Birthdays & Carrot Cake

This past weekend was the birthday of my brother in law and a very sweet friend.  We celebrated by having a combined dinner at our house. We made Chinese steamed dumplings & thai beef salad, and ordered veggie pad se ew and pad thai. Drank wine and had CARROT CAKE. Probably one the best recipes I've tried. The secret? Oil instead of butter keeps it moist. I'd like to try replacing vegetable oil with coconut oil one day.

Found the carrot cake recipe here. Made a few changes.

Carrot Cake
Ingredients

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots

Icing 
8 oz cream cheese
2 sticks of butter
teaspoon vanilla 
pinch of salt
a few squeezes of lemon juice
1 lb confectioners sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

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.

Icing: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, lemon, salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.