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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Made this cake a few times now with one simple tweak which is amazing. Soaking the raisins in orange juice for 40 minutes while you measure out the ingredients then draining and adding to the mix is delicious. Thank you so much for this recipe, everyone I have made it for says it’s the best carrot cake they have ever had!
Hi Jane!
First thing to say; you are brilliant! All the bakes I’ve made from your recipes have been just wonderful!
Second thing; I’m sorry if you have answered this previously but how should I adjust the baking time if I only have one large round cake tin to bake it in?
Thanks for sharing your baking genius with us!!
Lauren xx
Absolutely delicious. Such a lovely recipe. I did an orange cream cheese frosting due to preference. Will definitely be making this again 🥰
Hi, how long do I bake this for if I’m making a 10inch 3 tier cake? Thanks 🙂
What’s the measurements for a 3 tier cake? Many Thanks
Jane could you tell me how much buttercream I’d need for a 3 layer high one of these please? Covered on the outside and with the piping on the top?
Many thanks
I had to comment on this because I decided to enter our local pubs cakes and tarts competition at the weekend last minute and opted to do carrot cake, looked at lots of recipes and decided on this one.
I used the frosting recipe also instead of the buttercream and I only went and won the competition against a lot of affid bakers.
I got so many comments about this carrot cake and how good it was… I didn’t get to try it as everyone else ate it, but I made another today and honestly it’s the best Carrot cake I’ve ever had (and made).
Hi I would like to do a four layer version of this, what would the measurements cooking time and temp be?
Hi jane, could I make this into a four layer by using two 8 inch tins? If so what would the quantity be and the baking time/temp
If making a two layer 6 inch cake, I guess I’d use 2/3 of the recipe, but what about baking times/temp please?
The best carrot cake ever !! Easy to make and tastes amazing , everything that Jane bakes seems to taste amazing, the website and books are amazing
Thanks Jane, I love all your recipes that I have tried and they never go wrong.
This is by far the best carrot cake recipe that I have attempted and definitely a keeper!!
I didn’t use sunflower oil, I used extra virgin olive oil instead…despite worrying about the initial smell (kind of bitter) it came out wonderful!!
I also used cream cheese frosting instead of butter icing…it was delicious and my family loved it 🙂
What quantities of cream cheese and icing sugar did you use for your cream cheese frosting?
Thank you!
Made this for the 1st time for a work colleague it went in a day ! I changed the buttercream from vanilla extract to orange extract and orange juice instead of boiling water and worked really well. My daughter now wants one this weekend 😁
Made this today as the first time I’ve made carrot cake. Came out amazingly, absolutely delicious!
I made this with dark sugar and white , added 50 grams extra of carrots , and maybe 15 mls of oil extra, it turn out the best one I’ve made so far ,it’s more moist and very light!