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.
cqrrie says
Can i just check, is the brown sugar, soft brown sugar?
Xx
Carrie
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Carrie, here in Australia, our brown sugar is just called brown sugar (and has molasses in it) but my guess is it would the same or at least very similar to soft brown sugar.
Jessie says
Loved it! Made two perfect layers, moist and delicious. So easy. I skipped the maple syrup because I’m a bit of a traditionalist – swapped with butter and it was delicious. I’m an avid baker but haven’t made a carrot cake for at least ten years – this recipe was so easy to do, and came out a treat.
Jessica Holmes says
Aw I love hearing that Jessie! Thanks for your kind review.
Ben says
Made this and my friends loved it, said it was 9 out of 10!
Jessica Holmes says
Love hearing that Ben! Thanks for the kind review!
Maryam says
Hi Jessica. Thank you for this lovely recipe. I made this cake yesterday and it turned out so moist. I omitted the brown sugar completely so that I’d get a less sweet cake. I faced 2 problems making this which I hope you can help me with. First of all, it had so many cracks on the surface. Second, After almost 40 minutes in 180 c oven, the middle parts had not been cooked well. I must not that I used a 5×10 inch glass tray and I have a convection oven.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Maryam, thank you for your review. It’s hard to comment on the result because you left out the brown sugar. Since it was quite a lot of brown sugar in the recipe, leaving it out will have an effect on the cake itself – more than just the sweetness. Sugar can help with stability and moisture as well. Cracking can be caused by cooking a cake at a too high temperature or by over mixing the cake batter. Every oven is different so I always recommend using oven times as a guide only. In saying that, glass pans take longer to heat up than aluminium ones so that might be why!
Maryam says
Thank you Jessica, I’ll keep that in mind for the next time.
Celia says
Can you put almond milk instead of normal milk?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Celia, I haven’t tried myself!
Ana says
Loved this recipe. It turned out DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for sharing.
Jessica Holmes says
Yay! Thank for the lovely feedback Ana!
Haneesha says
Hey! I was just wondering if this would be too much batter for a loaf tin? I want to make this but I think a 2 layer cake is too much! 🙂
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Haneesha, yes I think it would be! You could make one loaf and a few cupcakes if you wanted?
Haneesha says
Okay thank you so much 🙂
Fatima says
Hi can you share a one tin recipe for this 🙂
Jessica Holmes says
Thanks for the inspiration Fatima!
Sadaf says
Hi I want to bake this amazing carrot cake but I dont have maple syrup, Can I use the anything else instead of maple syrup?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, you can just leave out the maple syrup in the frosting. If it’s too thick, add a tablespoon of milk or lemon juice.
Judith says
Hi, I’m going to be baking this cake later on, would it be ok to use sunflower oil instead of vegetable oil.?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Judith, I have’t tried it myself but I think it would be fine!
Kaz says
Yum made this for my sons girlfriends birthday big hit with everyone thanks
Jessica Holmes says
Yay! So glad to hear that Kaz!
Brit says
I like sultanas in my carrot cake, do you think this would work in your recipe? 🙂
Jessica Holmes says
Absolutely Brit, throw a few in!
Meaghan says
Best Carrot cake recipe ever!! How long and what temperature should I cook it if I want to use the recipe to make cupcakes?
Jessica Holmes says
Thanks Meaghan! To make cupcakes, I’d cook them at the same temp for around 18-20 minutes. They should spring back lightly to the touch!
Rowaida says
Hi can I make the cake using one tin instead of two separate cakes. Would the cake turn out good? Thanks
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, you can but it would be quite a lot of batter so would take considerably longer to cook.
Patricia says
How deep are the cake tins you suggest?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Patricia, mine are three inches deep. Hope that helps!