Do you have carrots in your kitchen and looking for a way to make carrot cake? Well, you have come to the right place. With its outstanding flavour, moist crumb and velvety cream cheese frosting, this is truly the best carrot cake you will ever make. Combining the natural sweetness of carrots with a medley of warm spices, this dessert is a favourite of many. And if we talk about me, it is so popular among my friends and family that I stopped asking them what they want to have for dessert whenever there is a gathering because this is the best carrot cake recipe I have ever made.
I love carrot cake, but a store-bought one never satisfies my cravings. Either they are too sweet, too dense or too dry. But this homemade carrot cake recipe sets the bar way too high for any carrot cake lover like me. And trust me, you will never go back to the store-bought one.
This carrot cake, with the combination of velvety cream cheese frosting, takes it to another level by elevating the carrot cake’s taste and flavour. But this cake is so satisfying that you could even leave out the frosting and enjoy it.
Why You Will Love This Recipe?
- Texture: this cake has a unique moist texture that sets it apart from other cakes. The grated carrot provides moisture, ensuring each bite is tender and satisfying.
- Natural sweetness: carrots consist of natural sugar, which intensifies while baking. Unlike other cake that relies on sugar, carrot cake gives more natural and nuanced sweetness.
- Healthier: it is healthier than other cakes because it is made with freshly shredded carrots, unlike other cakes, which do not contain any beneficial vegetables added to them. Another reason why carrot cake is considered healthy is that it has high fibre counts.
- Easy: it is one of the easiest carrot cake recipes out there. The only hassle is shredding the carrots, but it feels worth it after one bite. And I bet you won’t be able to resist eating more.
Important Ingredients Used In The Recipe:
- Carrots: carrots are the star ingredients of the cake. Use organic carrots if you get your hands on them, as they are sweeter than the normal ones. Carrots provide natural sweetness, moisture, and a beautiful orange colour to the cake. Always peel your carrots before grating. Also, make sure to grate them through the small shred of your shredder.
- Eggs: egg serves as a binding agent and gives a rich flavour to the cake.
- Rising agent: baking powder is crucial for making carrot cake, as this ingredient helps the cake to rise.
- Brown sugar: Brown sugar makes the cake slightly more moist and rich. You can use castor sugar if you do not have brown sugar.
- Cinnamon powder: It adds warmth and depth to the cake, enhancing the overall taste.
- Flour: all-purpose flour is being used as a base for this recipe. It gives both structure and stability to the cake.
- Corn flour: it makes the carrot cake a little crumbly, which balances out the cake’s moistness.
- Oil: I have used vegetable oil for this carrot cake recipe here. You can substitute it with olive oil or canola oil.
- Nuts: I have used walnuts in this recipe to give it a nice crunch. You also experiment by adding almonds or pecans, or even raisins.
- Cream Cheese Frosting: this tangy and creamy complements the taste of carrot cake perfectly. For the frosting, cream cheese icing sugar and butter are combined to get the perfect creamy texture.
How To Make Carrot Cake?
For detailed ingredient quantity and instructions, go to the recipe box.
Method For Carrot Cake
Preparation: Ready your carrots by washing and peeling them. Then grate them using a grater. preheat your oven to 180°C or 350°F (OTG mode: upper rod + lower rod + fan). Prepare a 6-inch round baking tin by brushing some oil and lacing a piece of butter paper at the bottom.
Sieve Dry Ingredients: In a bowl, sift the dry ingredient, which is all-purpose flour, corn flour, cinnamon powder, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Sieving the dry ingredients prevents lumps and gets rid of impurities that may be present in the dry ingredients.
Add Wet Ingredients: In the same bowl, add eggs, vanilla essence, and oil, then give it a nice mix so that all the ingredients are properly combined.
Add Carrot: fold in the shredded carrots along with the walnuts and give it a final mix. Make sure that there are no lumps.
Bake: Transfer the batter to the prepared baking tin. Bake it at 180°C or 350°F (OTG mode: lower rod only) for 35-40 minutes or until, if we insert a toothpick in the middle, it comes out clean with a few crumbs sticking to it.
Method For frosting
Creaming: Make the cream cheese frosting by beating unsalted butter and softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Add vanilla essence and beat again until perfectly combined.
Add Icing Sugar: Now add sifted icing sugar in batches and continue beating till all the sugar is mixed.
Method For Assembly
De-mould Cake: After baking, let the cake cool down completely, then carefully de-mould the cake with a bent palette knife by running it around the edge and inverting it onto a cooling rack.
Cut Layers: cut the sponge in half with a cake leveller. Remove any dome from the sponge if you have any.
Frost the Cake: Place one part of the sponge on a cake base and spread cream cheese frosting. Place the second part of the sponge on top of the frosting.
Frost and Garnish: Pipe some frosting on top, then garnish with walnuts and curls made of thinly cut carrots.
Chef’s Tip For The Recipe
Tip For Carrots
Use fresh carrots only. Shred them using the small holes in the shredder.
Tip For Batter Mixing
Refrain from over-mixing the batter, or you may end up with a sunken sponge from the middle. Mix until all the ingredients are combined.
Add Salt
Make sure to add salt. It balances out the rest ingredients and enhances the flavour of the cake.
More Easy Recipes
I’m sure you will also like our other tasty recipes if you like this recipe.
Eggless pineapple upside-down cake
How To Store Carrot Cake?
Place the cake in an air-tight container, then keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week.
You can freeze the cake in an air-tight container for 3-4 weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can pre-shredded carrots to make the cake, but pre-shredded carrots tend to be drier, which may affect the texture of the cake. It is best to use freshly shredded carrots as it provides optimum flavour and moisture to the cake.
Yes, you can substitute oil with butter. But keep in mind that oil contributes to the moistness of the cake, while using butter it may make the cake dense.
Cream cheese frosting is the classic choice for carrot cake. But alternatively, you can use vanilla buttercream or any other frosting that compliments the cake.
Absolutely! You can add nutmeg powder, ginger powder or all spices to enhance the flavour of carrot cake. Make sure that you are adding the right amount, or you may end up with spicy carrot cake.
As carrot is the recipe’s main ingredient, it has an earthy flavour when combined with spices. And it’s not overly sweet, so the creamy and tangy flavour of the cream cheese is the perfect match for the cake.
Yes, you can consider it healthy as it provides vitamin A from carrots.
