Favourite Carrot Cake recipe – Delicious and Easy to Make

Get ready to roll up your sleeves and head to the kitchen for this classic but timeless carrot cake recipe. A succulent moist delight that is guaranteed to be a success with your family and friends and leave their taste buds wanting more.

This recipe requires an 8 or 9 inch (20-23cm) diameter tin provided it has 2 inch-high sides. It is just as easy to create a sandwich cake with frosting both on top and between two thinner layers, using two 8 inch tins.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 large Eggs, beaten
• 200g (7oz) carrots, grated (1¾ cups)
• 170g (6 oz) caster sugar (¾ cup)
• 170ml (6 fl.oz) sunflower, corn or soya oil (¾ cup)
• 56g (2oz) finely chopped walnuts (½ cup)
• 280g (10oz) self raising flour (2¼ cups)
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Icing ingredients

• 85g (3 oz) butter softened (¼ cup and 1½ tablespoons)
• 85g (3 oz) cream cheese
• half a teaspoon vanilla essence
• 180g (6oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar (1½ cups)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C or Mark 4)
2. Grease the sides and bottom of the cake pan(s) with butter and a very light sprinkle of flour.
3. Wet ingredients: Mash bananas in a mixing bowl and then use a whisk to add and beat the eggs. Then place the oil, sugar, grated carrots and walnuts into the bowl and mix well.
4. Dry ingredients: In a separate bowl combine the self raising flour, Bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder.
5. Now incorporate the dry mixture into the wet using a spatula until thoroughly blended.
6. Pour the final batter into the greased tin, or divide the mixture between the two tins if you are making a sandwich.
7. Bake for 35 – 55 minutes or until a skewer, toothpick or knife inserted in the centre comes out clean without any batter clinging to it.
8. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before turning the cake(s) out on to the rack to cool further.

Frosting

• Beat all the ingredients together until very light and creamy. You can use a fork to combine the butter (softened at room temperature) with the cheese and vanilla essence and then incorporate the icing.
• Ensure the cake has had time to cool before spreading the icing. Use a spatula or palette knife to swirl the icing on top (and between the layers if you are making a sandwich) for an appealing presentation

Tips to make the carrot cake recipe healthier

• Substitute half the self raising flour with whole wheat flour. Otherwise an alternative is King Arthur cake flour blend, which is unbleached and unbromated.
• Sucanat (unrefined dehydrated cane juice sugar) and Xylitol are relatively healthier alternatives to refined sugar.
• Reducing the oil to 5 fl.oz still results in a delicious cake although any less might affect how moist it is.
• The icing ingredients have been scaled up to yield a generous amount for those wishing to create a sandwich. So you can definitely halve or even quarter the amount of each ingredient for the frosting. This will effectively cut the fat and calorie content.
• Although full fat ‘Philadelphia’ works best, feel free to use a low fat cream cheese.
• If you choose to use chocolate toppings opt for the plain dark variety containing a minimum of 70% or more cocoa solids in view of their proven health benefits. Ordinary chocolate is higher in fat and sugar and lower in cocoa solids, which incidentally is also why it doesn’t melt as well if used in baking.

Bonus carrot cake recipe tips

• Cup measurements given are meant as a rough guide only. Variations do exist depending on the type of flour and sugar you use, evident in the differing values quoted by the online measurement conversion charts.
• Keeping the wet and dry ingredients separate until they are mixed together and using eggs at room temperature rather than straight from the fridge makes for better cake batter.
• Too much baking powder can cause the cake to over rise and collapse in the middle while too little results in a more dense flat cake.
• Caster/Castor sugar is used more commonly than granulated sugar for cake and biscuit mixtures owing to its finer texture. It is sold as ‘superfine’ sugar in the USA.
• The molasses in brown baking sugar adds depth to the flavour of baked goods and can thus be used in this recipe.
• Flour is susceptible to light and moisture and should thus be stored in an airtight container or plastic bag with a clip in a cool dark place. Flours have a relatively long but not infinite shelf life, so keep an eye on the use-by date or keep them in the fridge for better storage. It is worth checking on the packet whether you can freeze the flour for those that you use less often.
• Vanilla essence in the UK (Langdales) is the same as imitation vanilla extract. In other countries however vanilla essence can mean a highly concentrated form of vanilla extract, making it the stronger of the two. In some cases the essence can be almost double the strength of extract, necessitating that you use twice the amount of extract.
• Ovens vary considerably in their efficiency. For fan ovens you can set the temperature dial 10-20 degrees lower than indicated in the recipe or else start checking earlier to see if it is done
• If the icing consistency turns out to be less than perfect then decorating the top with chocolate sprinkles or nuts hides this very well.

Tips to give the carrot cake recipe a creative twist

• Decoration: Chocolate sprinkles, morsels or chopped nuts make for a great topping especially whole pecans or walnuts
• Dried fruits such as raisins or sultanas can be used either as the basis for cakes or to add interest, flavor and moisture. You can use them straight from the pack or soak them in fruit juice (or alcohol) to add a greater depth of flavor and succulence.
• Ground almonds, desiccated coconut, lemon or orange zest, are just some options to add an interesting variation and can also be incorporated in the topping to bring the flavours together. A tropical twist would involve using crushed pineapples, which many carrot cake recipes in fact use.

You can freeze the unfrosted cake for up to three months although usually there isn’t any cake left to freeze. If you are British you know that this cake will go down nicely with PG tips or Tetley’s, so get brewing and enjoy…