Carrot-Pineapple Cake

Baking is a true stress reliever for me. So I pounce on every opportunity to bake a cake for a group of people, because as we all know, baking for oneself is a terrible idea.

So for a friend's birthday, I baked Ina's carrot-pineapple cake. As usual, I followed the recipe to the tee, except for a couple of minor changes. I used cardamom powder instead of cinnamon, crunchy granola instead of walnuts, and true to the reviewers on Food Network, I baked the cake for only 47 minutes (yeah, I am that precise about baking time). Baking for 55-60 minutes would have surely resulted in a dense, dry cake. Thankfully I read the reviews! So, depending on  your oven and the pans you use (I used 9-inch pans), start checking on the cake after 30-35 minutes. I also soaked the raisins in some pineapple juice for about an hour. It plumped the raisins and infused them with more flavor. This recipe yields a supremely moist and delicious carrot cake! Since I added cardamom, the cake tasted like baked gajjar halwa ;). Highly recommended by me and the family. 

two layers of carrot cake studded with raisins and pineapples

While I would recommend the cake, I wouldn't recommend the frosting as much. This is the first time I went all gung-ho on a rich cream-cheese-buttercream frosting. I tell you, it became impossible to physically allow myself to add a pound of sugar, and a pound (and some more) of butter/cream cheese. But I did persist, notwithstanding a "little" bit of butter I resisted adding. And I managed to slather most of it on the cake. However, the consistency was a little off and it seemed to make the cake a tad too sweet. So I would recommend skipping this particular frosting or making just half of the recommend amount so the cake is just lightly glazed with it.

But this is a carrot cake that should be entered in all baking recipe books!