Mango-Carrot Cake

I stole this recipe (literally) out of my mother-in-law's Better Homes and Gardens and thought it would be nice to make for everyone at the lake this past weekend. I'm personally not a big fan of mango, but my husband's family is and I assumed the carrot taste would hide it anyways...I was wrong. Mainly because a certain someone can't read directions and dumped double the amount of mango juice in. Fail. I also did one other thing wrong, which explains the odd texture of the cake, but I refuse to admit to it at this point! Everyone else seemed to enjoy it though so I thought I would share it on here. Sadly I have no pictures of the actual cake (fail, again).


Ingredients for Cake:

• 2 cups all purpose flower
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup mango juice (I used Naked Mango juice)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups finely shredded carrots
• 1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for Icing:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar

**Set aside an additional 1/2 cup mango juice for glaze

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 8 x 1/2" round cake pans; set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and nutmeg; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter on medium-high for 30 seconds. Gradually add granulated sugar; beat until combined. Beat 2 minutes more then add eggs, one at a time. Alternately add flour mixture from step 1 and the 3/4 cup mango juice until well combined. Stir in shredded carrot and pour into prepared pans.
3. Bake 25-30 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.
4. Place additional 1/2 cup of mango juice in saucepan and boil gently until it's reduced to 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and cool.
5. For icing: Beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add in vanilla and then gradually beat in 4 cups of powdered sugar.
6. Frost top of one layer, add second layer, then frost entire cake. Drizzle with reduced mango juice from step 4. 
7. Makes 12 servings- ~500 calories/slice