British🍰 Sweets & drinks

Easy Carrot Cake: No Fail

Name: Easy Carrot Cake: No Fail
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: ~300 g fresh carrots; 1 small orange; ~200 ml sunflower oil or vegetable oil; 4 large eggs, room temperature; ~2 tsp vanilla extract; ~150 g plain yogurt; ~280 g self-raising flour; 1 tsp baking powder; ~½ tsp salt; 1½ tsp ground cinnamon; ½ tsp nutmeg; ~200 g light muscovado sugar; 50 g walnuts; ~100 g mixed dried fruit; ~200 g icing sugar or powdered sugar; ~150 g unsalted butter, softened; ~200 g plain cream cheese; 8 candy carrots for decoration

⏱ 75 min🍽 Serves 8

A wonderfully soft and moist carrot cake with a light, tender crumb, topped with delicious cream cheese frosting. It may look impressive, but it's surprisingly easy to make.

Adapted from a video by John Kirkwood

Easy Carrot Cake: No Fail!

Watch on YouTube

Ingredients

fresh carrots~300 gest.
small orangezest1
sunflower oil or vegetable oil~200 mlest.
large eggs, room temperature4
vanilla extract~2 tspest.
plain yogurt~150 gest.
self-raising flourif using plain or all-purpose flour, add an extra 2 tsp baking powder for a total of 3 tsp~280 gest.
baking powder1 tsp
salt~½ tspest.
ground cinnamon1½ tsp

Steps

▶ Tap a timecode to jump to roughly that moment in the video.

1
Grate the fresh carrots using the coarse holes of a box grater. Zest a small orange using a microplane and set aside.
2
Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F or gas mark 4).
3
Mix together the oil, room-temperature eggs, vanilla extract, and plain yogurt. Using a hand or electric whisk, beat until light and airy.
4
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Add the ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and light muscovado sugar. Mix together with your hands until well combined, breaking up any lumps in the sugar.
5
Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet mixture, add the orange zest and grated carrots. Using a spatula, gently fold everything together, making sure there are no pockets of flour.
6
Fold in half the crushed walnuts and the mixed dried fruit. Gently fold until fully combined. Let the batter rest for 5 minutes.
7
Line the sides and bottom of two deep cake tins with parchment paper. Divide the batter evenly between the two tins, adding approximately 770g to each.
8
Place the tins in the preheated 180°C oven and bake for 40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
9
Remove the cakes from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the tins.
10
Prepare the cream cheese frosting by mixing icing sugar and softened unsalted butter together with a spatula, then beat with a whisk for about 2 minutes until light and creamy. Add the cream cheese in two batches, blending well between additions. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
11
Once the cakes are cool, level off the tops using a shallow cake tin. Place the less attractive cake as the bottom layer and the better-looking one on top.
12
Spread half of the chilled frosting evenly on the bottom cake, leaving the edges slightly bare. Carefully place the top cake on it and gently press down so the filling oozes toward the edges.
13
Add the remaining frosting to the top of the cake and use a spatula to lightly tap the icing, creating a stippled, textured effect.
14
Decorate the cake by placing eight whole walnuts evenly spaced around the edge. Place one candy carrot above each walnut. Crush the remaining walnuts and sprinkle over the top. Optionally, finely grate a little fresh carrot over the top and dust with ground cinnamon and nutmeg.

Easy Carrot Cake: No Fail

Ingredients

Steps

More like this