Flavorful carrot cake with spices, raisins, pecans, and a tangy swoop of cream cheese frosting.
I was looking through some of my old recipes and felt like this carrot cake needed a refresh. The pictures of the old one are completely cringeworthy. And this cake is one of my favorites, so it needed some better pictures that weren’t taken at night with a 2008 point-and-shoot camera. My photography is still limping along, but it is worlds away from what it was in 2014 when I started this blog.
I made it as a layer cake in the first post, but I love the simplicity of it in sheet cake form. Sheet cakes are what I generally prefer to make. They’re less fussy… you don’t have to worry about getting the layers to work out evenly and flattening them so that your cake isn’t dome shaped. It’s also one pan to clean instead of three!! And this particular cake stays super moist as a sheet cake, so I actually like it a bit better without frosting breaking up the cake.
This is a perfect recipe for Easter…it serves a crowd and isn’t too fussy! The most time consuming part is peeling and shredding the carrots. Do NOT try to shortcut the shredded carrots by buying pre-shredded carrots at the store! The shredded carrots at the store are not shredded finely enough for carrot cake. You need the carrots to be shredded a little thinner so that they sort of dissolve into the cake and give it moisture without having big chunks of carrots.
I like raisins and pecans or walnuts in my carrot cake, but feel free to leave them out! I know some people hate raisins, but I think they give an added burst of sweetness in this cake. There is enough flavor with the cinnamon though if you really hate raisins!
The decoration of a sheet cake is much less pressure than a layer cake. No sides to deal with… just leave it in the pan! I spread the frosting into a layer using an offset spatula and then went back with the offset spatula and created a nice swooping patter across the top. I generally like a lighter layer of frosting on my carrot cake since the cake is already so moist and flavorful but if you love a good thick layer of frosting you can make x1.5 the recipe below. I reserved some of the frosting to create the carrot decorations. If you don’t want to deal with piping decorations, you could also just sprinkle a nice layer of chopped pecans or walnuts on top.
If you’re more of a layer cake person, here’s the link for the layer cake version of this recipe … be nice about the pictures!
Happy Easter!
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (105g) brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup (220g) cooking oil (vegetable, canola)
- 4 eggs
- 4 cups (~460g) shredded carrots (8-10 full sized carrots)*
- 1 cup (160g) raisins (optional)
- 1 cup (130g) chopped walnuts or pecans (optional) (plus extra for decorating)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup salted butter, softened
- 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Generously grease and flour a 9 x 13 baking sheet.
- Stir flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon with an electric mixer.
- Add the vegetable oil and eggs and beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, then beat on medium speed for about a minute until the batter looks consistent.
- Fold in the shredded carrots, raisins, and walnuts or pecans by hand using a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 45- 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
- Cream your softened cream cheese and butter together in an electric mixer until there aren’t any lumps left.
- Add in vanilla extract.
- Add powdered sugar a little at a time.
- Beat frosting until completely smooth.
- Take ¼ cup of frosting and die it orange. Take another 2-3 Tablespoons of frosting and die it green.
- Spoon the remaining frosting onto the top and spread into an even layer using at offset spatula. Run the spatula back and forth over the cake to make a nice swooping pattern across the top.
- Pipe carrots onto the top with the reserved frosting. I divided the cake into pieces/sections and piped a carrot in the middle of each block. I used a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #2 round piping tip.
- Use about a ¼ cup of finely chopped walnuts or pecans to decorate the edges of the cake.
Adapted from Sweets Eats by Rose Dunnington
Great tasting recipe! Its really tasty and authentic!