I went with buttercream over cream cheese frosting for my carrot cake and got roasted by my whole family

Last Sunday I made a carrot cake from scratch for my mom's birthday. Everyone in my family swears by cream cheese frosting, says it's the only way to go. But I actually prefer buttercream, it's sweeter and holds up better on the cake. So I went with a classic vanilla buttercream and piped it all nice. My aunt took one bite and said 'where's the tang?' My cousin asked if I ran out of cream cheese. I felt like I messed up the whole thing. But honestly the cake itself was moist and spiced right, and the buttercream wasn't bad at all. Has anyone else stuck with a frosting pick that most people hate?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_spencer1d ago

I was definitely in the cream cheese or bust camp for carrot cake until about two years ago. My buddy Mike's wife made one with a brown butter buttercream and it completely changed my mind. The sweetness paired with the warm spices actually works better for me now. I still love cream cheese frosting but buttercream doesnt deserve the hate it gets. Your family was probably just caught off guard since they expected the tang.

abby_martin281d ago

Right, because nothing says "traditional carrot cake" like getting ambushed by dessert that's basically sweet butter on sweet cake.

troykim1d ago

Man, that reminds me of something similar that happened to a buddy of mine. His aunt brought a "carrot cake" to Easter that was actually just carrot muffins with a thick layer of powdered sugar glaze, not even frosting. Half the table was confused, the other half was mad it wasn't cream cheese. Yeah, people get real particular about their carrot cake traditions.