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 really need your help…..I always use your recipes for everything as they are amazing. My friend has asked me to do a two tier cake and wants carrot cake as the top 6 inch 4 layer cake…..would it even be possible to scale this recipe into that requirement and also I have two 6 inch deeper tins that I then split the sponges. It’s all so confusing! Xx
Theoretically, you could just bake this recipe into the two tins, as that will make them deep enough to cut into (if that makes sense), but bake for longer!
I will be giving this ago as need a deeper 6 inch cake. Any idea how long to bake 2 deeper 6 inch sponges ?
Thanks x
I’m afraid I haven’t baked these in 6″ tins before! Sorry!
Oh my, I made this yesterday as a birthday cake and it was delicious, my kitchen smelt amazing, so easy to make. I made an orange curd and mixed that into the buttercream for added flavour – it was all delicious.
hi jane
this cake is so good, I want to make it again but maybe with some cinnamon buttercream, like the one in your apple crumble cake, do you think that would work or be overkill? xx
Yes that would be good!
Hi Jane, is it possible to switch out the flour for gluten free flour to make this recipe suitable for those who need to ear gluten-free? I know you have another recipe for a gluten-free carrot cake but I like the sound of this one better with the nuts and the icing! Thanks x
I made this and it was amazing! Can I use this recipe for cupcakes or will it make too many? Also can I pipe the cream cheese frosting? Thank you xx
It would make quite a few – have a look at my carrot cake cupcakes. And you can, as long as you don’t make it too runny!
Hi Jane, could I use flaxseed to replace the eggs in this? Thank you x
I haven’t tried that personally with this one, but it should work absolutely fine! x
Would I just do 1 table spoon to 3 of water for each egg?x
Yes! x
Hi jane, can i leave out the mixed spice or substitute it with something as i can’t have nutmeg and mixed spice contains it, thank you
You could just leave it out! x
Hi Jane – does vegetable oil work instead of sunflower oil?
Thanks,
Stella
Would you use 5 medium eggs instead of 4 large?
Yes x
How many medium eggs would you use for this recipe?
Hi Jane, I love this recipe and have decided to do it as the base layer for my three teir wedding cake. You’re recipes have convinced me I’m a professional baker! Can you tell me how you would alter the recipe for 12 inch cake tins please? I have 2 tins but they’re quite deep. Thanks so much!
Awh that’s amazing! Technically for the same depth of cake, you need to use 2.3x the original recipe. I will say though, the cake will be extremely soft so might not be the best if covering in any way such as with fondant, and I would also recommend baking at 140C Fan and for a much longer time to keep it moist and help it bake flat!
Thanks for getting back to me! Is there a recipe you would recommend as the bottom layer? I have cake rods if that helps?
Don’t get me wrong you can definitely still try it, but it would need VERY good dowelling haha!
Made this cake for mother’s day and my family will not stop talking about it! Thank you for the amazing recipe, you’ve given hope to a once useless baker!
Hey Jane I only currently have dark brown or normal sugar what one do you suggest. Love your website 😍
Ah thank you! Do you mean granulated or caster for the normal sugar? I would use either caster sugar or dark brown!
Hi Jane,
Can you make the cake in advance & wrap in cling film like the maderia?. Then fill it with buttercream when ready. I usually do this 2 days in advance.
Carrot cake is very very different to madeira, and is usually quite hard to wrap because of the moisture content. If I’ve ever made a carrot cake in advance, I’ve kept it in the fridge and it’s been fine!