The Veggie Polyglotographer: The Absolute Best Carrot Cake Ever

Have you ever had carrot cake before? Maybe. But you haven't had THIS carrot cake.
Warning: You might just die of how good this is.
A little labour intensive, but totally worth it. Do you hear? IT IS TOTALLY, ABSO-FRIGGIN'-LUTELY, UNCONDITIONALLY worth it: chewy, sticky, moist, yet compact. I can't find a better way to explain it. Which is the very reason why you are going to drag your butt to the kitchen and make this right now. I said right now.
Some people are turned off by the idea of carrot cake. *No comment*.
Once they've tried a slice of this overwhelmingly amazing cake they will be thinking to themselves "how, oh, how could I have been so foolish to dismiss this dessert?" I promise.

You can make it into cupcakes if you want, which is what I did yesterday: The baking time was reduced to 20-25 minutes, and it made 30 to 50 cupcakes (depending on how big you want them)
This is a carrot cake which uses olive oil instead of butter (I think that's one of the things that makes this cake so special).

Carrot and Olive Oil Cake

-250 ml (1 cup) olive oil
-500 g (about 2 ½ cups) sugar
-4 eggs, beaten
-250 g (1 ⅔ cups) all-purpose flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-2 tsp baking soda
-2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1 tsp ground cloves
-1 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
-1 tsp sea salt
-125 g ( ½ to 1 cup) coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
-500 g ( a little over 1 pound) carrots, peeled and grated

For the fab frosting:

-125 g unsalted butter, softened
-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
-250 g mascarpone or cream cheese (though mascarpone is best in my opinion)
-250 g icing sugar

Directions:

Grease a 9-inch cake pan or prepare your cupcake tins
Put the olive oil, sugar and eggs in a bowl and stir until well mixed.
Sift the flour and other dry ingrédients into a separate bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the egg and oil mixture. Mix thorougly until blended. Add the nuts and carrots and mix well.

If making a cake: Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (170°C) for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan, then run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen and turn out.

If making cupcakes: Pour the batter into the cupcake tins and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (170°C) for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool.

To make the frosting, mix the softened butter, mascarpone (or cream cheese) and vanilla together until creamy (make sure there are no lumps! But don't overmix or the icing might curdle) Gradually add the icing sugar.
Spread onto the cake/cupcakes and ta-da! Enjoy!