Easy Carrot Cake (No Fail) with Cream Cheese Frosting
Soft, moist two-layer carrot cake flavored with orange zest, warm spices, walnuts, and mixed dried fruit, finished with cream cheese frosting.
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- •Carrotsfresh; coarsely grated
- •1 Orange zestzest of a small orange
- •Sunflower oilor vegetable oil
- •4 Eggslarge; room temperature
- •Vanilla extract
- •Plain yogurt
- •Self-raising flourif using plain/all-purpose flour, increase baking powder (see notes)
- •1 teaspoon Baking powderif using plain/all-purpose flour: use total 3 teaspoons baking powder
- •Salt
- •1 1/2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- •1/2 teaspoon Ground nutmegor about 1/3 whole nutmeg, freshly grated
- •Light muscovado sugaror caster sugar
- •Walnutshalf slightly crushed for batter; reserve about 50 g for decorating
- •Mixed dried fruitor sultanas or raisins
- •Icing sugarpowdered sugar; for frosting
- •Unsalted buttersoftened; for frosting
- •Cream cheeseplain; for frosting
- •8 Candy carrots(optional)for decoration
- •Carrot(optional)finely grated; optional decoration
- •Ground cinnamon(optional)optional dusting
- •Ground nutmeg(optional)optional dusting
- 1
Coarsely grate fresh carrots using the large holes of a box grater. Zest a small orange and set aside.
5 min
- 2
Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F / gas mark 4). Line two deep cake tins with parchment paper on the sides and bottom.
5 min
- 3
Mix wet ingredients: combine sunflower (or vegetable) oil, 4 large room-temperature eggs, vanilla extract, and plain yogurt. Whisk until light and airy.
4 min
- 4
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl: self-raising flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg. Add light muscovado sugar (or caster sugar) and mix well, breaking up any lumps.
5 min
- 5
Make a well in the dry mix. Pour in the wet mixture, then add orange zest and grated carrots. Gently fold with a spatula until no pockets of flour remain.
4 min
- 6
Fold in half the walnuts (slightly crushed) and the mixed dried fruit (or sultanas/raisins). Fold gently until combined. Rest batter for 5 minutes.
6 min
- 7
Divide batter evenly between the two prepared tins. Bake at 180°C for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean (if not, bake 5 minutes more and re-test).
45 min
- 8
Cool cakes on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before removing from tins. Remove side paper; keep base paper on until ready to assemble.
15 min
- 9
Make cream cheese frosting: mix icing sugar and softened unsalted butter with a spatula, then whisk until light and creamy (about 2 minutes). Add cream cheese in two additions, mixing until smooth. Chill frosting for 10 minutes.
15 min
- 10
Assemble: level the less attractive cake and place it on a stand. Spread half the frosting on top, keeping it slightly shy of the edges. Add the second cake layer and gently press down. Frost the top and texture with a spatula (stipple effect).
10 min
- 11
Decorate: using reserved walnuts (about 50 g), place 8 whole walnuts around the edge and optionally add 8 candy carrots. Crush remaining walnuts and sprinkle over. Optionally grate a little carrot on top and dust with cinnamon and nutmeg.
5 min
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