carrot cake...by april

I made this carrot cake for my husbands birthday. This will be the recipe we use from now on. We loved it! (I couldn't eat the frosting because of the dairy but it was still delicious with it cut off.) I used apple sauce instead of all the oil called for and cut the sugar in the frosting down and added a little extra carrots to get it healthier.

Ingredients:

4 eggs
3/4 C vegetable oil
1/2 C applesauce
1 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 1/4 C grated carrots (2 lbs.)
1 C chopped walnuts

frosting ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces lowfat cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, sugar,and 2 t vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan. (Be careful not to overmix or the cake will fall a little in the center. A little lumpy is good.)
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and 1 t vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.