Carrot-Pineapple-Apple-Coconut-Walnut Cake

I decided to try a new carrot cake recipe a few weekends ago. We loved it! I had the ingredients in my pantry and frig and wanted a use for some of the Bob's Red Mill coconut.

I found this recipe online and yes, it is a great carrot cake. It might be a Mott's recipe to begin with. Perhaps not to "die for" but let's just take that figuratively and not literally.

The first time I made a three-layer cake and it was beautiful. I upped my favorite frosting recipe (see carrot cake on this blog) by 50%. This means, of course, that you will have a half package of cream cheese frosting to use the next week! Yum. My tips for the three-layer is to use 8" shallow cake pans and alternate them when you frost (one up, one down, one up). They bake very quickly. I always line my cake pans with parchment rounds.

The second time I made one small 4" cake (cut in half horizontally to make a two-layer cake) and Gerry I shared this one. For the rest of the batter, I filled a bundt pan, well-greased, about 2/3 or 3/4 full and ended up with a nice, compact, fruity cake. I just tested it every five minutes and perhaps baked it for 25-35 minutes.

So here's the recipe. I followed it but used more coconut and nuts than called for. I also used Bob's Red Mill Unsweetened Flaked Coconut (available at all Ocean State Job Lots) instead of shredded, sweetened coconut and chopped it with the whole or halved walnuts in my Cuisinart. I probably used 1 cup of coconut and 1 cup of walnuts. Next time, I will garnish the cake with coconut and nuts.


One -  Beat until nice and fluffy and yellow:
1-1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups sugar
3 eggs

Two - Mix together 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon.

3 - Beat those wet and dry ingredients together until mixed.

Add in 2 cups of grated carrots, 1 cup of crushed pineapple in juice (not drained, so use the juice), 1 tsp. vanilla and the coconut/nuts.

Pour this into your pans, cook for about 25 minutes (test, test, test with a bamboo skewer or cake tester) at 350 degrees if using three layers. For other pans, just test until the skewer comes out clean.

Cool for ten minutes and then pop out of the pans. Continue to cool before frosting.