Carrot cake with cream cheese

Patry, author of Sabores y Momentos , brings us the traditional carrot and raisin cake in a mini and cake version: she turns mini-carrot cakes into a multi-tiered cake covered in cream cheese and coconut. A tender and delicious cake, which you will surely succeed with if you give it that beautiful finish.

How exciting! Now it's really Spring! The kind that didn't want to arrive, but when it finally comes, it puts a smile on everyone's face!

It's time to celebrate, so today I've prepared this miniature delight for you. What is a recipe for a large cake, I've divided it in half and using my beautiful mini Le Creuset cocottes , I've baked four little cakes to assemble in mini size like a layer cake and thus create some charming desserts!

With the cream cheese filling and topping, and with the coconut flakes on top, it looks gorgeous… But the best thing is that this is my foolproof carrot cake recipe , the one I have been preparing at home for over 20 years because I have not tried a better one!! Do you want it?

Le Creuset ceramic mini cocottes

Ingredients

• 325g grated or chopped carrot
• 50g of brown sugar or panela
• 140gr of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200gr of flour
• 100g sultana raisins (optional)
• 60g of natural pineapple in its juice, drained and crushed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Some peeled and chopped walnuts (optional)

For the cream cheese:

• 50gr of soft butter
• 150gr of cream cheese
• 90gr of icing sugar
• Juice of half a small lemon
• Coconut flakes for decoration

Elaboration

1. In a bowl, combine the grated carrot with the brown sugar and let it rest for a few minutes while you prepare the next step.
2. Preheat the oven to 175ºC. Grease your mini-cocottes with a little butter or vegetable oil and place two thin strips of baking paper on the bottom in a cross shape, so that they stick out at the top so that you can pull them on when removing the biscuits.
3. In the bowl of our KitchenAid, beat the eggs first alone and then with the white sugar (using the paddle attachment at high speed) until they double in volume. Add the vegetable oil, vanilla and the well-squeezed and crushed pineapple (simply crumbled so there are no large pieces), and continue beating at medium speed.
4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and then pour it into the egg mixture and add it, beating at a gentle speed. Next, add the carrot, raisins and chopped walnuts and mix with a spatula to keep the air in the mixture from going down.
5. Pour the mixture evenly into the four molds without filling them completely, leaving a finger and a half of space at the edge.
6. We bake for about 35 minutes (or until we see that it is ready and that when we poke it with a toothpick it comes out clean) with heat from above and below but without air.
7. We remove it from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before unmolding.
8. While we prepare the cream cheese in the already clean and dry KitchenAid bowl again using the paddle.
9. Pour in the cream cheese, the very soft but not melted butter, the icing sugar (sifted) and start to beat. Once the cream is ready, add the lemon juice and mix again. Next, I recommend putting the cream in the refrigerator for a few minutes to be able to work it well.
10. To assemble the cake, cut each of the sponge cakes in half and even out the surface by cutting off the top if it has come out a little.
11. Spread the layers with the cream cheese and place them one on top of the other. Then, cover them completely to create a kind of naked cake and decorate with flakes of dehydrated coconut. And it's ready to serve!

Le Creuset ceramic mini cocottes