Baking my signature walnut carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

So today I decided that I want to bake walnut carrot cake. I have been baking this signature cake of mine so many time previously but none of it is for myself. Bukan nak perasan kan but this cake is very popular that I can literally bake it with my eyes close. Wahahah...friends been asking me for the recipe. I hate giving people my recipe because IT'S MINE! But I decided today that I will share it with those who interested to try it. Here goes...

Let see, what do you need...basically a cake will need flour, egg, sugar (brown/white) & butter. That is the basic ingredients whenever you want to bake any kind of cake. Then there are some extra ingredient namely baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla essence. 

For this cake, you also need carrot (obviously right..), walnut or pecan or almond but since I call it walnut carrot cake then walnut it is. Then you need desiccated coconut (of course this is optional), raisin (can do without but if you want a traditional carrot cake, this is a must) and buttermilk or milk because I know for some places, buttermilk is not easy to find. But you can make your own buttermilk (it's literally 1cup of milk plus 1tsp of lemon juice). For a change, in this recipe I will use yogurt. A plain yogurt..not strawberry...not banana..OK. And of course I have one secret ingredient that is a must in my cake, which explain why my cake taste different from the rest. What is it?? I will have to kill you to tell you the secret. Whahaha.... 

 So, mix the vegetable oil ( I prefer to use oil than butter because it make the cake more moist and you dont have to wait for it to melt..), brown sugar (again I prefer to use brown sugar as compare to white because it's less sweet and because brown sugar is less acidic it retain water more. Resulted in your cake more moist and soft) and yogurt.

Then add egg one at a time but since I need to take photo at the same time, so I just mix in both egg at a time. Hehehhe...

 I already grated the carrot. I normally put a lot of carrot. So dont' be stingy with the carrot. It give more moist to the cake as it cook.

 Here my chopped walnut...as fine as you can do it because you don't want a coarse walnut in your cake.

Oh ya..I used vanilla sugar because it's a bit hard to find vanilla essence. It's either you used vanilla sugar or vanilla pod.

So, mix the dry ingredients with the wet. No hand mixer ya...you need to do it manually with a spatula to avoid trap air. So that your cake xder lubang2. Tapi padat! hehehhe..

 Mix in the grated carrot...

 Then the chopped walnut...

 A dash or 1tbsp of desiccated coconut but this is optional as some people might not like it. Or as an alternative, you can used raisin.

Now, everything is in so you can prepare the cake tray. For this mixture I am using a 16cm baking tray. A small one...

 Ready to go inside the oven..

Before that, you heat up the oven until 200C for 1-2 minutes. When you place the cake inside the oven, reduce the heat to 175C and bake the cake for 45min. Cam biasa, tau kan cam maner nak make sure cake dah masak? Cucuk dgn chopstick or pengcungkil gigi. Hehheh...but becareful if you used toothpick because sometimes, the lower end of the toothpick a bit fragile. Takut nanti tertinggal dlm kek...haaa..mampus! While waiting for the cake, let's do the frosting. I am using cream cheese frosting...the ingredients are...

 Cream cheese ( I always used philadelphia brand)...again..jgn kedekut to spend especially if you do it for yourself, butter (real butter ya..bkn magerin), vanilla sugar/essence and icing sugar. I always got credit for my cream cheese frosting. The secret is use more cream cheese not butter & sugar.

 Place butter, cream cheese, vanilla sugar & icing sugar in a bowl and mix it all together. I did it so many time that I don't even need measurement in order to get the perfect frosting. Basically, 1 full cream cheese to 1/2 full butter, 2-3 tbsp icing sugar & 1tsp vanilla sugar. Meaning, if you use the 250gm cream cheese, you just add 125gm of butter ( 1stick butter). If you used 200gm cream cheese, you just add 100gm butter. Technically, the amount of butter is always half of the amount of cream cheese that you use.

And 45 min later, you got your carrot cake!! For those who have not practice the art of cutting a cake into half, please bake the cake in two baking tray. Tapi memandangkan I dah expert kan, so I just slice it to two layer cake....gituew...Then spread the frosting in between the layer & all over the cake. Finally...

Decorate as you wish...and jangan lupa cover..nanti lalat datang..huhuh

As a finale, I listed the ingredients and measurement (ni untuk size kecik ok. Kalau nak buat besar, double or triple the measurement mentioned here:

- 1 cup of flour ( do invest in a good flour because it does make a different for your cake)

- 1/2 tsp of baking powder

- 1/4 tsp of baking soda

- 1/4 salt

- 1 tsp of vanilla sugar

- 1/2 cup of brown sugar

- 1/4 yogurt

- 100ml canola oil

- 2 eggs

- 1tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

- 1 cup grated carrot (approximately 2 carrot)

- 1/2-1 cup of chopped walnut/pecan

- 1 tbsp of desiccated coconut (optional)

- 1/2 cup of raisin 

- 1/2 cup of crush pineapple (this really make the cake MARVELLOUS! Give it a try although this is also optional in case you don't like pineapple in your cake)

So there you go. But of course it might not taste the same as mine because it's all goes down to your baking technique & skill. Anyway..practice make perfect!