Carrot Loaf Cake!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
An easy carrot loaf cake with cream cheese frosting – easy, delicious, and the perfect easy bake!
My favourite!
So.. carrot cake. It’s safe to say I am slightly obsessed with it?! Largely because it is probably one of my favourite cakes, if not my actual favourite.. but there we are. My favourite flavour can change frequently but put a piece of carrot cake in front of me and I will always be happy.
Anyway, with my readers love for loaf cakes rising just as much as mine, I figured it was time to make this bad boy into a carrot cake. I have oodles of carrot cake related recipes already on my blog, such as the classic carrot cake, and even my carrot cupcakes!
Carrot loaf cake
Making a carrot loaf cake is really quite similar to the rest of my other carrot themed bakes, but it’s all about the proportions. Sometimes just fitting a cake into a loaf tin doesn’t work – sometimes it does, but I’ve altered this to fit my favourite loaf tin.
Carrot cake is soft, it’s moist, and it’s delicious. You basically can’t go wrong with something such as carrot cake. Honestly, I find it so hard to over bake and ruin it – and this can often come from the ingredients.
Walnuts
This time, I used walnuts in the sponge. I didn’t put walnuts in the title, but technically this is a carrot and walnut loaf cake – but the walnuts are optional. You can switch them to a different nut, such as pecans, or switch it completely to use raisins! However, I know they are just as controversial.
One thing I love about using nuts in the sponge though is the crunch. It’s delicious. I get that some people don’t like texture changes though – and to be honest, carrot cake is just as delicious without them!
Butter free cake
Not only does the carrot itself bring incredible moisture to the sponge, but so does the oil! The cake is butter-free, and uses oil instead – and it’s amazing! It’s so incredibly easy to mix up. You definitely don’t need to use a mixer, and in all honesty, you probably shouldn’t!
Don’t over mix and bake straight away!
Even though the cake is hard to ruin, you definitely don’t want to over mix it. You also want to bake it straight away, and not let it sit for too long. Because the raising agent is different from your typical cake, it shouldn’t be left to sit – as that can ruin the sponge.
Cream cheese frosting
I decided to top this one with my all-new cream cheese frosting – and I’m so glad I did! In my other classic carrot cake I used buttercream as I made it for my dad, and mostly buttercream is easier. However, because this is a carrot cake – cream cheese frosting is an ideal combo!
Top tips!
Cream cheese frosting has to be stored in the fridge once it’s been used, as it’s a ‘fresh’ product – but the wonders of carrot cake mean it’s okay. The cake shouldn’t dry out and it works really well!
Also, because this is in loaf cake form… it’s so easy. Whack it in the loaf tin, slather the frosting on top, and decorate if you fancy! There’s nothing special to it, other than enjoy every last morsel when you eat it. Literally, every single crumb.
I, basically… am obsessed with this recipe. If you want to try out a different version, be sure to just put Carrot Cake in the search bar and you will find my obsession continues! Either way, HAPPY BAKING! x
Carrot Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
The Cake!
- 175 ml sunflower oil
- 3 large eggs
- 200 g light brown sugar
- 250 g grated carrots
- 100 g raisins/walnuts (optional)
- Zest of 1 orange
- 200 g self raising flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
Cream Cheese Frosting Glaze
- 125 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 125 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g full-fat cream cheese
Decoration!
- Fondant carrots
- Chopped nuts
Instructions
Cake
- Pour the sunflower oil & eggs into a large bowl and add the sugar – mix lightly and combine.
- Add the grated carrots, raisins/nuts, and orange zest and fold through to combine.
- Add the flour, bicarbonate, mixed spice, ginger, cinnamon & nutmeg and mix again – try not to over mix!
- Pour the mixture into the tin, and bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes. Sometimes it can take a little longer so test with a skewer!
- Once baked, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then cool on a wire rack. If your cake doesn't come out, it may not have finished baking, or you didn't line the tin well enough!
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat your butter on its own for a few minutes to loosen it.
- Add in the icing sugar, and beat again - I beat this for about 5 minutes, to make it really smooth.
- Make sure your cream cheese doesn't have any excess water - I find it best to add it to a bowl first just to make sure.
- Add in the cream cheese, and vanilla and beat. At first, it may look a little weird, but just keep on beating. I end up beating it for a few minutes - it can go through a lumpy stage first, but eventually, the lumps beat out and it's smooth and thick!
- Once beaten - it should be lovely and thick.
Decoration
- Slather your cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake!
- Decorate with chopped nuts, carrot decorations or whatever!!
- Enjoy!
Notes
- I used this loaf tin!
- This cake should be stored in the fridge because of the cream cheese frosting, and will last for three days!
- You can use 100g of raisins, or 100g of nuts... this time, I used walnuts!
- If you want any more information on my cream cheese frosting, read this post!
- If you want to make a different sort of carrot cake - search my blog as I have many variations!
- The spices are optional, but they make a delicious flavour!
ENJOY!
Find my other Cupcake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Hi, this recipe is great but this time I want to make it in a hemispheric tin – do you have any suggestions for how much I should alter the cooking time/temperature, please?
Not really unfortunately – it depends on the volume so it can vary greatly x
Hi Jane,
I was just wondering, can I use orange extract instead of the orange zest? And if so, how much do I use?
Yes you can! Use between 1/2tsp to 1tsp depending on how much you like orange xx
Hi I’ve made quite a few different Carrot Cakes from various recipes
but this definitely is my favourite. In no doubt that the inclusion of the
various spices sets it apart.
Moist and tasty…..the perfect cake. Thank you
I would love to try your recipe…looks delicious but I don’t have a scale to measure some of the ingredients…is anyone willing to convert it to cups…I would appreciate it!
I’m afraid I don’t measure in cups as its extremely unreliable x
Thank you for your reply, very helpful! I’m going to make this cake for my birthday! One last question- is it okay to mix this completely by hand? E.g will it affect the oil, egg and sugar mixture or anything? I don’t have an electric mix or kitchen aid I’m afraid
I always make the cake itself by hand – it doesn’t need a mixer at all! And the cream cheese frosting is doable by hand too, just need arm power! x
Hi Jane,
Would 50g of raisins and 50g of walnuts work okay?
Thanks
Yes that would be fine! x
Hi, if I don’t want to use nuts or raisins do I substitute anything else of will it bake the same way without these additional dry ingredients?
Just leave them out! x
Hi Jane!
I love this recipe so much!
I’m making my boyfriend a tiered tall cake with about 4 different sponges of the same size, do you think I could use this recipe or would I need to adapt it?
Thank you! Xx
It depends on the size of tin you are using – have a look at my carrot cake recipe as that’s a two layer 8″ cake!
Thanks for this amazing recipe. I made this last night and it tastes fantastic. The cream cheese icing is the best, I watched the video before making it and I think that helped massively. This cake is so easy to make too. Gonna try the mini egg easter loaf cake next. xx
Thanks so much for the fast reply, I have just realised, I dont have bicarbonate of soda, it was baking powder I used, so this is where it must have gone wrong, as I havent had this problem before. Can you tell me how to substitute this please? Thank you
Ahh okay, they do react to different ingredients and work differently so it can change a bake! It’s best to use bicarb in this bake xx
Hi, i love every recipe I have made from your website, I made the carrot loaf cake for a friend last night, I had it in at the temp required and within half an hour it was going burnt on top, but wasn’t ready in the middle,.I left it longer and by time It was ready it was black on top I had to cut it off, going to try another attempt today. Iam using a conventional oven, would it still be 180°?
That definitely sounds too hot – some ovens naturally run hotter or colder than you think, and it definitely sounds like yours needed to be lower, or it has a burning hot spot! It would be worth lowering the temp 20°c to see if it helps!
This is my new favourite carrot cake recipe and the cream cheese frosting is delicious. I added about 60g chopped dark chocolate and 40g walnuts instead of the raisin/walnut combo and was glad I did. My cake took maybe 1 hour 10 mins to cook. A great recipe, thank you.
Is there a buttercream recipe instead of cream cheese please?
It’s baked brilliantly but nobody likes cream cheese frosting in my house!
Yep, there’s loads and loads on my blog!
Hey Jane,
Lovely carrot cake recipe but when I make the cream cheese icing it turns out very runny. What do you think I’m doing wrong? xx
Have a look into my cream cheese frosting post and YouTube video as it may help you understand why x
Could I use coconut oil instead of sunflower?
Thankyou
Cannot wait to try this !!
Looks so scrummy
I haven’t tried it with coconut oil, but I’m sure it would be fine! X
Hi Jane! Would it be ok to use 100g light brown sugar and 100g light brown muscovado sugar?
Yes that should be okay! X
What is in the mixed spice? I’m in the US and we don’t have a spice that is labeled as such. Here we have apple pie spice and pumpkin pie spice but I’d rather mix my own.