Fantastic Carrot Cake

2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/4 t. baking soda
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground allspice
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 T. honey
1 1/4 cup canola oil
Juice of one orange
Zest of one orange, minced
17 oz. peeled grated carrots (aprox. 3 cups)
1 1/2 oz. (aprox 6 pieces) candied ginger cut in thin pieces
1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup golden raisins

  1. Start heating the oven to 325° F.
  2. Butter and flour a 10" Bundt pan.
  3. Sift together first 7 ingredients in a small bowl.
  4. With an electric mixer, beat sugars and eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
  5. On low speed add honey and 1/3 of dry ingredients.
  6. Continuing on low speed, add oil and 1/3 of dry ingredients.
  7. Still on low speed, add orange juice and the remaining dry ingredients.
  8. Fold in remaining items.
  9. Bake approximately one hour.
  10. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Turn onto wire rack to finish cooling.
  11. Frost with cream cheese icing - see below.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. package cream cheese
3 cups confectioners sugar
Zest of one orange - minced

  1. Beat cream cheese and sugar.
  2. Fold in zest.

A couple of notes:

  1. I'm not that fond of most cakes, but I do love carrot cake. When I'm in a restaurant and am in the mood for a desert I often order carrot cake. Because of this, I have tasted lots of great carrot cake. This is the best carrot cake I have ever eaten. I am not a great chef (in fact the Bear hates my cooking) and you will notice that most of my recipes have less than 5 ingredients. But this recipe is worth the trouble.
  2. Regarding candied ginger. I didn't have any idea what candied ginger was when I decided to tackle this recipe. After surfing the net, I discovered that you can buy it in small jars in the spice section of large supermarkets. However, it is quite expensive and I couldn't find it in my local market. A cheaper option is the health food grocery stores. They sell candied ginger in the section of the store where the bulk food bins are located. In my case, I found it at Whole Foods grocery store in the wall of bins with rice, flour, nuts, and carob candy. It looks a little like dried pineapple chunks.
  3. Orange zest is the orange part of the orange. Peel just the orange part off (it's a very thin layer). Try not to take the white layer underneath the orange with it.