A beautiful and delicious carrot cake, lovely for a spring or summer welcome, topped with choice of fresh seasonal flowers.
The recipe below is for a loaf. For four-tier cake please see notes.
Enjoy.
Carrot Loaf
Ingredients
- 219 g all-purpose flour (1 3/4 cup)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 155 g granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
- 100 g vegetable oil (1/2 cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 118 mL buttermilk (1/2 cup)
- 1 Tablespoon sour cream
- 150 g carrots grated (1 1/2 cups)
Optional
- 70 g chopped pecans
- cream cheese frosting See notes.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 177C/350F.
- Grease and flour a 21 x 11cm (8.5 x 4.5in) loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, buttermilk and sour cream until combined.
- Sift in flour mixture in two batches, stirring or whisking until combined.
- Fold in grated carrot, chopped pecans if using.
- Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and top is golden brown. see notes
- Remove from oven and cool in pan at room temperature. The bread continues to cook while it cools, so resist removing from pan for another hour or so.
Notes
It’s important not to use too much flour in the batter, otherwise loaf may turn out dry. Most accurate way is to measure amounts using a kitchen scale.
In place of buttermilk, you may use 1 cup whole milk with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice.
I’ve made this recipe several times, so I know how much carrot I prefer. You may use more or less as you like.
For 4-tier cake, double the recipe, divide batter into four 20cm/8in pans and bake each for 20 minutes. Top with choice of sweetened and thickened sour cream, or you may choose to use more traditional cream cheese frosting. Optional, decorate with fresh flowers.