A gorgeous two layer soft and moist Carrot Cake. You’ll love this one bowl carrot cake made with brown sugar, warm spices and walnuts and covered with a luscious maple cream cheese frosting.
Introducing my FAVOURITE Carrot Cake recipe 🥕
Two layers of soft and tender Carrot Cake filled with fresh carrots, warm spices and chopped nuts. The finishing touch is a generous layer of thick cream cheese frosting.
This gorgeous homemade Carrot Cake is perfect for Easter.
If you follow me on Instagram, you would know that I’ve been working on the perfect Carrot Cake recipe ALL week. It’s a recipe that’s been highly requested by you guys so I’m super excited to share it with you.
When I was developing the recipe, I was torn between making a one layer cake or a multi-layer cake, so I reached out to you on Instagram and I asked what you prefer. The response for a layer cake was overwhelming.
So HERE SHE IS. My two layer Carrot Cake that’s soft, sweet and oh-so-easy to make.
There are a few reasons why this cake is extra special. Apart from the fact that a soft, sweet cake covered in cream cheese frosting is literally heaven on earth. Here are four reasons why you will LOVE this cake ->
- It’s a one bowl cake recipe. You don’t need an electric mixer and any special equipment. Just a bowl and spoon and you are on your way!
- It makes two perfect layers so it will easily feed a hungry crowd
- The frosting is made with just three ingredients and comes together super quick
- Everyone always loves this cake
What makes a moist Carrot Cake?
- Using vegetable oil instead of butter keeps the cake nice and moist, and adding milk also lends itself to a very soft cake.
- I recommend measuring all the ingredients to ensure you don’t accidentally add too much flour.
- Keep an eye on the cakes while they’re in the oven so you don’t over bake the cakes. They will be ready when they spring back lightly to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Tips for making Carrot Cake
- This is a very simple one bowl Carrot Cake recipe. All you need to do is add all the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- To grate the carrots, you can really grate them is as fine or rough as you would like. Just remember that you don’t need to peel the carrots before grating.
- I use walnuts in my Carrot Cake but you can use pecans or any nut you prefer. Or you can simply leave the nuts out. I like them for a little extra crunch.
How to make cream cheese frosting
- The cream cheese frosting recipe is made using only three ingredients – cream cheese, icing sugar and maple syrup.
- I recommend using a block of full fat cream cheese – not a light or spreadable version.
- The maple syrup adds a little extra flavour, however you can use milk instead if you like
How long does Carrot Cake last?
- Carrot Cake is quite a moist and dense cake so it lasts quite a while. You can keep this cake for up to 3-4 days.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Hungry for more? Join me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for more amazing recipe ideas.
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A soft and moist Carrot Cake with maple cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Carrot cake
- 315 grams (2 and 1/4 cups) plain flour
- 190 grams (1 cup) brown sugar
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 240 ml (1 cup) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 180 ml (3/4 cup) milk
- 200 grams (2 cups) carrot*, roughly grated
- 110 grams (1 cup) walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
Maple cream cheese frosting
- 500 grams (approximately 2 and 1/2 cups) full fat block cream cheese, softened
- 310 grams (2 and 1/2 cups) icing or powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 55 grams (1/2 cup) walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (360 F). Grease and line two 8-inch cake tins with parchment or baking paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- In a separate bowl, add oil, vanilla, eggs and milk and whisk gently, just to break up the egg yolks.
- Add carrot and nuts to dry ingredients, along with the wet ingredients, and mix gently until combined.
- Pour into prepared cake tins. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Gently remove cakes from cake pans and leave on a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, add the cream cheese and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined and smooth.
- Add maple syrup and beat again. Spread one third of the frosting onto one of the cake layers. Add the other cake on top. Add remaining frosting on top.
- Sprinkle over chopped nuts. Cut and serve.
Notes
- Approximately three medium-sized carrots. You can leave the skin on the carrots before grating.
Keywords: Carrot cake, Carrot layer cake
Can this Freeze ok?
Hi Sarah, yes it will! I recommend freezing just the cake and then frosting it when you’re ready to serve.
Hi Jessica, thank you for sharing your recipe! I plan on baking this for my mum’s birthday but we don’t have many people eating and I don’t have a large cake tin. Can I adjust the quantities of the ingredients proportionately? As in, if this is for 12 persons, and I intend to make one cake for 8 persons, do i just prepare 2/3 of all the quantities reflected here? Sorry if I sound like I’m asking a silly question but I am really bad in cooking and baking. 😂
Hi Hannah, not a silly question at all! I actually don’t recommend altering the ratio of ingredients because it’s only been tested as is, so it’s hard for me to say how it would turn out. I recommend following the recipe as it is if you can – you can always freeze the leftover pieces for later!
Made this cake for my sons birthday and the cake turned out brilliant but unfortunately the cream cheese frosting was runny. I dont think we can get a block of cream cheese over in the UK they are all spreadable. Recipes for cream cheese frosting over her include butter which yours does not so not sure if this make a difference to consistency. anyway had to remake frosting as buttercream instead.
Hi Lindsey, I’m so glad you enjoyed this cake – it’s one of my all-time faves. Oh I see, spreadable cream cheese would definitely make a difference. Maybe next time, you could start with cold cream cheese or leave the frosting in the fridge for a little while to firm up after making it. Thank you for the feedback!
Great recipe! I am a qualified baker and I think this is one of the best recipes for Carrot Cake I have made / eaten! Well done, I also cooked this as one full cake and found that if I lowered the temperature to 160 for about 50 minutes it worked a treat, I also added vanilla essence and lemon to the icing as a replacement for the syrup, thank you for the share!
★★★★★
Amazing! Thank you so much for the lovely feedback Chris!
Hi, I love this recipe I would love to try it, but I can’t find full fat block cream cheese, what would you suggest I do?
Hi Najma, I don’t recommend making this frosting if you can’t find a block of cream cheese. Perhaps you could do vanilla buttercream instead.
Hello, please can I use granulated sugar in place if brown sugar?
I plan on baking this tonight ..
Hi Doofan, you can but I have specifically used brown sugar in this recipe for taste and texture.
want to try this recipe for a 3kg cake (one piece) any suggestion?… TIA
Hi Joyce, I’m sorry I have no idea how much this cake would weigh.
Made this cake today – delicious! I used 60g of raisins and 50g of pecans instead of the 110g of nuts. Scrummy! I also used just one tin and baked for around 55-60 minutes at gas mark 4. Came out beautifully moist. Trouble is, now I want to eat it all. Thank you for this recipe
★★★★★
Amazing! Love hearing that Kim!
Made this today and it’s honestly the best carrot cake I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for this recipe, it will be much used and shared.
★★★★★
Aww that’s wonderful! Thank you for the lovely feedback Ranj!
Hello from Italy!
I want to bake this cake for some friends, but the cake tins that I have are bigger (about 10 inches instead of 8)… what do you suggest? Should I increase the quantities of the ingredients or not?
I’m afraid that the cake will turn too short.
Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi Valentina, you could bake the cake as one whole cake using your 10 inch cake pan. And simply slice it in half when baked to make two even layers. It may take a little longer to cook that way but will still work well!
Made this recipe for my partners birthday and he loved it. We made it with pecan nuts instead of walnuts. It came out better then I expected.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it Naomi! Thanks for the lovely feedback! ☺️
I will be making this cake as it’s sounds lovely but I can I check if the oven temperature provided is for a fan assisted oven? X
Hi Samantha, if you are using a fan-assisted oven you can turn the temperature down to 160C. Hope that helps!
Hi. I’m going to bake this cake today however I’m baking it inside a skull mould which is double the depth therefore should I bake longer and If so how much longer. Thank you in advance. Marie
Hi Marie, yes if the batter is deeper you will need to bake it for longer. I can’t say how long it will take but once a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean it should be ready. If it starts to get too brown, cover the top with aluminium foil while it continues to cook. Hope that helps!
Planning on cooking this, can I make it in one coke tin and adjust the cooking time, I don’t have two the same size, Kathy
Hi Kathy! You sure can. It’s a lot of cake batter so you’d want to use a large cake pan, like a 9×13 inch or one that’s quite deep otherwise. You will need to adjust the cooking time, if the cake starts to go brown on top but isn’t cooked in the middle, cover the top with aluminium foil. Hope that helps!
Made this cake last week. Best cake ever
★★★★★
Love that! Thanks Neil!
Hi there
My cream cheese frosting came out really runny- is that normal?
Thanks
Hi Fran, it shouldn’t be too runny. Did you use a full fat block of cream cheese rather than a lightened or spreadable kind? If you have this problem next time, you can add just one tablespoon of maple syrup – or leave the syrup out entirely. Hope that helps!