Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

A super moist and incredibly delicious carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! This two-layered beauty is the star at every Easter party!

Preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C) conventional. Line a 9inch (22 cm) round cake pan with baking paper or grease well with oil/butter.
Toast pecan nuts for a few minutes over medium heat, chop,, and set aside.
Add the oil, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix for one minute. Mix in the eggs, one at a time.
Mix in the shredded carrots and chopped pecan nuts.
Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder, and salt and mix until everything is well combined.
Pour half of the batter into the lined caked pan and bake for 35 minutes in the middle of the preheated oven. Let it cool for a few minutes on a cooling wrack. Carefully take on the first cake base.
Line the cake pan again, and repeat with the second half of the batter. Do you have two equal cake pans at home? Bake both cake base at the same time.

Meanwhile, cook the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it turns golden brown, but dont burn. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
Mix the butter with the cream cheese in a large bowl. Add the vanilla extract, salt, and powdered sugar and mix until you have a smooth frosting.

It’s important that the baked cakes are even, otherwise, the whole cake could fall over once decorated. To achieve this, cut away all uneven parts of each cake base using a sharp knife. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
Place one cake base on a plate and top it with about ⅓ of the frosting. Spread it even using a baking spatula.
Place the second cake base on top and repeat the procedure. Spread the rest of the frosting evenly around the cake. If you want, you can decorate it with a few extra pecan nuts.
Store it in the refrigerator until serving.