• Preheat your oven to 350 F. If you're using a convection oven, adjust it down just a little bit -- mine takes about a 10-degree decrease to keep the bake times steady.
• Butter your chosen cake pan(s), then dust with a light coating of flour and shake the excess out.
• Combine all the dry ingredients except the sugar (that means, the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices), whisking until everything's evenly distributed.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle (or in a big bowl with a hand mixer ... or if you're one of those tough as nails people, you can do it with a whisk by hand -- you do you!), beat the eggs until they're smooth.
• Then beat in the sugar, oil, and vanilla until it's all nice and thick and even and smooth. (It'll come together a little smoother if you use superfine sugar and if your eggs are room temperature, but the cake will be just as good if you just toss it together with what you have.)
• Stir the dry ingredient mixture into the wet mixture (on the lowest speed with the paddle of your stand mixer, or with a wooden spoon or spatula if you used a hand mixer earlier) until just combined ... the point is to NOT overwork the flour -- this will keep your cake super tender.
• Stir in the carrots and pecans if you're adding them, then distribute the batter evenly among your cake pans.
• Bake until a tester comes out clean and the edges start pulling away ... this'll be *super* different timing depending on your pan(s) and your oven, so base it on the tester, not the timer. A 9x13 will probably take about 40 minutes, two 8-inch rounds might be 30 or so, and cupcakes? Start testing them at about 18 minutes....

Cream Cheese Frosting

• This one is really really hard ... Beat everything together. That's it. That's all there is to it. You *can't* screw it up, I promise.
• But here's the big trick..... do NOT frost the cake until it's cooled. Like, really really room temp or cooler cool. You've watched the British Baking Show, right? You know how they get all panicky that their cakes don't have time enough to cool before they decorate them? Yeah, that's real. The frosting will melt into a drippy gooey mess if you do it too soon. So be patient. For the love of all that is birthday joy, be patient. 😊