Chocolate Carrot Cake Recipe

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5 from 1 vote

Velvety chocolate combined with the earthy sweetness of carrots creates one very delicious and indulgent cake!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Australian, British, English, New Zealand

Servings: servings

Calories: 456kcal

Author: Libby Hakim

Equipment

2 x 20cm round cake tins
handheld electric or stand mixer

Ingredients

Cake

150 grams butter (5.3 oz)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (40ml)
½ cup caster sugar / superfine sugar (110 grams / 3.9 oz)
⅓ cup brown sugar (65 grams / 2.3 oz)
2 eggs
1 ½ cups grated carrot (2-3 medium carrots)
1 ½ cups SR flour (190 grams / 6.7 oz) (or 1 ½ cups plain / all purpose flour + 3 teaspoons baking powder)
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
¼ cup cocoa powder (25 grams / 0.9 oz)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
⅔ cup milk (165 ml / 5.6 fl oz)

Icing

500 grams cream cheese (17.5 oz)
50 grams butter (50 grams/1.75 oz)
2 cups icing sugar / powdered sugar (300 grams/10.5 oz)
½ cup cocoa powder (100 grams/3.5 oz)
1 tablespoon milk (20ml)

Decorating

1 bunch baby/Dutch carrots (with tops still attached)
50 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 chocolate Easter Bunny (optional, for Easter)

Instructions

Cake

Grease and line cake tins (2 x 20 cm round) with baking paper.
Pre-heat oven to moderate (180 degrees celsius / 355 degrees fahrenheit, fan-forced).
Cream butter and sugars.
Add oil and eggs and beat until combined.
Sift the flour, bicarb soda, cocoa powder and cinnamon together. Add, together with other remaining ingredients, in about 3 batches, stirring (with a wooden spoon or spatula) between each addition until combined.
Pour half of mixture into each tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a metal skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool in tins for 10 minutes before inverting and removing from the tins.
Allow to cool completely before icing.

Icing

Ideally, stand cream cheese and butter at room temperature for half an hour to soften before proceeding.
Beat cream cheese with a handheld electric or stand mixer until it is smooth and creamy (about 1 minute on med-high speed).
Add butter and beat again until combined and smooth.
Sift in icing sugar and cocoa powder and beat on low-med speed until combined.
Add milk and beat again on low-med speed until combined.

Decorating

Smooth out half of the icing evenly on top of one cake. Place second cake on top of icing, to create a sandwich. Smooth out the rest of the icing evenly on top of the second cake.
Using a spatula, dab icing on top of cake to create texture. Sprinkle chocolate around edge of top of cake.
Wash and dry carrots. Cut off green tops about 5-6cm from the top of the carrot. Cut off the carrot tops so you have about 3-4cm of the top of the carrot. Set aside carrot tops for decorating.
With the remaining piece of carrot, cut a 2-3 cm piece from the middle. This will slot into the cream layer of the cake sandwich (see pictures above).
When ready to serve, push carrot tops into the cream around the edge of the cake. Insert the middle piece of the carrot in the cream layer below the carrot top, to create the illusion of a carrot poked into the cake.

Notes

Storing:

It's important to store this cake in the fridge. Covered, it should last up to a few days in the fridge.

You can serve the cake still cold from the fridge or let it sit at room temperature for about half an hour if you prefer the cake at room temperature.

Freezing:

You can also freeze un-iced cake carrot chocolate cake, well wrapped, for up to a few months.

Nutrition:

The nutrition information is an automatically generated estimate and is not guaranteed to be accurate.

Tips:

You can make this cake a bit different by:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake – using grated zucchini in place of grated carrot
Simple Chocolate Carrot Cake – enjoying the cake without icing or halving the icing quantity and leaving off the carrot and chocolate decorations
Nutty Chocolate Carrot Cake – sprinkling the top with chopped walnuts instead of chopped chocolate.

Nutrition