Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
I like to keep things as simple as possible here on ‘traybakes & more’. So, this Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting fits the bill! You don’t need a mixer, you only need one bowl. OK, so you need a bowl for the frosting as well, but you only need one bowl at a time. Just beat everything together, pour it into your tin and bake. No fancy tin needed – I even used my regular traybake tin for this. Which bakes faster, so you get cake sooner. It’s a win-win situation really.
And it’s delicious (of course). Really light and moist, with a hint of spice and crunch from the walnuts. It’s not the sweetest cake you’ll make, but the cream cheese frosting really helps to balance the flavors. This disappeared very quickly in our house. And Little Miss Traybakes even ate the walnuts! She’s not usually a fan, but apparently walnuts dipped in cream cheese frosting are a big improvement.
If you’re not a fan of walnuts and don’t even want to risk trying them with the cream cheese frosting, then you can either leave them out, or you could add raisins to the mix instead.
I don’t have a lot of baking advice for you for this Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I will say to make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature before you make the frosting. If it’s still on the cold side, it may go a little lumpy on you. You should be able to fix this (if it does happen) by zapping the frosting in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time and then beating well. Just don’t overdo it in the microwave!
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Cake
- 6 fl oz or 175ml vegetable oil (eg corn or sunflower)
- 6 oz or 175g dark brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz or 225g carrots, grated
- 4 oz or 110g walnuts, chopped
- 6 oz or 175g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- ½ tsp grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
Frosting
- 6 oz or 175g cream cheese, at room temperature
- 4 oz or 110g butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz or 225g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F/175C and line an 8 inch/20cm square tin with baking parchment.
- Place the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well.
- Add the grated carrot and walnut and stir to incorporate.
- Sift the flour with salt, spices, baking powder and baking soda and then mix into the wet ingredients.
- Pour into your prepared tin and bake for approximately 35 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a large bowl. Then sift in the icing sugar and beat well until you have a smooth, creamy frosting.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake and sprinkle with walnuts. Cut into squares and enjoy!
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