Cream Cheese Frosted Mango Carrot Cake

This twist-on-a-classic cake has all the makings for a recipe you’ll fall in love with. Classic carrot cake meets juicy ripe mangos.

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for carrot cake. So much so, that if it happened to be available to me at a restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, friends house, etc, etc, i would always chose it. My mama spent years perfecting her carrot cake recipe. The original recipe she used was a Woman’s Day recipe that i remember her clipping from the magazine and putting in her recipe tin, only to be pulled out when she wanted to share the recipe with a friend, because obviously, she had it memorized. I wanted to leave my mom’s carrot cake recipe alone because there’s something sacred about it to me. It smells of my home and my mom’s warmth and the memories i had with her in the kitchen growing up. It’s almost untouchable, but what i can do to pay homage to my mama is create my own take on it and pass both down to my children and all of you.

Give this recipe a try. Leave your feedback and some love. If you do make this recipe and post it to social media, tag it with the hashtag #HHrecipes.

Total Time: 1 h 20 m

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:

For the Cake

1. 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

2. 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3. 2 tsp baking power

4. 2 tsp ground cinnamon

5. 1 tsp baking soda

6. 3/4 cup oil

7. 1/2 cupcoconut milk

8. 4 large eggs

9. 2 cups shredded carrot

10. 1 cup of very juicy, ripe mangos (i use thawed, frozen mangos)

11. 3/4 cup cupped walnuts

For the Frosting

1. 1 brick of unsoftened cream cheese

2. 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3. 1 1/2 tsp freshly grated grapefruit

4. 1 tbs grapefruit juice

5. 3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with cooking spray.

2. Cake: Put all of your ingredients together in a bowl ( except for the flour, eggs, mango, carrots and walnuts) and mix well. Add your flour and eggs and beat until you have a thick cake-like batter. Add your diced mangos, shredded carrots and walnuts. Place in cake pans.

3. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until done. You’ll know it’s done when you can insert a wooden toothpick into the center and it comes out clean. If there is residue remaining on the toothpick when you pull it out, the cake needs more time in the oven.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

5. Frosting: While the cake is thoroughly cooling, prepare the frosting by mixing together the first 4 ingredients until they are thick and blended. The best and easiest way to do this is with a hand blender or a standalone mixer. Add the confectioners sugar when the rest of the ingredients have been combined. Allow to sit in the fridge for 10 minutes before frosting the cake and enjoying!