Orange Carrot Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Recipe Created By: Jackie Guzman

This Orange Carrot Cake has a delicious twist to the classic version. Moist, tender, and airy, there's a special boost of flavor and goodness from Ceylon Cinnamon Spice and orange.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 cup milk 
• 1 1/2 cups (12 oz) carrots 
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda 
• 2 tsp baking powder 
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Kiva Ceylon cinnamon powder
• 4 tsp Kiva stevia
• 1/2 cup oil
• 4 eggs 
• Zest of 1 orange 

For the chocolate frosting:

• 1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) butter, room temperature 
• 3/4 cups (67g) Kiva cacao powder, sifted
• 4 tsp Kiva stevia
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 2 tbsp heavy cream 
• 1/4 cup orange marmalade
• 1 orange, sliced

Directions:

1. First, prep your carrots. Peel about 12 oz of carrots and set them to cook in a pot of boiling water. Will take about 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the carrots. Carrots are cooked when you can easily insert a fork. Once cooked, drain the carrots and add to a blender with the 1 cup of milk. Blend together until smooth.
2. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour three 8-inch cake pans.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and stevia. 
4. In a large bowl, whisk the wet ingredients: oil, eggs, orange zest, and carrot puree. Fold the dry ingredients in the wet ingredients. Distribute among the 3 cake pans. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. 
5. Make the frosting: Whip butter until light and fluffy. Add cacao powder and stevia, and whip for about a minute. Add hot water, which will help to better incorporate the cacao powder and whip until smooth. Finally, add heavy cream and whip until light and fluffy again, about 2 minutes. 
6. To assemble cake, add about a third of the chocolate frosting on top of the first layer of carrot cake. Add 2 tablespoons of the orange marmalade and spread on top. Repeat for the second layer of cake. Add the last layer of cake, top with the rest of the chocolate frosting, and decorate with orange slices.