Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

Spring=Bunnies, Bunnies=Carrots, Carrots=Cake... See how my mind works?:@) I've wanted to make a Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling for a while now and my attempt last year was a serious kitchen failure. So bad I would have even felt guilty tossing it out to the birds... So this year I tried a different recipe, and had much better results! This is such a pretty cake roll with the bits of orange, I think it would be perfect for Easter dessert.

The recipe as written is a heavily spiced cake (I wanted it lighter for spring and reduced the spices by half) and I added raisins because we love them. My raisins were very small, if yours are a good size you may want to cut them in half so they don't inhibit rolling the cake. I also feel there's plenty of room to cut back a bit on the filling... if you're so inclined:@) Or whip up some Pineapple Cream Cheese Filling HERE and use that for something different.

This received a big thumbs-up (because mouths were full) at dinner on Sunday!

Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling-from Crazy for Crust
3 eggs
2/3 C sugar
2 Tblsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt-I just added a sprinkle
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger-I used 1/2 tsp
1/4 tsp nutmeg-I just grated some into the bowl
2 tsp cinnamon-I used 1 tsp
3/4 C flour
2 C shredded carrots
handful of raisins-optional

Filling:
6 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz butter, softened
2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar for dusting top-optional

1. Beat eggs well, mix in sugar, oil and vanilla.
2. Add dry to wet, mix until blended and stir in the carrots and raisins if using.
3. Spread batter on to a wax paper lined jelly roll pan (10x15"), or use Dorothy's or your favorite way to bake a jelly roll type cake.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for approx 10 minutes.
5. When the cake is no longer wet on top, remove from oven and roll it up. (I just roll it in the wax paper-tutorial HERE, you can click over to Crazy For Crust to see how Dorothy does it).  
6. While the cake is cooling, mix all of the filling ingredients well.
7. Once cool, unroll cake and smear with filling. Roll back up and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Have a happy day:@)

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