This moist and delicious Carrot Cake Loaf is made with fresh carrots and warm spices before being topped with a whipped cream cheese frosting for an ideal snack cake to have on hand.
Table of Contents
Ingredients and substitutions for Carrot Cake Loaf
- Sunflower Oil: Light sunflower oil lends a beautiful texture to this loaf cake without adding additional flavor, though you could substitute with olive oil for a more earthy flavor.
- Eggs: The eggs helps to bind the ingredients and gives the loaf structure whilst also being light.
- Sugar: The brown sugars helps add a light complimentary flavor to the spices and helps activate the baking soda, they also add the beautiful color that we know and love in a carrot cake or carrot loaf. The confectionerโs or icing sugar helps our cream cheese frosting be light.
- Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best to create a nice light crumb to our cake.
- Baking soda: This is the key to the our cake lightly rising thanks to the brown sugar (the acid that baking soda needs to work with to rise) so don't leave it out, unless you are using self raising flour. You cannot sub baking powder like for like for this recipe as baking soda is 3-4 times stronger so you would need plenty more which would leave an after taste!
- Ground spices: Ground cinnamon and nutmeg work to add depth to the loaf and compliment the carrot flavor and brown sugars.
- Carrots: Raw orange carrots that are nice and crisp were used for a full and fresh flavor.
- Walnuts: For some people walnuts are controversial in carrot cake, but honestly, walnuts add a little crunch and the flavor compliments the carrots and ground spices. Remove, if you prefer, to make this your own. Alternatively you could replace with pecans in equal measure.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Carrot Cake Loaf:
Step 1: Wet base: Whisk the eggs, sugars and sunflower oil until smooth.
Step 2: Dry ingredients: Stir together with a fork (this will help remove large lumps) and toss into the wet mixture.
Step 3: Carrot: Add the grated carrot and roughly chopped walnuts and fold until well combined.
Step 4: Bake: Pour into your loaf tin and smooth out on top. Bake until golden.
Step 5: Whip: The butter until pale.
Step 6: Sugar time: Toss in the sugar and whip until it's well combined and smooth.
Step 7: Cream cheese: Add the cream cheese and whip before adding in the vanilla extract and combine.
Step 8: Spoon: The cream cheese on the top of your loaf and smear out over the entire loaf.
Step 9: Slice: Serve and dig in!
FAQ's for the best Carrot Cake Loaf
Freshness of your carrots factor in here, youโll want whole fresh carrots that snap when you bend them. They hold more moisture which will result in a moist texture to your baked cake. Grating your carrots on the finest setting of your grater works best here and helps ensure the carrots are strewn more easily throughout the entire cake batter. Using oil also works best here because it will hold the moisture best and is liquid at room temperature unlike butter.
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Carrot Cake Loaf
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Loaf
- 160 grams / ยพ cup + 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 50 grams / ยผ cup dark brown sugar
- 114 grams / ยฝ cup sunflower oil
- 110 grams / 2 large eggs room temperature
- 290 grams / 1 ยพ cups + 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 3 grams / ยฝ teaspoon baking soda
- 6 grams / 1 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder
- ยฝ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ยผ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 270 grams / 3 cups carrots peeled and finely grated
- 33 grams / โ cup walnuts roughly chopped
Frosting
- 40 grams / 3 tablespoons butter room temperature
- 55 grams / ยฝ cup + 2 teaspoons confectioner/icing sugar
- 125 grams / 4.4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Carrot cake loaf
- Preheat the oven to 160C/320F and lightly greaseproof a loaf tin.
- Place the sugars, oil and eggs and whisk until well combined, approximately 2 minutes.
- In a separate bowl place the flour, baking soda, baking powder and ground spices and stir to combine.
- Toss the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold until your cake batter is formed and no dry portions remain on the edges of your bowl.
- Really fold here because the wet ingredients will sneakily puddle up in spots and the batter will be quite thick by the time you have finished incorporating.
- Add the grated carrot and roughly chopped walnuts and fold until well combined.
- Pour into your loaf tin and smooth out on top.
- Bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean, approximately 1 hour 5 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes before placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Frosting
- Place the butter into a bowl and whip until pale, approximately 3 minutes.
- Toss in the sugar and whip until it's well combined and smooth, at least 1 minute.
- Add the cream cheese and whip a further 30 seconds before adding in the vanilla extract and combine.
- Spoon on the top of your loaf and smear out over the entire loaf.
- Slice and serve.
- Dig in!
Notes
- Ground spices: Ground cinnamon and nutmeg work to add depth to the loaf and compliment the carrot flavor and brown sugars.
- Carrots: Raw orange carrots that are nice and crisp were used for a full and fresh flavor.
- Walnuts: For some people walnuts are controversial in carrot cake, but honestly, walnuts add a little crunch and the flavor compliments the carrots and ground spices. Remove, if you prefer, to make this your own. Alternatively you could replace with pecans in equal measure.
- Loaf tin: A traditional loaf pan is ideal for this recipe, as it allows the cake to bake evenly and gives it that perfect shape. The loaf tin used here fits 1 kilo or 2 pounds.
Nutrition
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Made it and loved it?
If you have made this recipe, it would mean so much to leave a review below to help more people find this.
Shirley
Have had a hefty carrot cake craving recently, but I'm not much of a baker and moved recently, so my one cake tin is somewhere still packed away. I didn't even use an electric beater for the cake and being able to bake it in a loaf tin made this a stellar recipe. Loved this without the frosting, but had to give that a go too and it was the perfect consistency. Will be adding this to my baking rotation.
Sylvie Taylor
Thanks so much Shirley, glad to hear you enjoyed it as much as we do!