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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Should I peel the carrots before grating them?
Some people don’t, but generally I do!
Hey, I don’t have a mixer only a hand blender. Am I ok doing the frosting by hand or could a use the whisk on my hand blender. Thanks
It might be okay with the whisk attachment, but it should also be fine by hand xx
I only have two 18cm tins. Could you tell me how to reduce the ingredients for the smaller tin please
I’d use about 0.8x the recipe! x
Could inuse orange extract instead of zest and if so how much?
Yes! 1 tsp!
Hi Jane, Could i make this recipe gluten free but substituting the flour for gluten free self raising flour? i’ve spotted your gluten free recipe but i made this recipe the other week and it was beautiful and i love the spices!
Hey! Yes it should do, but the it may be slightly crumbly (may be good to add xantham gum!) x
Hey! Love all your recipes and I’m planning to bake this cake this weekend☺️Would it matter too much if I left the orange out as I don’t have any oranges or extract? Thank you x
Ahh yay! And no that’s absolutely fine – I just like the flavour it brings!
Hello I’m wondering if I can use sponge flour instead of self rising as I only use sponge flour for my cakes, and add a tap on baking powder instead. Will that be ok?
I’ve not tried this cake with sponge flour before personally, but if it’s what you normally do!
Hiya,
I’m going to make your coffee cake for my brother’s birthday, but he loves coffee and walnut so I was wondering if I added chopped walnuts into the cake mix would I need to reduce/add anything else so it’s not too dense or dry? Thank you! : )
Hey! I personally would just add the walnuts in – I don’t think it should dry it out too much! x
Hey! Hope your well! Been trying your recipes and have all been a hit so thank you! I’m going to attempt this tonight just want to ask what’s the difference if I use light brown sugar or castor sugar? I thought I had enough brown sugar but I don’t!
So the flavour is different – but for cakes, you can swap between them! x
Amazing cake. Beginner in making cakes and love a carrot cake.
Baked this and it tasted beautiful.
Thank you for putting the recipe up xx
Baked this and oh my it’s the best carrot cake I have eaten. Better than anything in the shops. Made it with your traditional cream cheese topping instead of butter cream and left out the raisins, I also don’t like cinnamon so left this and the other spices out. But that’s my preference.
My husband couldn’t stop praising it.
Have tried a few of your recipes as they are yummy and very easy to follow.
Will be back for more. Thank you
Ahh yay!! So glad it was a hit!! x
Hey! How could I make this without bicarbonate of soda or any baking powder because I can’t get in the shops they are all sold out!
Hiya – so without any raising agent it will be denser, but otherwise will work!
Hi!
Due to lockdown I have been baking birthday cakes for my family and I have only used your recipe. My family love the cakes. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your blogs and recipes. Il making this carrot cake for my dads birthday.
Thank you!
Ahh thank you so much! And I hope you all love the carrot cake!
Hi! I’m planning on making this for Father’s Day this year, but we’re not keen on cinnamon, will I be able to simply remove this or shall I replace it with something else? Thank you! 🙂
Hey! You can easily leave it out!! x
Hey hope your well. I love your bakes! What are the measurements if I bake these two layers on a 24cm cake tin? Hope you can get to me ASAP. Many thanks xx
Hey! I would use 1.5x the recipe, so add another half on! The baking time will increase by quite a bit x