Carrot Cake with Nuts, Coconut, and Cream Cheese Icing

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Take the cold icing ingredients (cream cheese and butter) out of the fridge and set aside to warm up slightly while you make the cake.

Trace the bottom of a 10" springform pan on wax or parchment paper, and cut out the round template. Butter the bottom and sides of the pan, smooth the paper on the bottom, and then butter the paper. Set aside.

Open and drain the can of pineapple.

Spread the pecans on a small pan, then as soon as the oven is at temperature, toast the pecans for 10 minutes (if nuts were frozen) or 5-8 minutes (if they were room temperature). Stir, and toast again for another 5-8 minutes, or until toasted but not burnt. Keep checking them!

While nuts are toasting, grate the carrot into a large bowl. Add the coconut and drained pineapple, then set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

The nuts should be toasted by now, so allow them to cool in the pan for a few minutes, and then coarsely chop them up into 1/4-inch pieces. Add them to the carrot combo.

In an electric mixer or other large bowl, beat together the sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth. Carefully dump in the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Do not overmix.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, and dump in the carrot combo. Stir with a spatula just until combined. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave the cake in the pan, and place it on a rack to cool completely. This will take about 90 min.

While the cake is baking (or once it's done), make the icing by first washing your electric mixer bowl and paddle, then adding your close-to-room-temp cream cheese and butter, coarsely cut up. Cream until smooth, then mix in the vanilla. Carefully add the icing sugar in 2-3 doses and mix on medium speed until incorporated. Do not overbeat because it will make the icing too hard.

If the cake is to be consumed soon, spread the icing on the cake and just leave it out. If it's a hot day and the fridge is full, you can put the icing in a container and just put it in the fridge separate from the cooled cake (which can be taken out of the pan and wrapped in plastic) until you're ready to ice it and serve right away. The cake (without icing) can also be plastic-wrapped and foiled and then frozen for several weeks.