11/03/2020

Very Moist Carrot Cake

Name: Very Moist Carrot Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 2 cups Plain Flour; 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 2 tsp baking powder; 2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp salt; 2 cups caster sugar; 1 cup walnuts (roughly chopped (plus extra for decorating)); 1 ½ cups vegetable oil; 4 eggs; 3 cups grated carrot; 250 g cream cheese (softened); 50 g butter (softened ); 1 tsp vanilla extract; 500 g icing sugar (sifted)

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You just can’t go past this very moist carrot cake with walnuts and creamy frosting. It’s my foolproof, tried and tested recipe that works every time to give you a delightfully fluffy, and incredibly moist cake.

Carrot cake is one of my favourites along with orange and poppyseed cake and Almond cake. I think you are going to fall in love with this cake too!

There’s something about combining grated carrot with sugar, spice and a pinch of salt that just tastes amazing. Add the creamy, sweet frosting and your in for a real treat.

I love a bit of crunch in my cakes and in this one It’s from walnuts. I know nuts is one of those ingredients that can be debatable so if It’s not your thing or there are allergies in your family you can totally leave it out.

This carrot cake is so easy to make you do not need any baking experience. All you need is 2 bowls and a whisk and your ready to go.

It literally involves combining dry ingredients with wet ingredients and mixing it all through! It’s a piece of cake!

What makes this Carrot Cake so moist?

In the wonderful world of baking sugars and fats help to keep cakes moist. This recipe uses sugar and oil to make the cake really moist. Then by adding the grated carrot it’s going to take it up another level. How am I going at convincing you that this is a very moist carrot cake 🙂

Which is the best oil to use

In this recipe I have used vegetable oil but you can use any neutral flavoured oil to make your carrot cake super moist.

The reason we use a neutral oil is because you don’t want the oil to overpower the other ingredients.

The salt, cinnamon and vanilla is what you want to shine because they are the 3 ingredients that make the cake taste amazing!

Other examples of neutral oils would be canola oil, grapeseed oil and sunflower oil.

What you will need to make this very moist carrot cake

As you will see below the ingredients are so simple and you would have most of these items already.

The recipe uses both bicarb soda and baking powder which is going to aid in rising the cake x2.

Plain Flour

Bicarbonate of soda (Baking Soda)

Baking powder

Ground cinnamon

Salt

Caster sugar

Walnuts

Vegetable oil

Eggs

Carrot

How to make Carrot cake

For this recipe you will need 2 bowls. One to mix the dry ingredients and one to mix the wet ingredients.

Start by peeling and then finely grating your carrots. You want them finely grated because you don’t want any big chunks in the cake.

In the first bowl add the flour, bicarb soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, sugar and walnuts. Stir until combined.

Dry Ingredients for the carrot cake batter

In another bowl, mix together the oil and eggs until well combined and then stir in the carrot.

Once the dry ingredient and the wet ingredients are well combined in their seperate bowls, you can now pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient. Mix well until combined.

The final batter for very moist carrot cake

How delicious does that batter look! It gets me every single time and I just want to grab a tablespoon and dig in!

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 60-80 minutes or until cooked through. Cool for 5 minutes before removing the cake from the tin and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

the best ever cake batter ready to be baked

How do I know when the cake is ready

There are a few ways to know when a cake is ready. If you check the cake and it is firm to touch and not wobbly that’s one sign. You will also notice that the cake starts to come away from the edges of the tin. To be certain that the cake Is cooked you can insert a skewer or toothpick in the centre and if it comes out clean or with dry crumbs it is ready.

Icing

This part really is the icing on the cake! The best part!

Honestly this cake will taste amazing without adding any icing so feel free to leave this part out and enjoy the cake as is.

However, if your after a flavour explosion in your mouth then I would go for the icing! Cream cheese icing/frosting just goes so well with carrot cake.

It’s that combination of sweet, crunch and spice in every mouthful.

To make the icing I use an electric mixer however, don’t stress if you don’t have one you will just need to use a little elbow grease and whisk by hand. the trick is to make sure your cream cheese and butter is at room temperature.

How to make the icing and ice the cake

Your going to need just 4 ingredients

Cream Cheese, leave it out for a few hours before your ready to make the icing so it will be much easier to work with.

Butter at room temperature

Vanilla bean paste, so delicious

Icing sugar, sifted to remove any lumps!

In the bowl of an electric mixer add the cream cheese, butter and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat until you have a smooth consistency. Refrigerate until needed.

Once the cake has completely cooled, use a spatula to spread the icing over the top of the cake and decorate with walnuts.

How long will carrot cake keep

Because of the cream cheese icing it is best to keep carrot cake in the fridge.

To stop the cake from drying out I recommend storing the cake in an airtight container. It will keep in the fridge for 5-6 days.

Did you know that carrot cake tastes even better the next day once all the flavours have gotten cosy together.

I hope you will enjoy this delicious recipe for many years to come.

If you make this carrot cake please leave a comment below. I love hearing your feedback!