Carrot Cake Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrot cake is a classic. A light and fluffy cake flavoured with shredded
carrot and spices topped with tangy cream cheese frosting. Its a favourite of mine and Im going
to share with you my recipe. Firstly were getting started with the carrots.

Youll need about 2 and half cups of grated
carrot which works out to be about 4 small or 2 large. Wash and peel the carrots, cut off the ends
and shred them using a box grater. It can be tempting to just buy pre shredded
carrots here but please make sure you use fresh. The pre done packaged stuff tends to be quite
dry but the cake needs all the moisture it can get from the carrots.

Pre shredded dry carrots ends with a dry cake. If you would like the full recipe for this
carrot cake it will be on my website as well as the full measurements listed in the description
box below. Make sure to subscribe to my channel and take
a look at my other cake recipes. Place all of the shredded carrots into a medium
sized mixing bowl and start to crack in the 4 medium sized free range eggs.

I like to keep my eggs in the fridge so they
stay fresher for longer, if youre the same just remove them, along with any other ingredients
kept in the fridge an hour or so before youre baking so they have a chance to come up to
room temperature. Four eggs may seem like a lot but this recipe
makes quite a large cake that you can bake in one large tin or two smaller. If you want to make a smaller cake the recipe
can easily be halved without a problem. To the carrot and eggs measure out 2 cups
of granulated white sugar to sweeten everything up along with a teaspoon of good quality vanilla
for flavour.

Use a wooden spoon to mix the wet ingredients
together until well combined. If you didnt want to make a cake you can
also use this exact same recipe and divide it into cupcake tins, filling until they are
2/3 full to make carrot cupcakes. Just top with lemon or cream cheese frosting. One of the reasons I love making this cake
is there is no need to cream together butter and sugar, meaning its so much easier and
quicker to make.

Most cakes use butter as their main fat, but
this cake uses oil. Oil makes the cake feel a lot lighter and
moist than butter does, but it doesnt tend to have as much flavour. Use a neutral oil like vegetable or canola
so the cake doesnt have an over powering flavour and add it to the wet ingredients. Mix well until combined.

Set the wet ingredients to the side while
we work on the dry. In a large bowl sieve together the dry ingredients,
the cake flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. If you dont have cake flour on hand all
purpose flour will work just as well. Cake flour has a lower protein percentage,
which basically means your baked goods will turn out lighter.

If you do a lot of baking I would recommend
getting some to keep in your pantry for next time. This cake also used baking soda instead of
baking powder, make sure not to get the two confused. Baking powder contains baking soda as well
as an acid but this cake has shredded carrot which is quite acidic so we just need baking
soda as the levelling agent. Sieve the dry ingredients together before
pouring the wet ingredients into the same bowl.

Use a wooden spoon to fold everything together
until you can no longer see any dry flour. Make sure not to over mix as this develops
gluten leading to a drier and tougher cake. Pour the cake batter into one 8 inch cake
tin or divide it between two 7 inch tins like I have. Bake in a 170 C or 340 F oven for 35-40 minutes
or until a skewer comes out clean through the centre.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes
before transferring to a wire rack to cool. The best icing or frosting for carrot cake
I think is cream cheese frosting but lemon works pretty well also. This cake is super sweet and the tangyness
of the cream cheese cuts right through it. To make the frosting add room temperature
butter to a stand mixer or a large bowl if you are using a hand mixer.

Mix on hight speed for about 5 minutes until
the butter has doubled in volume and is extremely pale and creamy. Ive also got a more in depth tutorial for
how to make cream cheese frosting which I. Will have linked below. It has a tendency to turn out too thin or
split so if youve ever had a problem making it make sure to take a look at the tutorial.

Add the cream cheese to the butter and mix
for about a minute or until well combined. Scrape the edges of the bowl down with a rubber
spatula to get anything stuck to the sides. Sieve the icing sugar, powdered sugar, or
confectioners sugar. All the same ingredient just different names
depending on where you live in the world.

Add the sugar in thirds to the butter and
cream cheese, mixing for about a minute on high speed between additions. Finally give the bowl another scrape down
and mix for a further minute until the frosting is light and fluffy. When your cake has completely cooled transfer
it to a serving plate or a cake stand. If you baked the cake in two tins, top the
first cake with about a cup of the cream cheese frosting before adding the second cake.

Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting
evenly over the cake, dont worry about it looking smooth carrot cake always looks
better with a little texture to it. Leave the cake and frosting to set for a few
hours before cutting a slice and enjoying. Thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed
this recipe and I will see you in my next video..