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, I recently made your carrot cake cupcakes for my Granddaughters birthday, which all the family loved your recipe, my daughter would like a carrot cake for her wedding, and I wondered how much I would need to upscale this recipe for a 12inch cake please?
I would make 4 x the amount for a 12 inch (two layers)
Hi Jane, I’ve used your receipe previously and it was absolutely amazing.
I’m making a carrot cake for my neighbour but doesn’t want raisins in it, I know the recipe says can leave them out but advised to have the nuts. Do I need to substitute the raisins with anything else? She loves the cake moist apparently so want to get it spot on! Many thanks 🙂
I’m thinking of making my daughters wedding cake next summer. I tried this recipe as well as some of your others at the weekend as a tester and it was very well received. It’s super yummy and very light. Thank you Jane. Just thinking about quantities now. Do I just double/triple up? X 😊
How would I convert this recipe to a three tier 6 inch cake? 😊
I always use the same quantities but divide into 3×6” tins and they come out perfect 🥰
Hello!
I haven’t made this recipe yet but I’m exited to!
Do I have to use orange in the recipe? I’m not a fan of carrot cake with orange flavour in it. Also, if it is okay to leave it out do I need to replace it with anything for moisture content?
Thank you!
Hiya! You can just leave it out x
Hi Jane,
Need an answer quickly if possible. Is it possible to freeze this decorated with vanilla buttercream a week in advance? Asking as doing it as part of a wedding cake.
Thanks!
Hi Jane, how tall will this cake turn out? Thank you xx
I accidentally us d plain flour instead. Cake looks fine. Will this be ok ?????
Thanks
It’s hard to tell – it may just be more dense than normal but still taste nice!
Hi, please can someone help me to convert this recipe to a 3 layer 10 inch please? Thank you so much
Hi Jane, I made this recipe and it’s gorgeous, but the nuts inside the cake burned. Baked for about 35-40 mins and the cake wasn’t burnt at all. Any ideas why this happened please? X
Hi Jane, can I use coconut oil instead of sunflower oil please?
Hiya! This should be fine, enjoy! x
Could I do half courgette and half carrot with this recipe.
Hi Jane,
Can I use a stand mixer for this cake or would you recommend using a hand mixer?
Thanks x
Hiya! just use a bowl and a spoon, apart from the frosting, for which you can use anything! Hope this helps! x
Hello!
I’m about to try this recipe for my husband’s birthday however I can’t find sunflower oil anywhere! (There seems to be a shortage?!)
Can I use vegetable oil instead?
Hiya! Yes absolutely, this should be fine! Enjoy! x
I don’t care for carrot cake, however I made this for my mum as she loves it, and my gosh, this is amazing. One of my favourite cakes ever, I couldn’t stop eating it!!!