Phew! The wedding cake was made, transported, and assembled without too much drama. Luckily the wedding dinner was practically right across the street from the house. I was so pleased with how it turned out!
The dramatic fall colors against the simple, bright white frosting were so vivid, so gorgeous!
The top layer of the cake was vanilla cake with blackberry filling. The second layer was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling. The third layer was chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. And the bottom layer was carrot cake with cream cheese filling. All the cakes were moist and yummy but my favorite flavor by far was the carrot cake.
The recipe below makes about 4 2/3 cups of carrot cake batter, without any nuts. I tripled the recipe for each 14″ layer and filled each layer with 12 cups of batter. The 2 cups of batter left over from each cake layer was made into carrot cupcakes. This cake was moist, but the texture was very firm, so it held up really well on the bottom of the cake. LOVE this wedding cake recipe!!
Carrot Cake
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla
2 1/3 cups shredded/grated carrot
1 cup walnuts or toasted pecans, chopped fine, optional
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Butter two 8″ x 2″ round cake pans. Put parchment circles in pans, butter parchment, then flour pans, tapping out excess flour. Set aside.
Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix canola oil, buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add shredded carrot and mix until well blended. Add the dry ingredients, mixing on low and frequently scraping the bowl to make sure the batter is nice and smooth with no lumps, without over mixing. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes before removing cakes to cool completely on wire racks. Using a serrated knife, level the cakes. Double wrap the cake layers in plastic and freeze at least 24 hours.
When you’re ready to frost the cake, remove cake layers from the freezer. Immediately frost tops and sides with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla
5 1/2 to 6 1/4 cups powdered sugar
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add vanilla and 2 cups of the powdered sugar. Continue adding powdered sugar until you reach a spreading consistency. Makes about 4 cups frosting and will frost the tops and sides of two 8- or 9- inch layers.
The decorations at the wedding dinner were so lovely and I’m so glad that the cake added to the loveliness. Yay for a wedding cake success!
Carrot Cake Recipe
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