Hip Hip Hooray Carrot Cake
Is there anything better than Carrot Cake on your birthday? Yes, there is. It's this velvety Hip Hip Hooray Carrot Cake, which has been lovingly blanketed with a luscious lemony cream cheese icing and topped with edible daisies! This year I decided to make my own birthday cake and I wasn't even mad about it. This incredibly moist Carrot Cake is one of my "go to" recipes because it's dead easy - you simply mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and bake it in the oven before allowing it to cool and then icing it. There's no complicated step by step recipe here. And that's why I love making this Carrot Cake.
Why you are going to love this recipe
As I mentioned above, this is not a complicated recipe. You simply mix your dry ingredients with your wet ingredients, and bake it in the oven. This cake also only has one layer, so you only need one cake tin and there aren't multiple baking situations happening here. Hurrah!
I also prefer to use a hell of a lot less sugar in my cake recipes than most. I don't have a particularly strong sweet tooth and I find the quantity of sugar in cake recipes to be OTT. So, you'll be delighted to know that this recipe has hardly any added sugar in it. Hurrah!
You can also "choose your own adventure" with this recipe by making it with or without the pecans and walnuts. And while I am not a fan of adding sultanas in Carrot Cake, you can easily add half a cup and it won't affect the recipe or baking time.
The lemony cream cheese icing is so simply and delicious and silky smooth. You don't need to be an icing artist either. Simply pour it on top and smooth it over and down the sides with a silicone spatula or a butter knife.
If you're a little bit extra like me, add a herbal note to this velvety smooth Carrot Cake by topping the icing with edible daisies. I initially bought a bunch of Easter Daisies from my local fruit and vegetable shop Tewantin Market Garden to put in a vase at home, but realised I could use these to top my birthday cake. They add an incredible savoury yet herbal flavour to this subtly sweet Carrot Cake.
You're also going to love this recipe because this year I decided to slice it a little differently using wine glasses, which you can see here. This adds a lot of fun and drama to the more traditional ways of cutting a cake, and I think you're going to love it!
A little note from me
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this recipe. I hope you enjoyed reading it and making this velvety Hip Hip Hooray Carrot Cake for your birthday, or maybe one of your friends or families birthdays! Heck, you don't even need the excuse of a birthday to make it. I know a lot of you are doing it tough in lockdown, so consider this your Lockdown Saviour Carrot Cake. If you love this recipe, you can also stay in touch with me by following along on Instagram and Pinterest where I share lots of recipes and DIY projects every week. If you have any questions or want to say hello, I'd love to hear from you! Write to me at jaharn@smorkitchen.com. Happy cooking, happy DIY'ing!
Carrot Cake
Servings
10
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Is there anything better than Carrot Cake on your birthday? Yes, there is. It's this velvety Hip Hip Hooray Carrot Cake, which has been lovingly blanketed with a luscious lemony cream cheese icing and topped with edible daisies! This year I decided to make my own birthday cake and I wasn't even mad about it. This incredibly moist Carrot Cake is one of my "go to" recipes because it's dead easy - you simply mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and bake it in the oven before allowing it to cool and then icing it. There's no complicated step by step recipe here. And that's why I love making this Carrot Cake.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
1 cup plain flour
1 cup self raising flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I prefer canola oil)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups peeled and grated carrots
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
Lemony Cream Cheese Icing
250g cream cheese
3 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup thickened pouring cream
Edible flowers, such as Easter Daisies
Directions
Preheat oven to 180C. Line the bottom of a large cake tin with baking paper. Grease the sides of the cake tin with softened butter.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, turmeric until thoroughly combined.
In another large bowl, whisk the oil, sugars and vanilla. Whisk eggs in one at a time until thoroughly combined.
Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in 3 parts. Each time, gently stir the ingredients until thoroughly combined and the cake batter is smooth. Add grated carrots and nuts.
Pour the cake batter into the cake tin. Bake in the oven until the cooked through (use a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is ready) for 35 to 45 minutes.
Turn the oven off and place the cake on a cooling tray for at least 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the cake tin and set aside to completely cool on the cooling tray.
While the cake is cooling, in a large bowl beat the cream cheese with a hand held mixer (or a standing mixer) on high speed until creamy and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in icing sugar (1/4 cup at a time) until fluffy. Pour in vanilla extract, lemon juice and cream and beat on high speed for a further minute. Cover the icing and chill in the fridge until the cake is ready to be iced.
Pour the icing over the top of the cake and spread all over the top and sides with a silicone spatula or a butter knife. Decorate with edible flowers. And remember to cut the cake using wine glasses!
