The Search for the Perfect Carrot Cake

Every November, I bake a carrot cake for my boyfriend's birthday. It's his favorite cake (and I might say it's mine too), and I swear he starts looking forward to it in August. I usually use the same recipe that I found via Google. Sophisticated, I know, but he's never complained. This year, though, I was thinking about looking around at different recipes to see if I can really take it up a notch. Here's a few that I found on Pinterest that are the main contenders so far:

1. This one has cinnamon cream cheese icing; perfect for fall. Plus, isn't it just so pretty?

2. This one has a buttermilk glaze added on top of the cake and under the frosting. Hmm. 

3. This one looks really good too, and easy; although I always leave out the addition of things like raisins and nuts and pineapple. We both prefer our carrot cake plain and simple.

4. This might be a good idea, in addition to the cake rather than instead of it, if I have leftover batter/icing: Carrot cake whoopie pies! 

5. And finally, I couldn't resist this idea even though I probably won't go for it: Carrot cake in a jar.

Also, I want to play around with the icing this year to make it look super pretty (more for my benefit than his, I'll admit). 

This rose-icing tutorial is gorgeous--maybe too gorgeous for a dude's birthday cake? Sigh. 

More likely though, I'll probably just do some simple texturing with a spoon, like this:

After all, I'm pretty sure he cares more about how it tastes than how it looks.