Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups olive oil or grapeseed oil
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, chopped (more whole or chopped for topping)
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
• 2 cups of finely grated carrots
• 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple

Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp 
• 2 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice

How to prepare Carrot Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9 inch cake pans. Cut out rounds of wax paper and place at bottoms of cake pans. Butter the top of the wax paper rounds.

2. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in chopped walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple.

3 .Pour batter into pans. Set on the middle rack of oven and bake for 45-50 minutes (shift positions of cakes front-to-back if necessary about halfway through), until edges have pulled away from sides and a toothpick or sharp knife tip inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a cake rack.

4. To prepare frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly sift in the confectioners sugar and beat until mixture is free of lumps. Stir in vanilla and lemon juice.

5 .Once cakes have cooled, frost. Sprinkle top with chopped walnuts or arrange walnut halves in a crown around the top.