Emily of A Gilt Nutmeg selected this week’s Project Pastry Queen challenge: Tropical Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. And like just about every other cake in The Pastry Queen, it’s a gigantic, impressive, and fabulous dessert.
I absolutely love this carrot cake – it’s my second favorite recipe. It has the unusual addition of macadamia nuts, crushed pineapple, and cream of coconut in the batter and frosting for a tropical twist.
And with all that moisture, it stays fresh for days. And days. We’re actually not so big fans of coconut but the shredded coconut disappears into the cake and the cream of coconut added to the frosting was barely detectable.
I stayed true to the original recipe (which you can find over at Emily’s blog), making half of it, using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, reducing the sugar by 1/3, and using neufchatel for the frosting. And then I dropped the mixer bowl on the kitchen floor and batter went everywhere. Everywhere.
I recommend against doing that. Cleaning carrot cake batter out of kitchen tile grout is actually pretty tough. But I do recommend scooping up the “top layer” of the batter and still getting 6 cupcakes out of the deal!
PPQ desserts just don’t stand a chance in this house 🙂
These cupcakes look absolutely lovely! So scrumptious!
Oh yum. Carrot cake is one of my favorite things about this time of year (always shows up for the Easter table) – I have yet to find a favorite recipe though. I’m excited to try this one. I love the addition of the coconut and macadamia nuts!
Perfect for the upcoming Easter holiday!
I seriously need to learn how to make my whites look so… white. I’m so impressed!
very cute.
and tropical is always on my craving tastebuds.
Oh no! It makes me sad to think of the time spent and all those ingredients on the kitchen floor! I’m glad you were able to save some for cupcakes. They look delicious!
So pretty!!
That sucks you dropped the bowl! I cannot imagine the headache of that!! Cupcakes look great though!
I would have totally scooped the batter up also…and then I may or may NOT have licked the rest off the floor. No comment. 😛
I’m such a sucker for carrot cake…definitely need to try this!
That would make me cry, especially if it involved the loss of carrot cake batter. I might have followed Joanne’s lead and licked it up.
Shawnda…coconut oil instead of vegetable oil–genius!! Can’t wait to try it the next time I make this!
Where is the recipe?
You can find it on Emily’s blog: http://agiltnutmeg.com/2012/03/19/tropical-carrot-cake-with-coconut-cream-cheese-frosting/