Carrot Cake With Pecan Cream Filling And Cream Cheese Icing

Total Time: 1 hr 35 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 12
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 5/8 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans, lightly toasted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups corn oil
• 2 cups sugar (preferably superfine or baker's)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 4 cups grated carrots (about 1 pound)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 lb confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt

Recipe

• 1 for pecan cream filling: a day before you make the cake, blend the sugar, flour and salt in a heavy saucepan.
• 2 gradually stir in the cream.
• 3 add the butter.
• 4 cook and stir the mixture over low heat until the butter has melted; then let simmer 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
• 5 cool to lukewarm.
• 6 stir in the pecans and vanilla.
• 7 let the mixture cool completely.
• 8 refrigerate it overnight.
• 9 if it is too thick to spread, bring it to room temperature before using.
• 10 for carrot cake: preheat the oven to 350°f.
• 11 butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
• 12 in a large bowl, whisk together the corn oil and the sugar.
• 13 in another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• 14 sift half the dry ingredients into the oil-sugar mixture, then blend well.
• 15 sift in the rest of the dry ingredients while adding the eggs, one at a time.
• 16 mix well.
• 17 add the carrots and pecans and mix again. (if you like raisins in your cake, feel free to throw some in now).
• 18 pour the batter into the prepared tube pan.
• 19 bake for 70 minutes, or until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
• 20 cool upright, in the pan, on a rack.
• 21 while the cake is baking, prepare the icing.
• 22 icing: cream together the butter and cream cheese until well blended and fluffy.
• 23 sift in the confectioners' sugar.
• 24 cream again. then beat in the vanilla and the salt. if the icing is too soft to spread, chill it for a few minutes.
• 25 refrigerate it if you don't plan to use it right away, but bring it back to room temperature before using.
• 26 assembly: run knife around inside of pan to loosen cake.
• 27 invert onto serving plate.
• 28 with a long serrated knife, carefully split the cake into 3 horizontal layers.
• 29 spread the filling between the layers. (you may not need it all).
• 30 frost the top and sides of the cake with the icing.