Moist Carrot Cake w/ Coconut Milk Magic Frosting & A Giveaway!

The Harried Cook turned ONE yesterday!

As you may know, I started this blog as a way to chronicle my recipes for my little girl as well. She was only sixteen months old when I started and now she recognizes my blog when she sees it, knows which pictures are of "mommy's num-num". She has even started 'helping' around the kitchen - which usually means sticking her hands into the flour or dropping an egg on the floor - and through it all she chants, "I can cook, mommy. I can cook!" She's her mommy's daughter for sure! And who knows - she may even guest post for me on The Harried Cook's next birthday! :)

When I look back over the year, I am truly amazed - at how much I have learned, how many wonderful people I have met, how much I have drooled over all your fabulous food and most of all at how many friends I have made. This year has been a year of highs and lows for me, and I even took a blog break when I had to move house. You have no idea how touched and happy I was to have people emailing me just to check how I was doing and to see if we had found a home yet!

I am grateful for each and every one of you that has visited, commented, emailed, written on my Facebook wall or more recently, pinned one of my pictures. You have brightened so many of my days!

And thank you to my husband for the gorgeous blog anniversary roses! I love them!

For my blog anniversary, I baked the most amazing, moistest carrot cake and paired it with a coconut milk frosting that I came up with for a baking workshop I conducted around Christmas time. This was the exact recipe I taught at the workshop. I promised in my Christmas cookies post that I would share it with you, and here it is!

This cake is so delicious! I have been using this recipe for years and years and it has NEVER failed me. It is a very popular recipe and I know many people who use it and are very happy with it. The seemingly out-of-place pineapple and coconut contribute to make it an amazingly moist cake.

For the frosting recipe, I took inspiration from the Pioneer Woman's best frosting recipe. It is an easy and very fool-proof recipe. One of my friends (who also gave me this beautiful cake platter for my birthday - THANK YOU, Mousie :) :) I love it!!!)), dubbed this frosting 'Magic Frosting' and the name has stuck. I adapted the recipe to include coconut milk and coconut extract and it was just brilliant with the carrot cake. And if a sworn coconut hater can say so, you can take my word for it!

Moist Carrot Cake
Adapted from Food.com
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract (optional)
2 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 cup freshly grated coconut
1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, drained

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C or 350F. Grease and flour cake tin. I used an 8" round pan for this recipe. 

UPDATE: the pan I used was a high sided pan and a reader has brought to my notice that using a regular sized 8" pan causes overflow. So if your pan is regular sized, please divide your batter between two pans. 
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon powder & grated nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, coconut extract and vanilla until light.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the oil mixture. Stir well until combined and smooth.
5. Add the grated carrot, coconut and crushed pineapple and mix well to incorporate.
6. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 45-60 minutes until the center is set and the cake is golden brown. I would check on the cake after 40 minutes of baking.
7. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Coconut Milk Magic Frosting
Adapted from Pioneer Woman's recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
7 1/2 tsp all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract (optional)

Method
1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the coconut milk and flour and whisk until smooth and not lumpy.
2. On low-medium heat, cook while stirring continuously until the mixture is thick and glossy. This will take about 5 minutes.
3. Set aside until completely cooled. It should not be even slightly warm.
4. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and castor sugar with an electric mixer (or in your stand mixer) until light.
5. Add the completely cooled coconut-flour mixture and the extracts.
6. Beat on medium-high speed. Don't panic if the mixture starts to look curdled or 'separated'. Just keep beating on high speed until it comes together. And it will.
7. Keep beating until the mixture has the texture of whipped cream and the sugar has completely dissolved.
8. Use on the same day or store in the fridge for up to three days. (I haven't tried keeping it longer or freezing it, but I don't see why that wouldn't work)

I have never been very good at the artistic stuff. These are supposed to be buttercream roses. I hope they don't look like random swirls.

This a magical combination.


Really. Truly. Take my word for it.

Now for the giveaway!

As a way to say "Thank you!", I would like to share one of my favorite cookbooks with you. If you've been around me long enough, you must know how much I love Alton Brown. So, I would like to giveaway one copy of his book 'I'm just here for the food' as a token of my love and appreciation to the readers of The Harried Cook.

It is only a small gesture, I know, but it is from my heart!

To enter this giveaway, just leave me a comment telling me which is your favorite recipe on my blog. Do you like these Rocky Road Cupcakes or do these Walnut Muffins make you drool? Is your sweet tooth craving some Red Velvet Ice Cream or would you rather have these savory Coconut Sesame Prawns? Just leave a comment and let me know - and that's all you need to do!

For additional entries, you can
- Like my Facebook page
- Pin one of the images of the cake in this post
- Subscribe to The Harried Cook by email or by RSS feed

Don't forget to leave separate comments to let me know you've done each of these things! That's a total of four entries per person. You have till 10 PM (GMT) on March 5th to enter.

This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere. A random winner will be chosen using Random.org and announced on March 6th in an announcement post.

Please note: As you may have already heard, Google Friend Connect is being withdrawn from March 1st. So if you are following me on GFC and would like to continue receiving updates from The Harried Cook, I would recommend subscribing via email or subscribing to my RSS feed. 

Thanks again for all your support! I love you all!

Now go bake this cake, you hear?

Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by me and me alone. Alton Brown does not even know I exist. Sigh!


***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***