Carrot Cake:

• Pre-heat oven to 350F (conventional, no fan) and line 3 8" cake pans with parchment paper and spray
• Grate the carrots if you haven't already. Place the chopped walnuts in the oven for 7 minutes in a baking sheet to toast them if you haven't already
• Add the flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom to a large bowl. Whisk together all the ingredients until combined and no lumps remain
• In a separate bowl, add the oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk for 1-2 minutes until very smooth
• Add the wet ingredients into the dry, and use a hand whisk to mix everything together. This will be quite a thick batter, don't worry and do your best to combine the ingredients without over-mixing until just combined
• Remove the whisk from the bowl, and add the carrots, toasted walnuts, shredded coconut and crushed pineapple to the batter. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold until all the ingredients are combined. The moisture from the carrots will make the batter more runny
• Divide the batter evenly between the 3 8" cake pans
• Bake for 25-27 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out with light, moist crumbs (no wet batter). Remove from the oven
• Let the cakes cool down in the pans for 15 minutes. Then carefully take them out, wrap them in cling wrap, and chill in the fridge for 1 hour

Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

• Add the butter to a saucepan and cook and stir over medium-low heat until it melts and turns brown in color. This can take a few minutes. Make sure you don't burn the butter; stop cooking as soon as you see brown specks on the bottom and a nutty aroma develops
• Let the butter cool down until it becomes semi-firm / soft. You can do this at room temperature or in the fridge depending on how much time you have
• Add the room temperature cream cheese, cooled down browned butter, vanilla and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment to whisk on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until the mixture looks smooth. Scrape the bottom and edges of the bowl
• Add the sifted powdered sugar slowly, 1 cup at a time, while whisking on medium speed. Stop whisking once the sugar is dissolved and a fluffy cream cheese frosting is formed
• If the frosting is too soft / runny, refrigerate for a few minutes until it reaches a spreadable consistency

Assembly & decoration:

• Working one cake layer at time, carefully trim off the dome and slather with a generous amount of the cream cheese frosting until all three layers are stacked on top of each other
• Cover the cake with a thin layer of the frosting (crumb coat), spreading it as smoothly as possible. Refrigerate for 15 minutes
• Add the remaining frosting and decorate the cake however you like (see ideas in blog post above)
• Serve & enjoy!

Video Tutorial:

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