BEST EASY CARROT CAKE RECIPE

Pre-heat oven to 350F (conventional, no fan) and line 3 8" cake pans with parchment paper and spray

Grate the carrots if you haven't already. Place the chopped walnuts in the oven for 7 minutes in a baking sheet to toast them if you haven't already

Add the flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom to a large bowl. Whisk together all the ingredients until combined and no lumps remain

In a separate bowl, add the oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk for 1-2 minutes until very smooth

Add the wet ingredients into the dry, and use a hand whisk to mix everything together. This will be quite a thick batter, don't worry and do your best to combine the ingredients without over-mixing until just combined

Remove the whisk from the bowl, and add the carrots, toasted walnuts, shredded coconut and crushed pineapple to the batter. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold until all the ingredients are combined. The moisture from the carrots will make the batter more runny

Divide the batter evenly between the 3 8" cake pans

Bake for 25-27 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out with light, moist crumbs (no wet batter). Remove from the oven

Let the cakes cool down in the pans for 15 minutes. Then carefully take them out, wrap them in cling wrap, and chill in the fridge for 1 hour

Add the butter to a saucepan and cook and stir over medium-low heat until it melts and turns brown in color. This can take a few minutes. Make sure you don't burn the butter; stop cooking as soon as you see brown specks on the bottom and a nutty aroma develops

Let the butter cool down until it becomes semi-firm / soft. You can do this at room temperature or in the fridge depending on how much time you have

Add the room temperature cream cheese, cooled down browned butter, vanilla and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment to whisk on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until the mixture looks smooth. Scrape the bottom and edges of the bowl

Add the sifted powdered sugar slowly, 1 cup at a time, while whisking on medium speed. Stop whisking once the sugar is dissolved and a fluffy cream cheese frosting is formed

If the frosting is too soft / runny, refrigerate for a few minutes until it reaches a spreadable consistency

Working one cake layer at time, carefully trim off the dome and slather with a generous amount of the cream cheese frosting until all three layers are stacked on top of each other

Cover the cake with a thin layer of the frosting (crumb coat), spreading it as smoothly as possible. Refrigerate for 15 minutes

Add the remaining frosting and decorate the cake however you like (see ideas in blog post above)

Serve & enjoy!