Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot cake. I love it in all different forms and with all different sorts of add-ins and toppings. Nuts, coconut, pineapple, cupcake or cake: I will shove it into my mouth. In fact, I love it so much that it made an appearance at our wedding:

Photo taken by Alacrity Photography

I don’t think I’ve ever had carrot cake with lemon, though. Not surprisingly, I love carrot cake with lemon, too. I love it a lot.

Let me back up a second. This whole carrot cake madness started because of a recipe swap. This swap was Blogger’s Choice. I was assigned Feed Me, Seymour. I found so many recipe on Kim’s blog it was impossible to narrow it down. I had five of her recipes open on my iPad, no joke. I finally narrowed it down to two and couldn’t go any further. So, I made both. The other recipe I picked from her blog will be coming shortly. I just couldn’t wait to share this carrot cake with you!

Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Feed Me, Seymour

for the cake:
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shredded carrots
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

for the frosting:
8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 tablespoon skim milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13-inch cake pan with butter and line bottom with parchment paper. Grease parchment paper with butter. Set pan aside.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar, oil, honey, and vanilla until combined. Mix in carrots and ginger.
3. In another medium-sized bowl, whisk together white and whole wheat flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Pour mixture evenly into prepared cake pan. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely and slice into 36 bars.
5. To make the glaze: combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat on medium until well combined. Pipe onto bars and serve immediately or store, covered in the refrigerator, for up to 3 days.

Thanks to Taste of Home Cooking for organizing! Make sure to check out the other recipe swap posts!