Carrot cake is a classic.
A light and fluffy cake flavoured with shredded carrot and spices topped with tangy cream
cheese frosting.
It’s a favourite of mine and I’m going to share with you my recipe.
Firstly we’re getting started with the carrots.
You’ll need about 2 and half cups of grated carrot which works out to be about 4 small
or 2 large.
Wash and peel the carrots, cut off the ends and shred them using a box grater.
It can be tempting to just buy pre shredded carrots here but please make sure you use
fresh.
The pre done packaged stuff tends to be quite dry but the cake needs all the moisture it
can get from the carrots.
Pre shredded dry carrots ends with a dry cake.
If you would like the full recipe for this carrot cake it will be on my website as well
as the full measurements listed in the description box below.
Make sure to subscribe to my channel and take a look at my other cake recipes.
Place all of the shredded carrots into a medium sized mixing bowl and start to crack in the
4 medium sized free range eggs.
I like to keep my eggs in the fridge so they stay fresher for longer, if you’re the same
just remove them, along with any other ingredients kept in the fridge an hour or so before you’re
baking so they have a chance to come up to room temperature.
Four eggs may seem like a lot but this recipe makes quite a large cake that you can bake
in one large tin or two smaller.
If you want to make a smaller cake the recipe can easily be halved without a problem.
To the carrot and eggs measure out 2 cups of granulated white sugar to sweeten everything
up along with a teaspoon of good quality vanilla for flavour.
Use a wooden spoon to mix the wet ingredients together until well combined.
If you didn’t want to make a cake you can also use this exact same recipe and divide
it into cupcake tins, filling until they are 2/3 full to make carrot cupcakes.
Just top with lemon or cream cheese frosting.
One of the reasons I love making this cake is there is no need to cream together butter
and sugar, meaning it’s so much easier and quicker to make.
Most cakes use butter as their main fat, but this cake uses oil.
Oil makes the cake feel a lot lighter and moist than butter does, but it doesn’t tend
to have as much flavour.
Use a neutral oil like vegetable or canola so the cake doesn’t have an over powering
flavour and add it to the wet ingredients.
Mix well until combined.
Set the wet ingredients to the side while we work on the dry.
In a large bowl sieve together the dry ingredients, the cake flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
If you don’t have cake flour on hand all purpose flour will work just as well.
Cake flour has a lower protein percentage, which basically means your baked goods will
turn out lighter.
If you do a lot of baking I would recommend getting some to keep in your pantry for next
time.
This cake also used baking soda instead of baking powder, make sure not to get the two
confused.
Baking powder contains baking soda as well as an acid but this cake has shredded carrot
which is quite acidic so we just need baking soda as the levelling agent.
Sieve the dry ingredients together before pouring the wet ingredients into the same
bowl.
Use a wooden spoon to fold everything together until you can no longer see any dry flour.
Make sure not to over mix as this develops gluten leading to a drier and tougher cake.
Pour the cake batter into one 8 inch cake tin or divide it between two 7 inch tins like
I have.
Bake in a 170 C or 340 F oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean through
the centre.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
The best icing or frosting for carrot cake I think is cream cheese frosting but lemon
works pretty well also.
This cake is super sweet and the tangyness of the cream cheese cuts right through it.
To make the frosting add room temperature butter to a stand mixer or a large bowl if
you are using a hand mixer.
Mix on hight speed for about 5 minutes until the butter has doubled in volume and is extremely
pale and creamy.
I’ve also got a more in depth tutorial for how to make cream cheese frosting which I
will have linked below.
It has a tendency to turn out too thin or split so if you’ve ever had a problem making
it make sure to take a look at the tutorial.
Add the cream cheese to the butter and mix for about a minute or until well combined.
Scrape the edges of the bowl down with a rubber spatula to get anything stuck to the sides.
Sieve the icing sugar, powdered sugar, or confectioners sugar.
All the same ingredient just different names depending on where you live in the world.
Add the sugar in thirds to the butter and cream cheese, mixing for about a minute on
high speed between additions.
Finally give the bowl another scrape down and mix for a further minute until the frosting
is light and fluffy.
When your cake has completely cooled transfer it to a serving plate or a cake stand.
If you baked the cake in two tins, top the first cake with about a cup of the cream cheese
frosting before adding the second cake.
Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting evenly over the cake, don’t worry about
it looking smooth carrot cake always looks better with a little texture to it.
Leave the cake and frosting to set for a few hours before cutting a slice and enjoying.
Thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed this recipe and I will see you in my next
video.