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.
Let’s Bake
Carrot Cake
A soft and moist Carrot Cake with maple cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Carrot cake
- 315 grams (2 and 1/4 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 190 grams (1 cup) brown sugar
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) caster sugar or granulated 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 sugar or powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 55 grams (1/2 cup) walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Grease and line two 8-inch round cake pans 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
*Carrots: Approximately three medium-sized carrots. You can leave the skin on the carrots before grating.
Joyce says
want to try this recipe for a 3kg cake (one piece) any suggestion?… TIA
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Joyce, I’m sorry I have no idea how much this cake would weigh.
Kim says
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
Jessica Holmes says
Amazing! Love hearing that Kim!
Ranj says
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.
Jessica Holmes says
Aww that’s wonderful! Thank you for the lovely feedback Ranj!
Valentina says
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!
Jessica Holmes says
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!
naomi says
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.
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed it Naomi! Thanks for the lovely feedback! ☺️
Samantha says
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
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Samantha, if you are using a fan-assisted oven you can turn the temperature down to 160C. Hope that helps!
Marie says
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
Jessica Holmes says
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!
Kathy says
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
Jessica Holmes says
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!
Neil says
Made this cake last week. Best cake ever
Jessica Holmes says
Love that! Thanks Neil!
FRAN cropper says
Hi there
My cream cheese frosting came out really runny- is that normal?
Thanks
Jessica Holmes says
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!
Peri says
Planning on making this tonight! Why is it not self raising flour?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Peri, self raising flour is not commonly used in America, so even though we have it here in Australia, I develop all my recipes using plain flour and then add the raising agent so it’s accessible to everyone. It’s also a great way to control the amount of raising agent used. I hope that helps – and I hope you love this cake!
Jess says
I’ve made this for my father on law’s birthday last week and I baked another last night just because it was so delicious!
Do you have the nutrition info?
Jessica Holmes says
Aw I love hearing that Jess! So glad you enjoyed it! I don’t have the info sorry, but there are free nutritional calculators online you can use ☺️
Pheona Lynn says
Hi,
I am going to try out this recipe this week. I have light muscovado sugar and sunflower oil. Can subsitute the brown sugar and vegetable oil in this recipe or would you advise not to?
Thanks,
Pheona
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Pheona, the sunflower oil should be fine. I can’t guarantee the muscovado sugar will be exactly the same as it typically has a lower molasses content and a finer texture and I haven’t tested it myself in this recipe. But I think it should be ok! Let me know how you go!
Oluwatoyin says
The cake is so moist and delicious. I love it. Please what happens when the carrot skin is peeled off before grating. Will it affect the cake?
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you like it! Peeling the carrots is ok, just unnecessary for this cake!
Claire Wakefield says
Made this cake last night. Used almond milk instead of regular cows milk, and coconut oil in place of vegetable oil.
This recipe was fantastic and came out beautifully! Will definitely keep this as a go to for carrot cake!
Jessica Holmes says
Love hearing that! Thanks for the feedback Claire!