Ultimate Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This soft, moist carrot cake filled with walnuts and coconut is topped with creamy orange frosting that adds a bright citrus flavor to every bite.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 270 g grated carrots
- 300 g all-purpose flour plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp bicarb soda ‘bicarbonate of soda’ or baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 175 g vegetable oil
- 300 g brown sugar
- 4 large eggs 55g each
- 120 g chopped walnuts
- 160 g raisins optional
- 75 g shredded coconut
- 1 orange zest and juiced
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 500 g unsalted butter softened (see notes)
- 500 g full-fat cream cheese block not spreadable, chilled
- 7 g vanilla extract
- Orange zest
- 300 g milk powder see notes
- 600 g powdered sugar sieved
Buttercream Carrots
- 1/2 batch buttercream frosting
- 2 drops orange food gel
- 2 drops green food gel
- 240 g walnuts chopped to decorate
Instructions
Carrot Cake
- Preheat a fan-forced oven to 160C / 325F (180C / 355F for no fan). Spray the bottom and side of three 20cm / 8-inch cake tins with oil and line the bottom with baking paper. Set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients - Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and cinnamon to a medium sized mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Combine wet ingredients - To a separate bowl, add the oil and brown sugar. Mix until well combined. Then add the eggs one at a time, mix well each time.
- Combine wet and dry - Add the dry ingredients and use a spatula to mix until well combined and no dry ingredients are showing. Add the walnuts, grated carrots, coconut, orange zest and orange juice and mix until well combined. The mixture will seem thick at first but as you mix it will thin out.
- Bake - Split between the three cake tins and bake for 15-20 minutes in the middle rack of your oven or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream butter and cream cheese together - Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer. Mix on low speed to begin with, to help break up the cream cheese a little, then increase the speed to high for a couple of minutes to help combine the cream cheese and butter.
- Add sugar and milk powder - After a couple of minutes, stop your mixer and scrape down the side of the bowl with a spatula. Add the powdered sugar, milk powder, vanilla and orange zest. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, then bring the speed back up to high. Continue beating on high speed, about 5 minutes, until your frosting is fluffy and turns pale in color. The frosting will be smooth and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Add to a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip.
Buttercream Carrots
- The buttercream carrots around the outside of the cake are made using my American buttercream recipe mixed with food gel. I used a medium piping tip for the carrots and a small round tip for the leaves.
To Assemble
- Layering the cake - Add a dab of cream cheese frosting on your serving plate and spread around. Add the first layer of cake and press down. Pipe a ring of frosting around the cake. Then fill in with more frosting. Use an offset spatula to smoothen and flatten out. Add the next layer of cake. And repeat until you get to the last layer of cake. Once you have all 3 layers on, frost the outside and top of the cake and smoothen out.
- Adding walnuts - Gently press the chopped walnuts into the frosting around the bottom of the cake and on top.
- Piping buttercream carrots - To pipe the carrots around the sides of the cake, pipe long tubes that get thinner at the bottom by squeezing less. Then pipe the leaves on top using the same technique.
Video
Notes
Storage - This carrot cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days. It should be stored in the fridge. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving for best texture.
Milk powder - The milk powder used in this recipe is the type that is used to make long life milk and can be found in the long-life milk section of your supermarket. The milk powder is used to make the cream cheese frosting creamier and to help it set so that it holds its shape.
Frosting - Typically, a carrot cake has tart cream cheese frosting. Usually with a good squeeze of lemon juice. Mine is different in that the focus is on making it creamy, not lemony and it instead has orange zest which compliments the orange zest and orange juice found in the cake recipe.
Nutrition – is an approximate and is based on per slice
A note on measurements – this recipe is offered in weight measurements. This is in an effort to offer the most accurate way to get the best results. Cup measurements simply aren’t accurate enough for a recipe that needs precise measurements and cup sizes differ depending on where you are in the world. Here is where you can learn more about how to measure ingredients using digital kitchen scales
Nutrition
Calories:944kcal | Carbohydrates:95g | Protein:15g | Fat:59g | Saturated Fat:29g | Polyunsaturated Fat:12g | Monounsaturated Fat:13g | Trans Fat:1g | Cholesterol:164mg | Sodium:555mg | Potassium:628mg | Fiber:4g | Sugar:68g | Vitamin A:4284IU | Vitamin C:8mg | Calcium:300mg | Iron:2mg
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