First and foremost…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY PIE!!!
I fully expect each and every one of you to sing ‘happy birthday’ to the fiance. At least in your heads 
He will be working for the majority of the day/night which makes me sad but we celebrated his birthday on Saturday.
Anywho, this… was my first homemade carrot cake. I’m used to the cloyingly sweet frosting and the fakey taste of the ones you find at your Randall’s bakery section.
With that being said, it got rave reviews from everyone who tried it, took it to work this morning and its almost gone, the cake is fluffy and moist, the frosting is creamy and delicious. The only thing I have an issue with is that it didn’t taste much like carrot cake to me. It was actually more of a spice cake than a carrot cake. But good none-the-less.
I suck at frosting cakes. Not to mention it was getting late and I had zero patience left. BUT I’ll hopefully be taking some classes this year, so look forward to non-crumby, smooth frosting in the future! 
I know the cream cheese frosting didn’t sit well with some people, so I was hesitant in making it myself, but I couldn’t leave the cake unfrosted, so I took the plunge. And boy am I glad I did. My mother (read: hater of all sweet frostings and overly sweet confections) LOVED the frosting!! She wouldn’t stop sticking her finger in my frosting bowl It did make more than I needed so I sent the leftovers home with her in a bowl to eat at her leisure.
Things I changed:
I added one small can (8oz, I think) drained to the carrots
omitted the orange zest from the frosting
baked in two 9″ cake pans (my layers were very thin as a result)
omitted walnuts
All in all, it was delicious. Simple to throw together and yields a fluffy very moist cake if it isn’t overbaked.
Thank you to Julie of Little Bit of Everything for choosing this recipe and making me take the plunge on this frosting. Head on over to her blog for the recipe and a laugh or two
I l-o-v-e-d this cake too! Yours looks perfect and I think your frosting looks fine, if you want to see ugly look at my cake! I so agree with you on the frosting..some people were not liking it, I loved it. The orange zest was delicious! It sounds like we both had a great experience with this cake. Im glad your mom enjoyed the frosting…
I love the frosting job you did. I don’t know what you’re talking about. It looks wonderful! Looks super nice!
Your frosting job looks pretty good to me. Glad you enjoyed this cake. And Happy Birthday to your other half!
I love pineapple in carrot cake, but didn’t have any on hand to add to this one. Your cake (and your frosting job) looks great!!
Haha I was thinking your frosting looked marvelous before you said you didn’t like the way it looked
Glad this one was a hit. I really enjoyed it too – definitely among my favorite SMS recipes.
Happy Birthday to your fiance!
Your cake came out awesome! And I love the swirl on the frosting on top. Bravo
happy birthday to your finance! And it looks like you know how to spread frosting to me!
Your frosting job turned out much better than mine ever do! Love the addition of the pineapple. It always makes a great addition to carrot cake and seems to help keep it moist to boot. Thanks for baking with us!
ooo, that looks super moist!