Carrot Cake (from my childhood)

I asked my mom for the recipe she made when I was younger and she found it. Apparently I had a spiral notebook that I wrote recipes in, complete with splatters all over it. Maybe someday that spiral notebook will wind up in my kitchen for my girls to see. So I hope this one is the moist delicious one I remember.

Cake:
3 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
¾ coconut oil
¾ applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar
2 cups finely grated raw carrots
1 8oz can crushed pineapple with juice
1½ cups chopped pecans
3 eggs

Icing:
1 box/16oz powdered sugar
½ cup butter
8oz cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans

Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix together coconut oil, applesauce, and sugar. Add half the sifted dry ingredients, mix well. Beat in carrots, pineapple, vanilla and nuts.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add remainder of dry ingredients and beat until well blended.
Pour batter into greased and floured 10" tube pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350° for about 70 minutes.
OR
Pour into 3 8-9" cake pans sprayed with Baker's Joy, distributing evenly. Bake cakes in a preheated oven at 325° for about 25-30 minutes, rotating the pans in the oven at 15 minutes.

Icing: Let cakes cool completely in the fridge before icing. Allow cream cheese and butter to reach room temperature. Cream together butter and cream cheese then add vanilla. Add in powdered sugar, about a cup and a time. Begin with mixer on low so you don't make a mess. Mix until frosting is smooth and creamy.

To insure your cake layers won't slide around, take a serrated knife and keeping knife flat, saw back and forth to remove the very top layer. Now your cakes will sit evenly.
Place a small bit of frosting on cake plate and spread around the middle so that your cake will have something to "grab on to," to keep it from sliding around.
Place one cake on plate and frost the top completely with an off set spatula. Repeat with other layers.
Frost a thin layer around the outside of the cake and pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to let the frosting firm up.
Add another layer of the frosting to the cake.
Last, grab handfuls of chopped pecans and stick them to the outside edge of the cake.