Carrot Cake

I am an avid juicer and recently I had a new blend in my line-up; carrot, coconut and lime. The downside, lots of leftover carrot pulp?! What to do with it? The upside...Carrot Cake!!!

In this version, I happened to be making ricotta cheese and consequently had a lot of extra whey around. So, I added the carrot juice moisture back in the form of whey. In other words, the carrots used for shreds produced made 3/4c carrot juice, thus I added 3/4c whey to the batter.




Cake
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour 
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/4 c light brown sugar
3/4 c vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups shredded carrots 
2/3 cups dried currants & raisins, soaked overnight in rum and strained.

Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c butter (1 stick), room temperature
3 c confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c pecan pieces


Pre-heat oven to 350º and set rack to the middle of the oven.

Whisk all wet ingredients together. Then stir in dry ingredients adding the flour last. Pour batter into parchment lined a half sheet jelly roll pan and spread evenly. Bake for about 15 minutes until the center is firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack, leaving the parchment side down.

While cake is cooling, toast the pecans and chop coarsely, set aside.
Use paddle attachment on an electric mixer and beat all remaining frosting ingredients.

To finish, cut the cooled cake into quarters. Place your first piece of cake on a plate 
(or cardboard bottom) and spread approximately 1/2c of frosting evenly with an offset spatula. Repeat with 2 more layers. Frost the sides of the cake with your remaining frosting. Gently press the chopped pecans onto the side of your cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.