Carrot Loaf Cake!
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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!
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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 Jane, I made this recipe last month and it was amazing, I handed them out to my family and they loved it. I’m thinking of baking the carrot cake loaf again but in mini loaf cases instead of the large loaf cake. Would I keep the recipe the same and reduce the cooking time to 20-25 minutes? Thank you.
I would like to know this also. Planning a Mother’s Day afternoon tea.
Hi, did you find out or try in mini loaf cases? Tia
This recipe is so quick and easy to make and everyone absolutely loved it!
I couldn’t find my loaf tin so put the mix into two sandwich tins and cooked for 30 minutes, came out perfectly!
I also didn’t have sunflower oil so used vegetable which also worked perfectly.
Will be sharing and using this recipe again
What can you use instead of sunflower oil?
I have around 100 of your recipes open in different tabs on my phone constantly and it’s safe to say this is my favourite along with the NYC Red Velvet Cookies!
i think i’m a little obsessed with your recipes 😅
Hi Jane
As always love you’re recipes and have you’re book looking forward to the next one👍 One question not all of us like cream cheese frosting would I be able to replace with?
Hiya! You could replace it with regular buttercream – or even regular water icing! Take a look at either my Lemon Drizzle loaf cake (but without the lemon), or my Mini Egg loaf cake! Hope this helps! x
Can I use plain or all purpose flour instead of self raising flour?
Can I use gluten free flour instead of self raising? Do I need to add anything else to make it GF? Thanks
Hi
Is this moist and spicy?
Hi, could i bake this in a 9×9 tin and have as a tray bake? I know you have a carrot tray bake recipe but i don’t have a 9×13 tin 🙂
Hi Sarah, Did you try it in the 9×9 tin? Did it work out ok?
This was soo good! First time making a carrot cake and won’t be the last ! This was super tasty. I used 50g sultanas and 50 g pecans and, ugh just so good !! Thank you for the amazing recipe 🙂
Love all your recipes Jane especially your carrot cake was wondering where I can buy your recipe books from. Thank you
Google “Jane’s Patisserie book” and it will list all the places – there’s many! x
Delicious! The cream cheese frosting on this is to die for!!
Ahh thank you!! So glad you love it xx
My first time making carrot cake and this recipe is so easy and the cake turned out so yum! Is there anywhere i can get the nutritional information for this cake please?
Really love this recipe Jane. I keep being asked to make the carrot cake loaf in my house as it’s become a favourite. Just baked another for the third time this year! Hope to see some more loaf recipes this year, and cannot wait for your book.
Wow Jane I made this yesterday and it is honestly the best thing I’ve ever baked in my life! Absolutely delicious!
Hi Jane, thank you so much for the wonderful recipe! I just wanted to ask, the cake came out perfectly apart from a large dome shape at the top whereas I can see yours has a flatter top. I baked it at the temperature suggested for a fan oven so I wanted to know if you had any input on the potential cause of this.
Thanks!
It can sometimes be the oven heat distribution I have found – so all ovens are different so it may mean yours needs lowering a bit and baking for longer instead to get a more natural flatter top! x
Hi
I would like to give this a try, I bought the fondant carrots from Morrisons and when I do have a go at this, I will aim for the photo shown. Looks nice and pretty and I love carrot cake
This cake was a real winner in our house. I did however make a few minor changes. Firstly, I replaced walnuts with chopped pecans and they were delicious. I also didn’t have any oranges, so soaked sultanas in a few tablespoons of fresh orange juice before adding them into the mix. Finally I would suggest halving the amount of frosting that is used for this recipe, as I covered our cake in a very thick layer but still had around half the frosting left over. To decorate I just gently toasted some sliced almonds and sprinkled them on top when cool.