Tag: Championship cake

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting:  this luscious layer cake features finely shredded fresh carrots, crushed pineapple, melted butter, eggs, and a few pantry staples in its batter. Once baked, you layer and frost it with a rich cream cheese/pineapple frosting. Chopped pecans add to its tastiness and texture.

This is it people…the carrot cake that won me over. It literally taught me to LOVE carrot cake.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Pecans

Bad vs. Good

Can you believe I never liked it? The truth is, my previous experience (nightmare?) with carrot cake was one bite. I tasted one hunk of an over-baked sheet cake when I was a kid. Turns out there were bitter bits in it too: flour not fully mixed in, and maybe rancid walnuts?! One bit of yuck! After that, for a dessert, I would almost always opt for chocolate cake, a lemon bar, or anything else.

One taste of this carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and I totally changed my tune. It’s dense but completely moist, and the cream cheese frosting is to die for! It was so easy to bake and I loved the creamy look of the batter just before mixing in the pineapple and carrots.

Batter of Carrot Cake

I brought the entire thing (minus my generous slice of course) to friends. Not to brag, but one said it was the best carrot cake he ever tasted. (Thanks Henry!) Another, just widened his eyes and said, “WOW!” (Thanks Jeffrey!) OK, yes, I am bragging, but that’s not the point =). This cake is something you definitely need to try at home!

Slice of Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Championship Cake Award Winner

This cake is another all-time favorite recipe from our archives. It’s based on a 1999 1st place winning recipe the Washington State Fair. Blue ribbon bragging rights went to Mark Yamamoto of Seattle. He won a Championship Cake Award for it. Thank you MARK! Funny thing, 1999 was my first ever year managing a recipe contest and its PR. The Washington State Fair was then known as Puyallup Fair or the Western Washington Fair. In fact, locals still call it the Puyallup Fair.  You know this recipe is good if it has been a favorite of ours for over 20 years! If you’re loving these “oldies but goodies” recipes, be sure to try another 1999 winner from our archives, this Mounds of Joy Cake, another championship cake award winner.

Sifted Flour

When I did our recipe test run for this crazy-good carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, I adjusted only a few ingredients. I opted for sifted all-purpose flour versus cake flour, added pecans, left out the raisins, and decreased the pineapple just a bit. Mark held back his cream cheese frosting recipe, so I added my own here.

As soon as you make this, you’ll have a winner on your hands too! Enjoy!

Cyndi

 

Mounds of Joy Cake

The Mounds candy bar merges with the Almond Joy in our “Mounds of Joy Cake.” This great cake is based on a 1999 1st place state fair winning recipe. Eugenia Adams made a vanilla version of it and won a Championship Cake Award in Michigan. She called it a “Mock Mounds” Cake.

I re-vamped Eugenia’s recipe a bit for our recipe test run. For the choco-holic in me (and others), I added chocolate to the frosting and filling. This is a deceivingly simple cake to make. At the same time, it’s a show-stopper that’s epic tasting.

Sliced Mounds of Joy Cake

Almond Joys Got Nuts, Mounds Don’t

To keep with a Mounds/Almond Joy theme, I used almonds as the featured nut instead of just any nut  And since I go crazy for coconut, I also upped the amount of shredded coconut and substituted coconut oil for shortening. I even increased the coconut extract in the cake itself and the filling for extra flavor boosts.

Mounds of Joy Cake showing 1st layer

You start with: three coconut almond cakes.

coconut atop chocolate layer cake

Between them and on top you layer a coconut filling.

Mounds of Joy Cake showing coconut layer

And a chocolate layer. It easy to spread around with the sturdy coconut layer underneath.

chocolate atop coconut layer cake

Eugenia used regular sugar in the frosting, so we did too. Next time I’m going to try it with powdered sugar for a different texture.

makings of chocolate coconut cake

Before the final frosting, you add almonds to the top.

Mounds of Joy Cake almond coconut layer

Then finish it with the chocolate frosting/filling and more coconut.

Coconut Chocolate cake from above

Seriously. This award winning cake is so easy to make! The hardest part of it all is waiting for the cakes to cool so you can deck it out and eat it. Enjoy!

Cyndi

p.s. Coo Coo for Coconut? Search our site for “coconut.” You’ll find a tropical pie and a coconut cocktail you’re sure to love. Plus we’ll keep adding more recipes featuring coconut in the future, so stay tuned.