Carrot Cake!
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Delicious and moist carrot cake, decorated with a lovely light vanilla buttercream and nuts!
Carrot cake
I love carrot cake. When I was little, I despised it because who on earth would want vegetables in a cake?! Little me was obviously wrong as it is DELICIOUS.
I posted my recipe for my carrot & walnut cupcakes a while ago and they’ve been a massive hit – they’re a big reader favourite as they’re so light and flavoursome and yumyumyum.
Recipe
I love this recipe as it has delicious spices from the flavours of mixed spice, cinnamon and ginger – I love this combination because it suits the light moistness of the carrot cake so well, but doesn’t over power it.
I was asked on my Facebook page for a whole carrot cake recipe as sometimes people don’t like transferring a cupcake recipe to a cake as they don’t know the baking times, or how much it’ll actually make – this led me to this beauty.
Buttercream Frosting
I decorate mine with either cream cheese frosting or vanilla buttercream – as this one was made as a request from my friend, we went with the buttercream! The vanilla from the buttercream gives it a delightful sweetness that I think is a cakey marriage made in heaven!
You can obviously use cream cheese frosting, I like to switch it up now and again. My carrot loaf cake has a cream cheese frosting and it is DELICIOUS! I quite like that cream cheese frosting doesn’t necessarily go with every cake so when you do have it, its not boring and always tastes amazing!
Decoration
I decorated my carrot cake with some small carrot toppers and a nice sprinkles of walnuts! You can of course leave the nuts off if you would prefer but I personally love the texture the walnuts give a carrot cake.
As with every bake, the decoration is optional and can be left if preferred or even scaled up a notch! You can add sprinkles instead of/as well as walnuts or you can top with dried fruit instead – the choice is yours! ENJOY!
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 225 ml sunflower oil
- 5 medium eggs
- 275 g light brown sugar
- 300 g grated carrots
- 100 g raisins optional
- Zest of 1 orange
- 275 g self raising flour
- 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100 g walnuts/chopped pecans optional
Buttercream/Decoration
- 250 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 500 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 - 3 tbsp boiling water
- Chopped nuts
- Carrot shapes/sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan
- Grease & line two 8" cake tins with parchment paper
- Pour the sunflower oil and eggs into a large bowl and add the light brown sugar
- Mix lightly and combine
- Add the grated carrots and raisins (if using) and orange zest and fold through to combine
- Add the self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, ginger, and cinnamon and mix again - try not to over mix!
- Once combined, fold through the nuts (if using) and pour into the prepared tins
- Bake the cakes in the oven for 30-35 minutes until cooked through (test with a cake tester, should be clean!)
- Leave to cool in the tin
Buttercream
- Beat the unsalted butter for a couple of minutes so its very smooth in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
- Gradually add the icing sugar until all combined and beat on a high speed for a couple of minutes
- Once mixed, add the vanilla extract and mix again
- Whilst mixing, gradually add the boiling water until you reach your desired consistency
- Beat for another 5 minutes so its super light and fluffy
- Place one of your sponges onto the plate you're using, spread half of the buttercream on top, add the other sponge, and spread the rest of the buttercream on
- Decorate to your desire
- ENJOY!
Notes
- I prefer my carrot cake with just buttercream in-between and on top of the layers, but there is enough buttercream to spread it around the edges slightly too.
- You don't have to include the nuts, or the raisins, but I would recommend using at least one of them as the flavour is so delicious!
- This cake will last 4 days covered at room temperature!
- I used this tin!
- I used this piping bag!
- I used this piping tip!
ENJOY!
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J x
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Hi Jane, do you grate carrots on fine or coatse grater? Last time I did coarse, now thinking wherher to try fine, do you think it’ll make a difference?
I just do it on a standard grating size, so not that fine.
HI can i add cream cheese for the frosting snd how much
Take a look at my red velvet cake post!
Hi Jane
Is it cinnamon n ginger powder to add
Yep!
Will this recipe be ok for stacking and icing? x
It is extremely soft and delicious, but it’s worth a try, but I can’t guarantee it’ll be solid enough? x
Brilliant cake, turned out perfect! I omitted orange zest, and only kept cinnamon to flavour it to suit my children ‘s taste and it was amazing! Too bad I liked it too, the scales won’t be happy 😉
Hi jane. What can I use to substitute sunflower oil? Thanks ?
Can I ask why you want to substitute it? It’s quite an important part of the recipe. ?
Try a different oil? Canola or vegetable?
Hi Jane, would it be possible to use caster sugar in this recipe rather than light brown sugar? thank you
You could, it just might change the flavour/texture ever so slightly!
Thank you I made the carrot cake and it was lovely. Luckily I had some light brown sugar in my cupboard xx
Jane, i am not a fan of round cakes, would it fit in one 2lb loaf tin, Also i have a problem when making carrot cake, it turns out very crumbly Any reason this is happending.
I wouldn’t know as this is designed to be baked in the tins stated. And probably because carrot cake can be really moist or you have overbaked it.
Ok thanks yes i usually leave it in 10 mins more then reguired as i am more afraid of it being under baked.
Looks delicious! I put pineapple puree in my carrot cake!
Ohh that sounds yummy!!
Hi Jane, I love your recipes but I am not able to try them out as I don’t eat eggs. Why don’t you post a couple of recipes without eggs for people like me?
I shall look into it for you!
Awesome… I’m trying it REALLY soon. Thank you!
Awwwh yay! Let me know how it goes! ☺️
Carrot cake is my absolute favourite and your pics make me tummy-rumbling hungry!
Haha thank you! But sorry about that ?
No no, I enjoy food porn!
Hah I like your style ?
Carrot cake is one of my favourites, so this looks absolutely great!
Thanks Jenn! It’s so utterly delicious isn’t it ☺️
I love carrot cake and this one looks amazing.
Thank you so much! ☺️
I use very similar ingredients in my carrot cake, but never thought to add in orange zest. I might give that a try next time!
It’s very yummy! ☺️