Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/177ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and fitting a parchment paper circle to the bottoms.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. In another medium bowl, whisk together the white and brown sugars, vegetable oil, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together using a rubber spatula until just combined, then fold in the grated carrots. At this point you can fold in any add-ins if you wish.***

Pour the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning them out to cool fully on a wire rack or baking sheet.

Sift together the powdered sugar and cornstarch (if using) and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on medium-high until light, fluffy, and uniform (no lumps), about 5 minutes.

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the powdered sugar and cornstarch mixture a few cups at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the vanilla and salt and mix on low for another minute, until fully combined and smooth.

Once the cake layers have cooled completely, level them to your desired height. Fill and stack the cake layers with cream cheese buttercream, then crumb coat the cake with more cream cheese buttercream. Refrigerate the crumb coated cake for at least 30 minutes to let the frosting firm up.

To create the design pictured, use the cream cheese frosting to create a smooth finish on the cake. Refrigerate the cake for an additional 20 minutes to let the frosting firm up while you prepare the piping bags.

Create the Carrot Design: Reserve about ½ Cup of the cream cheese buttercream and divide it into two different bowls. Tint the first bowl with orange food coloring, then tint the other bowl with green food coloring. Add each color into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 2. On the cold frosted cake, pipe the carrots with the orange buttercream using a back-and-forth motion to create elongated triangles in a random pattern. Then, top each carrot with a few green lines to look like little stems.

To finish, add the rest of the uncolored cream cheese buttercream into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 4B. Pipe a shell border around the bottom of the cake, then pipe shell border along the top edge of the cake.