Today, Marc and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary, so I made Marc a carrot cake. Not just any carrot cake, no, an Anniversary Carrot Cake with Buttermilk Glaze. And he swears it’s the best one yet; after years and years of carrot cakes, this may be “the one.” Why is this cake so good? Well, probably because it has two kinds of frosting on it, you know, that stuff that’s made of butter and sugar? First, it gets soaked in an amazing buttermilk glaze, and then it gets topped with that cream cheese frosting that you were expecting. The frosting. This frosting is serious business. And there’s a lot of it. In fact, I’ve made this cake in two 8x8s before and frosted it like a two-layer cake. This frosting is the reason I’ve cut down on a lot of the sugar and oil in the cake. That said, if you love cream cheese frosting, leave it alone. But if you’d like a little more cake to frosting ration check out the notes at the bottom on cutting it down a little. But not too much. Because that’s why Marc and I are so happily married. Not really. I can’t promise that this Anniversary Carrot Cake with Buttermilk Glaze will hold your marriage together, but I can promise that it’s a good start.
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups coarsely grated peeled carrots
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- 8 ounces crushed pineapple and juice (canned or fresh works)
- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (or walnuts if that’s your thing)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (no actually necessary, but makes it melt nicely)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 16 ounces powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 13x9 pan.
- Beat eggs, sugar, and oil for 2 minutes until it’s light and frothy.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, carrots, coconut, pineapple and pecans just until smooth.
- Transfer batter to pan.
- Bake 30 minutes and remove from the oven and cover with foil.
- Continue to bake until tester inserted comes out clean (10 – 15 minutes more).
- Remove from oven. Poke holes all over the cake.
- Let cool completely (sometimes I throw it in the freezer for a little bit. Make sure you set the timer for 10 minute increments because you don’t want it to even begin to freeze). To make the glaze, bring sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup and baking soda to boil in large saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until glaze is deep amber, whisking often. Glaze will thin out and be at risk for boiling over as it caramelizes. Keep an eye on it. When it’s a deep golden color, remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over the cake.
- Let sit and soak in while you make the frosting. Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon; beat until very fluffy.
- Spread frosting over cooled cake in pan.
- I added a cute little curl of carrot for the garnish.
- Oh, and here's a candid from our wedding all those years ago.
- Wanna be slightly more virtuous? If you’re not a crazy frosting maniac, you might want to do less.
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 3 ounces butter (6 tablespoons)
- 12 ounces powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
Happy Anniversary Darlings! This recipe looks terrific! It brings back so many memories, even more than 9 years old. Thanks.