Name: Carrot Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Whip
Yield: 12–16 servings
Ingredients: Nonstick vegetable oil spray; 1½ cups (120 g) pecans; 2 cups (250 g) bleached all-purpose flour; 2 tsp. baking powder; 3 small carrots (10.5 oz.), scrubbed, trimmed, cut into 1" pieces; 3 large eggs, room temperature; 2 cups (packed; 400 g) light brown sugar; 1 cup vegetable oil; 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon; 2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt; 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract; 1 cup (140 g) finely chopped dried pineapple rings; ¼ cup (45 g) finely chopped crystallized ginger; 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature; 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract; 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt; 2 cups chilled heavy cream; ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated sugar; Ground cinnamon (for dusting)

A square slice of carrot cake with white icing served on a plate next to a rectangular pan with the remaining cake.

Photograph by Joe Lingeman, food styling by Shilpa Uskokovic, prop styling by Marina Bevilacqua

Making carrot cake is all fun and games until you break a sweat and shred a knuckle grating all those carrots. Taking a page from Brazilian bolo de cenoura, this sheet cake blends them right into the batter instead, resulting in a sunset orange treat, softly squidgy from the purée and remarkably easy to make. Chunks of chewy dried pineapple and candied ginger stand in for raisins, and the cream cheese frosting is light and airy, a mousse-like delicacy. Baked in an entirely unfussy 13x9" pan, this is begging to be toted to a spring picnic in the park.

Think of this cake as a lesson in making good choices. Choose slim, tender carrots instead of those massive, gnarly things that are often woody and bitter. Pick sticky, sugar-plumped dried pineapple over the sun-dried, fruit leather version. And if you simply cannot find dried pineapple, opt for golden raisins in an equal quantity.