Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

By Hklbrries

"Sounds too good to be true or at least low-fat, but this recipe lets you have your cake and eat it's cream cheese frosting, too, without suffering undue guilt.

The recipe specifies much less oil than usually called for, and adds applesauce and raisins to keep the cake moist. And the cream cheese frosting keeps its fat content within bounds because it uses nonfat cream cheese."

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 tbsp grated orange zest
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 medium carrots, shredded (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 8 ounces nonfat cream cheese
• 3 ounces Neufchatel cheese
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with nonstick spray and lightly dust with flour.

With an electric mixer at high speed, beat the eggs, yogurt, applesauce, brown sugar, oil, 1 tbsp of the orange zest, and the vanilla until blended.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the egg mixture on low speed until just blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the carrots and raisins. Scrape the batter into the pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

To prepare the frosting, with an electric mixer at high speed, beat the nonfat cream cheese, Neufchatel cheese, confectioners' sugar and the remaining 1 tbsp orange zest until blended.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a plate. Spready with about 1/2 cup of frosting and place the second layer on top. Frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting.