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
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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
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Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan
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Grease & line two 8″ cake tins with parchment paper
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Pour the sunflower oil and eggs into a large bowl and add the light brown sugar
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Mix lightly and combine
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Add the grated carrots and raisins (if using) and orange zest and fold through to combine
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Add the self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, ginger, and cinnamon and mix again – try not to over mix!
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Once combined, fold through the nuts (if using) and pour into the prepared tins
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Bake the cakes in the oven for 30-35 minutes until cooked through (test with a cake tester, should be clean!)
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Leave to cool in the tin
Buttercream
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Beat the unsalted butter for a couple of minutes so its very smooth in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
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Gradually add the icing sugar until all combined and beat on a high speed for a couple of minutes
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Once mixed, add the vanilla extract and mix again
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Whilst mixing, gradually add the boiling water until you reach your desired consistency
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Beat for another 5 minutes so its super light and fluffy
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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
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Decorate to your desire
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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!
Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
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