Carrot Cake
The sweetness of carrots, fragrant spices and a healthy layer of cream cheese – this recipe has everything that's wonderful about this irresistible classic.
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.
Notes
Storing: Keep Carrot Cake in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freezing: You can freeze this cake – including if you've already iced it with the cream cheese. Just be sure to wrap it well in food wrap. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition: The nutrition information is an automatically generated estimate and is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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