The ONLY Carrot Cake Recipe You'll Ever Need

One of our favourite baking recipes is our best-ever carrot cake, however we have taken this recipe and made some changes to give you the ONLY carrot cake recipe you'll ever need. It is 100% made from scratch, easy to make, versatile and utterly delicious. 

You really need to try and make this recipe, trust me you won't be disappointed. This tweak to our carrot cake recipe has been such a hit with my husband and my little girl who isn't too keen on carrot cake. However this one recipe is so much better than anything I have made before. A moist carrot cake topped with out of this world cheesecake. Delicious, refreshing and so good!

This carrot cake has that special warmth and spice that normally comes through carrot cake. Traditionally carrot cakes need a little crunch but we didn't have any nuts, but you can add some toasted pecans or walnuts into your cake batter. Love them or hate them for to try and help balance the the flavours in this recipe we have decided to use some raisins and sultanas, however if you don't like them you can leave these out. 

To make this delicious revamped carrot cake recipe you'll need

25 ml olive oil

2 large eggs

150g demerara brown sugar

225g grated carrots

75 g raisins or sultanas

1 tsp orange extract

175 g self raising flour

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the cheese cake topping 

(double up mascarpone, icing sugar and double cream for a thicker topping )

250 g mascarpone

1 tsp orange extract

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp mixed spice

35 g icing sugar

200ml double cream

Method

For the cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180℃/160℃ Fan or Gas Mark 4. The line a 20 cm cake tin with some baking parchment. 
2. Peel and grate your carrots into a small bowl. It may take some time if you're doing this by hand so for ease you could use one of these graters to help save on time and your fingers! Using a large bowl pour in the olive oil and eggs and mix until combined. 
3. Add the grated carrots, raisins or sultanas and orange extract into the mixture and mix through. 
4. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda , mixed spice, ginger and cinnamon into the bowl and mixture through. But keep in mind to not over mix and pour into the prepared cake tin. (If you want to add some toasted walnuts or pecans then do so now).
5. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes until cooked through. You can use a cake tester or check with a knife. The timeing will depend on your oven type and you may need to cook your cake for a little longer. Leave to cool in the tins. 

For the topping

1. As your cake is cooling in the tins you can make a start on that delicious cheesecake topping! Using a large bowl add in your mascarpone, orange extract, mixed spice, cinnamon, ginger, and icing sugar and whisk together into smooth. 
2. Then slowly start adding in your double cream, if you're using an electric whisk you may want to place a towel over your bowl as you'll get covered in cream. Got a kitchen aid? Even better!
3. Once the mixture is thick it's now time to add that delicious topping to your cake. We left our cake in the tin as we added the topping because we wanted to make sure that we had a smooth even layer, but if you want you can spread the topping all over your cake. Place your cake in the fridge for a couple of hours to set a little and then enjoy.

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