Sour Cream Carrot Cake was a result of having a whole lot of sour cream leftover from a catered Mexican birthday dinner. I guess we don't put enough sour cream on our tacos because we had at least 2 cups left. It was a great excuse to make a dessert calling for ¾ cup of sour cream.
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This is a pretty basic old fashioned carrot cake where sour cream takes place of some of the oil and keeps the cake moist. Just so you know, this same cake can be made with applesauce in place of the sour cream. Alas, the Mexican place (it was Chuy's!) didn't serve us too much applesauce...
Sour Cream Carrot Cake Frosting Notes
When I first posted the recipe I didn't put sour cream in the frosting. But honestly, if you are seriously trying to get rid of sour cream, you should throw a couple of tablespoons in with the cream cheese. If I have sour cream in the house, I almost always add a little bit to any cream cheese frosting. It's my secret ingredient.
This is an excellent cake which I plan on making more often. No doubt it will be wonderful with well-drained pineapple and maybe some golden raisins.
Recipe
Sour Cream Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour (330 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar (380 grams)
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cups sour cream
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 3 cups shredded carrots
- ⅔ cup nuts and/or raisins if desired
Frosting
- 2 packs cream cheese (450 grams)
- 1 stick butter, softened (114 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste
- 2 ⅓ cups powdered sugar plus more as needed (280 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (8-inch) round cake pans or grease the bottom of a 9x13 inch metal pan.
- Thoroughly mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- In large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and oil until just until creamy. Add sour cream and vanilla and beat until blended. With a heavy duty scraper, stir in the flour, mixture, then stir in the carrots. Stir in nuts and/or raisins if using.
- Pour the batter evenly into the pan (or pans) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in the pans (or pan) for 10 minutes. Invert and let cool completely, or if making a 9x13 cake, just let it cool completely and frost the top.
- To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the sugar and vanilla and continue beating until creamy. Add more sugar if desired.
Anna says
T, Ateco open star.
Kim, happy early birthday! Hope you have a good carrot cake. I think you should test out multiple cakes in the next couple of weeks.
Megan, Chuy's! They did everything right -- good prices, everything was perfectly cooked, great service and generous portions. They know what they're doing ;).
megan says
Which Mexican restaurant did the catering? I would love to know, since we are ALL about the Mexican food here.
And Sabrina thinks sour cream is one of the 4 food groups!
kim fluck says
Good timing. My birthday is in a few weeks. I think I will make this just for me!
T. Martin says
I like how you piped on the frosting. What tip did you use? My favorite cream cheese frosting is whipped and might be too soft to achieve this look but worth a try.