Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

5 from 2 votes

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Classic flavours of cinnamon and vanilla flavoured carrot cake with the fluffiest cream cheese frosting, that is not too sweet or heavy.

Prep Time30

Cook Time35

Total Time1 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: carrot cake

Servings:

Author: Julia Frey of Vikalinka

Equipment

This is an affiliate link.Stand mixer
This is an affiliate link.Springform cake pans
This is an affiliate link.Cooling rack
This is an affiliate link.Knife
This is an affiliate link.Icing piping tip set

Ingredients

For the cake

200g/1 cup white sugar
100g/1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs large
170ml/3/4 cup vegetable oil
280g/2 cups all purpose/plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp This is an affiliate link.vanilla
5 (3 cups) shredded carrots medium carrots

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

400g/14 oz cream cheese full fat
300ml/1 1/4 cup double/heavy whipping cream 36% fat content
65g/1/2 cup icing sugar/powdered sugar
2 tsp This is an affiliate link.vanilla
55g/1/2 cup toasted and chopped walnuts or pecans for decoration
8 ready made candy or white chocolate decorative carrots

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease 2 X 8 inch pans and dust with flour to prevent the cake from sticking.
Beat the both sugars, eggs and oil in the bowl of an electric mixer until well combined for about 1 minute. Then add in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder, vanilla and salt, mix well but to do not overmix. Then stir in the carrots with a spatula.
Evenly divide the batter between two pans and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick, it should come out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack and cool completely. While the cake is cooling toast the nuts in a dry frying pan until they start to release aroma and getting a touch of colour. Remove from the pan, chop roughly and set aside till needed.
In a mixing bowl combine the full fat cream cheese, double/whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla and whip with an electric mixer until stiff. This will take between 3-4 minutes but will be significantly shorter if whipped in a stand mixer with a balloon attachment.
For the US readers: Whip room temperature cream cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Whip the whipping cream separately. Fold the whipping cream into the cream cheese mixture until well combined.
To assemble the cake set one sponge on a cake stand or a flat plate and spread ¼ of the cream cheese frosting on it, then top with the second layer. Cover the top and sides with cream cheese frosting using an offset spatula, reserving ½ cup of the frosting to pipe rosettes on top if desired. Or finish the cake with pretty swirls using the back of a spoon. Top with ready made candy or white chocolate carrots. (Alternatively you can use pecan halves as decoration instead of candy carrots.)Then press the chopped nuts into the sides of the cake.

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