14 K Cake (Carrot Cake)

A carrot cake rich in carrots, crushed pineapple, shredded coconut, chopped pecans all wrapped in a divine cream cheese frosting.

A 14 K Cake must mean it is worth more than you can imagine.  It certainly means this 14 K Cake is worth its weight in gold. And that is a lot of weight because this carrot cake is very dense and very full.  There are carrots (of course) 4 1/2 cups of grated carrots, there is shredded coconut,  crushed pineapple, and chopped pecans all wrapped together in a layer of cream cheese frosting.  It is rich and delicious.  And it is my favorite cake!

Most of the time when you refer to 14 K or 14 karats we are talking about gold and gold pieces which makes me think of wedding and engagement rings.  Maybe I am reminded of rings because my 34 anniversary is coming up in 2 months and I am being a little nostalgic. Have I ever shared with you my “love” story?  Probably not, you can read on or skip right to the recipe – but here is my version of our story.

I met Craig in my 3rd year of college.  It really was inevitable for us to met because his sister was my roommate and his girlfriend was too (yup he had a girlfriend.), to be fair I had a boyfriend when we met also.  My boyfriend was serving a 2 year mission for my church, Craig and his girlfriend were engaged to be married that next summer. I believe we met my first day moving into my apartment, his sister was cutting his hair.  Craig was easy to talk to and we were laughing already together.  He was always over to the apartment to see his sister and his girlfriend.  I was pretty much a homebody and did most of my school studying at home too.

A few weeks later he broke up with his girlfriend, and honestly I do remembering thinking how horrible.  Shortly after that was the big “homecoming game” and somehow Craig and I ended up going to it together.  I now call that my first date but really we were just hanging out, he even had a date to the dance that night with another young lady and I went with him to pick up the flowers for her.  But while we were at the football game we started to play a game of make believe.  Our story was we were already married and had two children, a boy and a girl.  We talked about the children, their needs and wants, etc.  It was really silly and but it felt really comfortable.

A week or so later, Craig’s parents came into town.  I met them as the good roommate of his sister not for any other reason.  At some point, Craig’s dad said “you should date her”, Craig’s response was “she has a missionary”, Craig’s dad response “that doesn’t matter, you should date her”.  A very wise boy listening to his father’s advice – we started to hang out at activities together, we went on walks together (me for the exercise and Craig to “protect me” as I was walking after dark.)  I even invited him and his sister to my home for Thanksgiving but this really didn’t mean anything to me because I had been inviting friends home for years.  But on those walks we talked and talked and talked until we were really talking about a real family, our real family that we wanted to make together.

So I went home for Christmas and a day or so after Christmas I flew to California to spend the rest of the holiday with Craig and his family.  Somewhere along that time he decided to ask me to marry him and somewhere along that time I wrote a “Dear John” letter to my missionary.  I enjoyed my time in California for Christmas break, it was strange to me to spend so much time outside in December.  You have to remember this was sunny southern California and I was from snowy Idaho – so snowy that year the plane was delayed all day because of the snow and ice before I could fly out.

One evening, Craig and I were watching TV with his family in the living room.  I was leaning against his chest and he was playing with my fingers and his heart was beating quickly.  Well, low and behold, while he was playing with my fingers, he slipped a ring onto my fingers.  A moment later I looked down and my heart skipped a beat, I saw this beautiful ring.  I was thrilled.  We spent a few moments in quiet and then approached his parents and finally called my parents.  We were engaged and we couldn’t have been happier.

And 34 years later we are still happy.  So happy that he eats my 14 K cake because I love it, even if his favorite is German Chocolate, or chocolate, or something else.  We are rich in love, 14 Karats worth!

14 K Cake

Created By: Aimee

Servings 1 -3 layer cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

A carrot cake rich in carrots, crushed pineapple, shredded coconut, chopped pecans all wrapped in a divine cream cheese frosting.

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

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Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 6 eggs
• ▢ 2 1/4 cup smooth applesauce
• ▢ 4 1/2 cups grated carrots
• ▢ 4 1/2 cups flour
• ▢ 3 tsp baking soda
• ▢ 3/4 tsp salt
• ▢ 3 cups sugar
• ▢ 3 tsp cinnamon
• ▢ 3 tsp vanilla
• ▢ 3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
• ▢ 12 oz crushed pineapple (drained)
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 cubes butter (softened to room temperature)
• ▢ 2 - 8 ounce cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
• ▢ 24 ounces powdered sugar
• ▢ 4 tsp vanilla
• ▢ orange and green food coloring

Equipment

• Large Mixing Bowl

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Spray the bottom and sides of 3 9 inch round cake pans
• Line with parchment paper that has been cut round to fit inside the cake pans
• In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, and applesauce with a large spoon
• Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and stir in completely
• Add the carrots, pineapple, coconut, and vanilla; stir/mix in completely
• Add the chopped pecans and mix in
• Divide evenly among the 3 round cake pans
• Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30 minutes
• Lower the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes
• Remove from oven and let cool completely in the pans
• Once cooled, run a butter knife around the outside of the pans and remove cakes from the pans
• Once cooled completely, place 1 layer on a cake plate, frost the top with cream cheese frosting
• Place 2nd cake layer on top of the first and frost top
• Place 3rd layer on top of the 2nd and frost top and sides of the cake with the cream cheese frosting
• Serve

Cream Cheese Frosting

• In a large bowl or mixer put your butter and cream cheese
  
• Whip until smooth
  
• Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, whip until smooth - slowly so powdered sugar doesn't fly everywhere
  
• Save in a small bowl - 2 TBS for coloring green and another 2 TBS for coloring dark orange
  
• Add a little bit of orange food coloring to the rest of the frosting to make a light orange cream cheese frosting
  
• Frost the entire cake with the light orange frosting
  
• Place dark orange frosting in a small ziplock bag, snip off a tiny corner to make "carrots" in the center of cake "zigzag" frosting to make carrots (see picture)
  
• Place green frosting in another small ziplock bag, snip off a tiny corner and add a stem to each carrot
  

Made this recipe?Tag me and share! Mention @LMLDFood or tag #LMLDFood!

Do you love carrot cake, you will love this rich 14 K cake!  It will make you feel rich too perhaps as rich as I do in love.

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