a HUGE bag of carrots from Costco, and I LOVE carrot cake!