The Best Carrot Cake Recipe
I'm not one to toot my own horn but swear down this is the best carrot cake in the history of the world. It's moist, full of fragrant cinnamon and covered in the dreamiest cream cheese frosting you could ever imagine!
Now let's get stuck in before I start drooling on my keyboard.
For the cake:
- 500g grated carrots
- 300g caster sugar
- 300g plain flour
- 2tsp baking powder
- 2tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsp cinnamon
- 200ml vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract
For the icing:
- 600g icing sugar
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 250g full fat cream cheese
- 1tsp vanilla extract
Begin by preheating your oven to 180c/170c fan. Grease and line two 8inch cake tins and put aside.
In a large bowl, measure the sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and cinnamon. Stir in the grated carrots. In a measuring jug, add the oil, eggs and vanilla then beat with a fork. Slowly add the liquid into the dry ingredients, stirring well as you go. Once all the liquid is added and there are no pockets of flour left, separate the mix equally into the cake tins. Pop them into the oven for 25-35 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.
Leave the cake to cool in the tins for a while before removing and allowing to cool completely on a cooling rack. It's important the cakes are cold before you add the icing.
For the icing, measure the icing sugar and butter into a large bowl. If you have a mixer, use this as it will make your icing much fluffier than if you're mixing by hand. Gently mix the icing sugar and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add about a third of the cream cheese and the vanilla to the mix and beat for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the remaining cream cheese and give it a quick mix until smooth. Be careful not to overmix it at this stage or it will become runny.
To assemble the cake, add a blob of icing to the middle of your serving plate and put one of the cakes face down on top. This helps to stop the cake from moving around on the plate and ensures you have a flat surface to work with. If the cake is too domed, you can trim a bit off the top using a bread knife. Spread about a third of the icing onto the cake and sandwich together with the other cake, face up this time.
Cover the cake in a thin layer of icing (this is called a crumb coat and will help keep all those pesky crumbs from seeping through your icing, giving you a cleaner finish). Pop the cake in the fridge for about half an hour. You can skip this step if you're in a hurry.
Take the cake out of the fridge and spread the remaining icing evenly around the cake. Once you're happy with the look of the cake, I like to add a sprinkle of cinnamon around the edge just to finish it off.