The Best Carrot Cake Recipe
A great carrot cake recipe is a must for every baker’s repertoire. This is a great carrot cake, soft because the cake is baked with oil and not butter and finished with a delicious glaze. You can prepare the cake batter by hand or using a stand mixer. Add the eggs, flavourless oil, sugar, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer, then whip all the ingredients together until nice and thick.
If you are making it by hand, whip them well for about ten minutes or until you see that everything is well combined. Your batter should have a lovely thick texture. Mix the flour, cinnamon, and baking powder in a separate bowl. If you are not a fan of cinnamon you can leave it out of this recipe. Mix the dry ingredients then add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until combined.
Lastly, you will add finely grated carrots and raisins or walnuts. Mix everything on low speed until they are combined, then turn off the machine. Butter and line a 9-inch baking tin then pour in your cake batter then bake in 340 degrees Fahrenheit preheated oven until golden brown.
For the cream cheese frosting, add room-temperature cream cheese in a stand mixer and beat it just until light and smooth. Add in vanilla extract together with room temperature butter and icing sugar then mix them until they are nice and soft. To make a really good frosting you must use room-temperature butter and cream cheese because they will yield a really good frosting at the end.
Let the cream cheese set in the fridge for a few minutes while the cake cools down once it is out of the oven. To decorate, cut the cake into layers then put a generous amount of the cream cheese in between the layers and spread the frosting to the edge.
Frost the outside of the cake then pipe on squiggly orange cream cheese frosting to make carrots then add some green frosting to look like their tops. Slice the cake and serve. This cake is extremely moist and the flavour gets better the longer it sits.
Ingredients;
- 1 ¾ cup (395g) of sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ¾ cup (395ml) flavorless oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups (395g) all-purpose
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice or cinnamon
- 400g of carrots (finely grated)
- ½ cup (115g) raisins or walnuts (Optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting;
- 4 cups (600g) sifted powdered sugar
- 480g cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g ) butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instruction;
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and oil until thick then add in flour, baking powder, and cinnamon and mix gently.
- Add in the grated carrots and raisins and mix in until well combined.
- Grease and line a 9” tin or a loaf tin then pour the mixture into tins and place in the oven at 340 degrees Fahrenheit (170°C) for 70- 80 minutes.
- Once baked, let the cakes cool down on a wire rack while you prepare the cream frosting.
- To prepare the frosting: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed cream cheese and butter until smooth. Then slowly add in the powdered sugar and vanilla until it is smooth and creamy.
- Slice the cake into layers then generously frost each layer and the outside of the cake. Top with carrot decorations and serve.