Pastry
Carrot Cake
A moist, tender, gently spiced carrot cake made with oil and brown sugar, packed with grated carrot, toasted walnuts and orange zest, layered and topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting that is not too sweet and holds its shape.
- Serves 12
- Two 20 cm layers
- Bakes 30 min
- British / American
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Oil two 20 cm (8 in) round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour (300 g), bicarbonate of soda (1 tsp), baking powder (1½ tsp), cinnamon (2 tsp), ginger (½ tsp), nutmeg (¼ tsp) and salt (½ tsp).
In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar (300 g) and eggs (4 eggs) for 1–2 minutes until smooth and a little paler, rubbing out any lumps of sugar. Slowly whisk in the oil (250 ml), then the vanilla (1 tsp) and orange zest (1 orange), until it looks like thin mayonnaise.
Fold in the flour mixture until just combined, then fold in the carrots (300 g), walnuts (100 g) and sultanas (75 g), if using. Do not overmix.
Divide between the tins and bake for 28–32 minutes until risen, springy and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a rack and leave to cool completely.
For the frosting, beat the butter (75 g) and icing sugar (250 g) together until smooth and pale. Add the cold cream cheese (200 g) and the zest in two goes, beating only until smooth. If you overbeat it, it turns runny.
Sandwich the cakes with a third of the frosting, then spread the rest over the top. Scatter with the chopped walnuts (25 g). Chill for 30 minutes to firm up before slicing.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Grate the carrots finely, on the small holes of a box grater or with the fine grating disc of a food processor. Fine shreds melt into the crumb; coarse ones stay chewy and wet.
- Toast the walnuts in the oven at 180°C (160°C fan), gas mark 4, for 6–8 minutes. It makes a big difference to the flavour.
- Carrot cake is better the day after baking. Keep the frosted cake in the fridge for up to 5 days, but bring slices to room temperature before eating.
- For a 23 × 33 cm traybake, bake all the batter in one lined tin for 35–40 minutes and spread the frosting on top.
- Unfrosted layers freeze well for up to 2 months, wrapped in clingfilm.
A wartime favourite
Sweet puddings made with carrot go back to medieval Europe, when sugar was costly and carrots were one of the sweetest vegetables available. Carrot puddings appear in English cookery books from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Carrots came back into British baking during the Second World War, when sugar was rationed and the Ministry of Food promoted carrots as a sweetener, with recipes for carrot cakes, puddings and even carrot fudge.
The modern oil-based layer cake with cream cheese frosting is largely an American creation. It became hugely popular in the 1960s and 70s, partly because carrots made it look like a “healthy” cake, and it soon crossed back to Britain to become a coffee-shop and teatime favourite.
How this recipe was developed
We compared the highest-rated carrot cakes on Allrecipes (Carrot Cake III), NYT Cooking (Dorie Greenspan) and BBC Good Food with versions by Christopher Kimball’s Cook’s Illustrated and Jamie Oliver.
- Oil, not butter, in the cake. Allrecipes, BBC Good Food and Cook’s Illustrated all use oil, which keeps the crumb moist and soft even when the cake is chilled. Jamie Oliver’s creamed-butter method was not adopted.
- Bicarbonate of soda plus baking powder. Cook’s Illustrated uses both, and Allrecipes relies on bicarbonate of soda. The bicarbonate reacts with the brown sugar and browns the crumb.
- All brown sugar. BBC Good Food uses light muscovado for moisture and a caramel note; Cook’s Illustrated mixes white and brown sugar.
- Finely grated carrot, about the same weight as the flour. Cook’s Illustrated shreds the carrots finely in a food processor. Allrecipes and BBC Good Food use 265–330 g for a cake this size.
- Orange zest and warm spice. BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver add orange; cinnamon and nutmeg are common to all versions, and the ginger is ours.
- A less sweet but stable frosting. BBC Good Food beats butter and icing sugar first, then adds the cheese gradually so it does not split. We use more cream cheese for tang, plus citrus zest after Jamie Oliver’s lime icing and BBC’s orange-zest tip.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Allrecipes: Carrot Cake III (4.8/5, 7314 ratings)
- NYT Cooking (Dorie Greenspan): Carrot Cake (5/5, 11566 ratings)
- BBC Good Food (Cassie Best): Easy carrot cake (4.4/5, 645 ratings)
- Christopher Kimball (America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated): Simple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Jamie Oliver: A rather pleasing carrot cake with lime mascarpone icing
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.