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carrot cake with cream cheese icing
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5 from 1 vote

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

The sweetness of carrots, fragrant spices and a healthy layer of cream cheese – this recipe has everything that's wonderful about this irresistible classic. Bookmark this Carrot Cake recipe now!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Australian
Keyword: carrot cake
Servings: 16 servings
Calories: 229kcal

Equipment

  • ring cake tin (21cm) or loaf tin (24 x 13cm)

Ingredients

Carrot Cake

  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar)
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon mixed spice
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
  • 1 ½ cups grated carrots (about 2-3 small/med carrots)
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup canned crushed pineapple (227 grams), drained
  • 1 ⅓ cups SR flour (or plain/all-purpose flour + 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder)

Cream Cheese Icing

  • 250 grams cream cheese (block not spread)
  • 2 tablespoons butter (60 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup icing sugar (confectioners/powdered sugar)

Decorating

  • orange colouring, a few sprigs of curly leaf parsley and a little extra chopped walnuts (to decorate)

Instructions

Carrot Cake

  • Pre-heat oven to moderate (180 degrees celsius, 355 degrees fahrenheit).
  • Grease the cake tin and line with baking paper.
  • Beat oil, sugar and eggs on high for 5 minutes or until pale and creamy.
  • Add cinnamon, mixed spice, salt and bicarb soda and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds or until combined.
  • Add grated carrot, chopped walnuts and drained crushed pineapple and mix on low speed until combined.
  • Add sifted flour and mix on low speed until combined.
  • Spoon mixture into the cake tin.
  • Bake for 45 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the tin onto a cooling tray.
  • Allow to cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Icing

  • Allow cream cheese and butter to soften out of fridge for at least half an hour.
  • Cut cream cheese and butter into cubes and beat together with the icing sugar and vanilla extract until fluffy.
  • Spread the icing over the cake, keeping a few tablespoons of icing aside to create your "carrot" decorations.

Decorating

  • Colour remaining icing with orange colouring.
  • Using a piping bag and a small plain tip (or a zip lock bag with the tip of one corner cut out), pipe carrot shapes around the top of the cake by moving the nozzle from side to side in a downward direction, making the movements smaller and smaller until you reach an end point (the bottom of the carrot). Place a small piece of parsley in the top of the carrot.
  • You can also pipe small circles around the bottom of the cake and add a parsley sprig in the middle (to resemble carrot tops that are ready to be pulled from the garden bed).
  • Sprinkle some chopped walnuts at the bottom of the carrots to resemble the garden bed.
  • Store in the fridge for up to one week.

Nutrition

Calories: 229kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 40mg | Sodium: 218mg | Potassium: 114mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 2296IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 1mg