Best Carrot Cake with Orange Zest Cream Cheese Frosting! Recipe

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. You’ll need one large bowl and one medium bowl. (Large bowl for the wet ingredients and the small one for the dry ingredients.)
2. Grease two 9 inch cake pans WELL with 2 tablespoons of butter (1tbsp for each pan.) Add one tablespoon of flour to one of the pans and tip the pan so the butter is lightly coated with the flour. Dump the excess flour into the next pan and repeat. Lightly tap the excess off.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg, and salt together in medium bowl until well incorporated.
4. Mix the room temp eggs, honey, buttermilk, brown sugar/coconut sugar, vanilla, and butter together in large bowl. Add the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir well. Fold in grated carrots.
5. Pour batter evenly into both pans. It looks like there is barely any batter in the pans but it will rise, believe me. Cook for 35-40 minutes. Stick a butter knife into the center and see if it comes out cleanly. LET REST FOR ATLEAST 30 MINUTES, otherwise frosting will just melt and you’ll have a mess.
6. While the cake is resting prepare the frosting. Add the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, the zest of the outside of the orange, the juice of 1/2 of the orange, and the powdered sugar into a bowl. Beat together until the frosting is fluffy and incorporated.
7. Find some wax paper or parchment paper. Cut a piece about the size of the plate in half. Lay them on the plate. Take one of the cakes out of the pan and lay it on its rounded side, so the flat side is facing up. Put a good size glob of your frosting on the top and spread it evenly. (Use however much you want) Add the second cake layer this time with the rounded side up. Add most of the frosting to the top of the cake and spread it down the sides. I use to parchment paper so when you are finished frosting your can pull each side out and have a clean plate! Enjoy!