I’m always looking for a good cake recipe to use with my 9 x 5 loaf pan, besides the Lemon Ricotta Cake that I originally bought the pan for. This carrot cake is great. It used my loaf pan (yeah!), it’s easy and tasty, ad even a little healthy. I’ll definitely be making it again and again. I made a loaf of Banana Bread at the same time because I had some bananas that couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t help but notice that there is more flour in the banana bread, which bakes in a smaller loaf pan, than in this carrot cake recipe. As a result, the carrot cake doesn’t entirely fill the loaf pan. I might experiment with adding another egg and another ½ cup of flour, to make a larger cake. But as the recipe is written, the cake to icing ratio is pretty good. You can get a little bit of icing in every bite.
Lining the bottom of the loaf pan with parchment may not be entirely necessary, but it makes removal super easy. Cut the paper to be the width of the bottom of your pan. Then spray the bottom and sides of the pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan with the paper hanging out on the short ends. After the cake is finished baking and cooling, you can use the paper as handles to easily pull the cake out.After we ate the leftover cake on the second night, Zach looked up how long you should leave cream cheese icing on the counter unrefrigerated. Not overnight. It didn’t seem to hurt us any, but I won’t leave it out in the future. Next time, I’ll probably frost only the top and store the cake back in the loaf pan in the fridge.
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Loaf
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup apple sauce snack sized container
- 1 1/2 cup carrots shredded (3-4 medium carrots)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnunts or pecans optional
- 1/2 cup raisins optional
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
- In a medium bowl combine eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar and applesauce.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Fold in carrots, chopped nuts, and raisins.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the cake looks set and golden brown on top and a knife inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
- Allow cake to cool in loaf pan for about 30 minutes before removing it to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the icing. In a large bowl using a hand mixer, (or the paddle attachment of a stand mixer) beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, and mix until combined and smooth.
- Recipe makes enough icing to cover the top and sides of the cake. If you’d rather serve it from the pan and frost only the top, a half-recipe of icing will be enough.
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