Carrot Cake Traybake!
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A delicious, easy, and moreish carrot cake traybake with cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts!
Carrot cake
So, this may be controversial, but carrot cake is my favourite flavour cake. I know, I know, I say everything is my favourite but I do genuinely adore a good chunky slice of carrot cake.
So… it’s time for a carrot cake traybake! Easter time is usually full of chocolate and such, which I obviously adore.. but it’s not to everyone’s taste. I get that, and I accept that, and to be honest… I love carrot cake. I based this recipe on my carrot cake recipe, and it’s just so good! Not trying to blow my own trumpet of course
Traybake cakes
It’s such a versatile recipe, that I thought I would make it a bit differently by making it into a traybake! Traybake cakes aren’t something I have done a lot of, but to be honest they are SO much easier than a layer cake! You just have to show it into the tin, bake it, and slather on the decoration! No fancy layering or piping required.
I didn’t quite double my carrot cake recipe as it would have been too much for the tin, but its an ‘increased’ version which is ideal. I literally use a traybake tin for this as it was the right size, but any traybake style tin is good. You will just want it to be a similar size to the one I have used.
My chocolate fudge traybake cake has always been so popular, along with my school cake… a traybake tin is so popular for bakes and so versatile for recipes that I just really recommend grabbing one.
The cake
The cake itself is so light, and so (I hate to use the word) ~moist~, it is just delicious. Honestly I think carrot cake is one of my favourite cakes, if not my actual favourite, so I devour far too many pieces when I make this recipe. And you know, its got carrots and raisins in so it’s clearly good for you.
The recipe uses an oil base for the sponge, along with a mix of brown sugar, eggs, flour, bicarb, and then the flavours. I add a little orange zest because I adore orange in the sponge of a carrot cake, it’s got the carrots (obviously), some raisins as mentioned above, and then the spices. I wanted to make my carrot cake nice and warm as always so I put in some mixed spice, ginger and cinnamon.
This mixture is so easy to mix together in a bowl with a spoon or spatula. Honestly, you don’t need to use a mixer for a carrot cake, you just need a large bowl. I tend to mix the wet ingredients together first, and then I add the dry and mix until just combined.
Cream cheese frosting
I did make this slightly different to my carrot cake however and used a cream cheese frosting like the one in my red velvet cake. I thought a carrot cake traybake would need a bit more jazzing up, and the cream cheese frosting is ideal. Its silky, its smooth, and it tastes damn good.
Often people can have problems with making a cream cheese frosting and its often down to over mixing, or the water content of the cream cheese. Some countries cream cheese has a higher water content, and even different brands do. If you feel like yours is extra specially water, you can try and squeeze some out before adding to the butter.
When mixing the frosting, you want to be gentle. You really can’t over mix it otherwise you might have a sloppy mess! Either way though, because the cake will have to be stored in the fridge, it’ll firm the frosting up somewhat anyway! And then with the addition of the crunch of the nuts, its DELICIOUS.
Make sure to use full-fat cream cheese, leave out the spices if you don’t fancy it, but either way.. just follow the recipe and trust me you’ll love the frosting.
Recipe adaptations
You can see in the pictures how delicious it looks, but it is definitely versatile. Add more nuts, no nuts, add more raisins, or no raisins… its entirely up to you. If you wanted to use a buttercream topping so it doesn’t have to be kept in the fridge, then you can easily use the one from the original carrot cake recipe. It’s the best thing to do if you want it to be out at a party for example or you have to travel with it!
I swapped up and adapted the recipe in March 2024, and the only difference was the cream cheese frosting. I will say I really do prefer my new cream cheese frosting recipe which you can find here, and the one on this post is a delicious spiced version for this traybake.
Tips & Tricks
- I use this traybake tin for my cakes
- The raisins are optional, or interchangeable with nuts if you prefer
- This cake will last for 3 days in the fridge
- The cake can freeze for 3 months
- If you need to have the cake at room temperature for any length of time, you can switch the frosting to buttercream to make it safe
Carrot Cake Traybake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 300 ml sunflower oil
- 5 medium eggs
- 350 g light brown sugar
- 500 g grated carrots (grated weight)
- 150 g raisins
- Zest of 2 oranges
- 400 g self raising flour
- 2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsps mixed spice
- 1.5 tsps ground ginger
- 1.5 tsps ground cinnamon
Frosting
- 125 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 125 g icing sugar
- 250 g full-fat cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Extras
- 100 g chopped nuts
- carrot decorations
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line a 9x13” tin with parchment paper
- Add the oil, eggs, sugar and carrots to a bowl and mix
- Add the raisins, orange zest and mix
- Add the flour, bicarb and spices and mix
- Pour into the tin and bake for 50-55+ minutes and leave to cool in the tin
- Beat the butter on its own until smooth
- Add the icing sugar and spices and beat until smooth
- Add the cream cheese and mix again
- Decorate the cake with the frosting, and sprinkles and chopped nuts if you fancy
Notes
- This recipe will last in the fridge for 3+ days
- This can freeze for 3+ months
- The raisins are optional, or interchangeable with nuts
- I use this baking tin for my cake
- Here is an in-depth post about cream cheese frosting if you need extra help
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J x
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Would I be able to use veg oil in place of the sunflower oil or is there a certain reason it is sunflower oil? Just really wanted to make this but dont have sunflower oil xxx
Basically sunflower oil has probably the best taste when it comes to baking a cake like carrot cake – so vegetable oil will still work, sunflower oil is just preferable in my opinion!
Can you add 6 small eggs instead of 5 large if that’s all you’ve got? Thanks x
I would use 6 medium, not 6 small.
Hi do you know if this is freezable? I prefer to make cakes in advance so would be great to know what I could freeze and what wouldn’t freeze well.
Thanks
Angela
needed 50 mins in oven so was a little well done on the outside – would probably benfit from being covered with foil for 20-30 mins next time! Otherwise the reciepe worked well.
First time i’ve been able to get cream cheese icing to set !
Lets see what everyone thinks tomorrow – but I expect smiles all round.
Thank you
Can I make this in a 9 x 9 tin? and is it possible to use muscovado sugar? thanks x
No – as stated it needs to be a 9×13″ – there’s a lot of cake mix. And yes you can use muscovado.
Hi, I’m wanting to make the carrot cake and gingerbread cake in to loaf cakes but unsure what to reduce the ingredients to?
Many thanks
Katie 😊
I’ve never made a cake but love to eat carrot cake. I really like nuts in my carrot cake could I add some to your recipe Jane. If so what quantity would I need and how and when would I add them. Thank you
This is by far the best carrot cake recipe I’ve come across, must of tried at least 10 over my years of home baking!! I find this cake to be soft and moist and it doesn’t end up going gooey or oily (like i find some recipies can). As for the icing, I mixed it well which went runny as you advised it would, but I left it in the fridge to firm as the cake was cooling and it turned out fine. Yet another recipe of yours I will be making again 😁
Made this for a friend who said it was to quote “banging”, he also said all of his family who tried it said it was the best carrot cake they had ever tasted so all in all a big hit ! The cake itself took 50 minutes to bake – may have been my cooker? But it is a huge cake, i did muff the icing a bit dont think i beat the butter enough to start but it turned out fine with the addition of extra icing sugar, tasted lovely with the mixed spice in it, this is only the 2nd recipie of yours I’ve tried but so far so good ! I’m excited to try out some more thankyou for sharing them.
Loved this cake, super yummy! My frosting was runny though, I wish I had paid more attention to how much you need to whisk the butter before adding the cream cheese! I also found adding more icing sugar just made it more runny and sweet so will definitely do more butter whisking next time 😁
Ah yes, after a while you won’t be able to rescue it with sugar, but often if done correctly it can help.
Can you use the mixture for mini carrot cakes in a mini muffin tin? Someone has asked me to make a 2 tiered mini version with frosting in middle as well as on top!
Thank you!
Hiya! I’m sure you can, but its a very delicate cake so you have to be careful with it!
Hi Jane!
Do you think this traybake would work as two layers? By that I mean could I make double and use as a cake filled with buttercream rather than a traybake? The size is just what I need for a cake that someone has asked me to make for them so it would be great if you could let me know what you think 🙂 Thank you!
Hiya! Yeah you could easily just bake two and then fill! I would bake the layers separately rather than bake a deep one and split it😊 x
That’s great. Thank you so much 🙂 is it also ok without the raisins as the person who the cake is for doesn’t like raisins😕Sorry, I should have asked that before!
Yeah its fine to leave out the raisins! x
I am assuming “mixed spice” I the equivalent of “all spice”?
In the UK we have mixed spice, so I’m not 100% sure on the equivalent. It’s got like Cinnamon, Coriander Seeds, Ginger, Cloves, Nutmeg and such in.
In the US and Canada Pumpkin Pie Spice is very similar to Mixed Spice
Wow Jane,another Fabulous cake & the added bonus a traybake.Can’t wait to make it.Also hope you don’t mind me asking but I’m going to make your Easter Chocolate cake as my Birthday cake but I cannot find any milk chocolate MatchMakers.Could you tell me where you sourced them…Love your cakes,please keep posting.💕💕xx
I used Mint ones for the Easter Cake, I don’t think they sell chocolate ones.
This looks so good – another one of your recipes to add to my ‘must make’ list!