What berries go with carrot cake? Carrot cake recipe. Why you need to bake carrot cake

Today I will have an unusual introduction. I have the right - it’s my birthday, after all... Well, I congratulate myself and wish only one thing - lots and lots of health. I am a happy person, I have everything: a beloved family, a favorite hobby... And this birthday cake. The first one, by the way, which I prepared personally for my beloved. Happy Birthday, Tanya, as they say!

In general, lately I haven’t been making cakes very often and more and more for someone as a gift. But when I saw Lenochka Tarantina’s recipe for this amazing dessert (thank you so much, dear!), it was love at first sight. I knew for sure that HE would be the gift for me on my day with my morning cup of coffee.

The composition of carrot cake may seem too complicated, and the range of ingredients may seem huge. But this is not entirely true: the ingredients are quite accessible (you just have to look for good cream cheese), the dough and cream are made in a matter of minutes, the cakes are baked without problems. The cake is assembled in no time, but how to decorate the finished dessert - feel free to imagine it yourself!

Why carrot cake? I love vegetables in sweet baked goods - pumpkin, zucchini and carrots always behave perfectly in this matter. Carrots give the dough not only sweetness and juiciness, but also an appetizing orange color. By the way, don’t worry: there will be no characteristic carrot taste at all! And there are also nuts (you can use any of your choice), which crunch nicely. Well, what is the bouquet of spices worth - the aroma of the finished cakes is simply fabulous... You will also appreciate the buttercream - it is so delicate, smooth and velvety.

Ingredients:

Carrot dough:

(250 grams) (180 grams) (150 grams) (150 milliliters) (80 grams) (2 pieces ) (1 tablespoon ) (1 teaspoon) (0.5 teaspoon) (0.5 teaspoon) (0.25 teaspoon) (0.25 teaspoon) (0.25 teaspoon) (1 pinch)

Cream:

Cooking step by step:

So, to prepare a carrot cake we will need the following products: fresh carrots (250 grams - this is already peeled and chopped on a medium grater), wheat flour (I have the highest, but the first grade will do), granulated sugar and powdered sugar, butter and refined vegetable (I use sunflower) oil, cream cheese (in my case Mascarpone, but you can buy Philadelphia, Almette and the like), two medium-sized chicken eggs (45-50 grams each), shelled walnuts, orange zest (approx. from 1 large orange, but you can do more - it will only be more aromatic), lemon juice, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. My favorite spices are cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg - dried and ground.

Immediately turn on the oven to warm up at 180 degrees, since it won’t take much time to prepare the dough for the carrot cake. In a bowl, combine wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt (preferably fine) and spices. Mix everything and be sure to sift through a sieve. The dry mixture for the dough is ready - set it aside for now.

Now let's deal with the liquid component of the dough. Pour odorless vegetable oil into a bowl and add granulated sugar.

Beat everything with a whisk or using a mixer for a couple of minutes. The sugar will not dissolve completely - this is normal. Then beat in two chicken eggs one at a time and beat everything again.

The result is a kind of emulsion that, in fact, can be called sweet mayonnaise. Add orange zest - just remove it directly from the orange (wash and dry the fruit thoroughly) using a fine grater.

Beat everything again. See how the mixture turned a nice yellow-orange color due to the zest? It turns out very fragrant!

Mix everything with a spoon or spatula until smooth and homogeneous. The consistency of the dough resembles low-fat sour cream.

It's time to add carrots and nuts. The carrots, as I wrote above, need to be chopped on a medium grater, and the peeled walnuts must first be fried (tastier this way) and chopped with a knife.

Stir carrots and nuts into the dough so that they are evenly distributed throughout the mixture. The dough for the carrot cake is ready - let's bake it.

It is best to use a baking dish with a diameter of no more than 16 centimeters (this is exactly what I have) - then there will be enough dough for 2 cakes. If there is no such small form, bake in a larger one, but then all the dough at once. Cover the bottom and sides of the mold with parchment and lay out half the dough. I specially weighed all the dough (920 grams) and divided it into two parts of 460 grams each. While the first cake is being prepared, the rest of the dough can just sit on the table.

You need to bake carrot cake cakes on a medium level in a preheated oven at 180 degrees. Depending on the diameter of the mold, baking time may vary. For example, I baked mine for 40 minutes each. We check the readiness of the cakes using a wooden skewer or toothpick - the dough comes out dry, which means everything is ready.

We take the first cake out of the mold directly into the parchment and leave it on a wire rack to cool completely. Immediately transfer the second part of the dough into the mold (don’t forget to line the mold with paper) and put it in the oven to cook for the same amount of time. A carrot cake with a diameter of 16 centimeters turns out to be about 2.5-3 centimeters high. Let it cool, then cut it lengthwise into two parts.

In the meantime, you can prepare the cream for the carrot cake. To do this, it is extremely important that the butter is soft (take it out of the refrigerator a few hours before) and the cream cheese is at room temperature.

Beat soft butter with powdered sugar and a pinch of vanillin (can be replaced with a teaspoon of vanilla sugar) until fluffy and light using a mixer. Then add cream cheese in small portions and mix it with a mixer.

Beat everything together for a few minutes to get a soft, smooth, homogeneous and shiny cream. At the end, add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice and simply mix it into the cream with a spoon or spatula.

The buttercream for the carrot cake is ready. Let it sit on the table while the cakes cool.

When the carrot cakes have cooled COMPLETELY (if you put cream on a warm cake, it will immediately begin to melt), we will assemble the cake. In total you get 2 cakes with a diameter of 16 cm each. Cut each one in half lengthwise. Take a flat plate (dish) and cover it with 2 sheets of baking paper (overlapping a little - later I’ll show you why this is needed). Place one cake in the center.

We perceive carrots as an ingredient in vegetable salads, soups or pie fillings. But few people know that carrots have been used since the 16th century to make sweet baked goods - muffins, cookies, puddings and buns. It’s hard to believe, but from a few carrots you can create a confectionery masterpiece, and no one will guess that the dough is made from an ordinary vegetable. Today we will talk about how to cook, tender, beautiful and very tasty. There are many different recipes for carrot pies and cakes, and each housewife has her own secrets for preparing them.

Who made carrot cake for the first time?

Italy is considered the birthplace of carrot dessert, and this is not surprising, because Italians are so inventive in the culinary arts! Interestingly, carrot baking was first prepared mainly in poor families, since carrots were an affordable product. A little later, carrot cake was undeservedly forgotten, and the recipe was revived in post-war Great Britain in the middle of the last century, when there was a shortage of food in Europe. Carrots and other vegetables were given out on ration cards, but housewives found the opportunity to prepare carrot cake on holidays for the delight of their children.

Carrot cake: cook at home

Carrot cake is usually made with sponge batter, often using butter sponge or muffin batter recipes. The cake should be well baked and at the same time turn out juicy, moist and slightly crumbly. For taste and aroma, honey, lemon juice and zest, dried fruits, nuts and aromatic spices are added to the dough. The recipe is easily modified, so every housewife can prepare her own exclusive dessert, unique and inimitable.

In classic recipes, the dough is prepared using fresh grated carrots, eggs, sugar, butter or vegetable oil, soda and flour - the dough should be soft, not tight. For the cream, sour cream is mixed with sugar and flavored with lemon zest or vanilla. Instead of sour cream, you can use cottage cheese, cheese, butter, cream, protein or custard.

Standard baking dishes have a diameter of about 18 cm - these are the shapes that are meant in most recipes that can be found in cookbooks. It’s not scary if your shape is one or two centimeters larger or smaller.

The baked cakes are coated with cream, soaked, and the finished cake is decorated with nuts, chocolate, coconut flakes, fruits, confectionery sprinkles or mastic figures.

Secrets of making carrot cake

Tip 1. Some housewives want to mask the taste of carrots. This is quite possible if you add natural flavors to the dough - vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, candied fruits, citrus zest or fruit essence.

Tip 2. After combining with sugar, sour cream becomes liquid and spreads over the cakes, so use only very fatty and thick sour cream. It can be replaced with heavy cream or natural yogurt.

Tip 3. It is not necessary to add butter to the dough; sponge cake can be made only with eggs, sugar, baking powder and flour. If desired, baking powder can be replaced with soda slaked with vinegar.

Tip 4. You can use carrots for the cake raw or boiled - it doesn’t really matter. If you are using young and juicy raw carrots, you do not need to squeeze them, just slightly increase the baking time.

Tip 5. Baking time depends on the amount of dough and the size of the mold. Check the readiness of the sponge cake with a dry wooden stick; place the finished sponge cake directly in the mold on a damp towel - this will make it easier to remove it from the dish.

Carrot cake: step-by-step recipe with photos

Try making carrot cake according to the classic recipe. Carrots give the cake a delicate orange tint, like an orange.

Ingredients: for the dough: sugar - 1 cup, eggs - 3 pcs., carrots - 3 pcs. medium size, baking powder - 1 tsp, vegetable oil - ⅓ cup, raisins - 0.5 cup, flour - 1 cup, vanillin - 1 sachet; for cream: sour cream - 200 g, sugar - 0.5 cups.

Cooking method:

Pour boiling water over the raisins and leave for half an hour.
Wash and peel the carrots, and then chop them on a fine grater.
Beat eggs with sugar until fluffy using a mixer or blender.
Pour vegetable oil into the eggs.
Add carrots.
Add flour, baking powder and vanillin to the mixture and mix well.
Dry the raisins with a napkin and add to the dough.
Beat the dough in a mixer at low speed.
Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Grease the mold with oil, place the dough and place in the oven for half an hour.
Remove the cake and cool it directly on a wire rack.
Cut the sponge cake into several layers.
Beat sour cream with sugar until sugar is completely dissolved.
Coat the cakes with cream and leave for 2 hours to soak.
Decorate the cake with chocolate icing.

This carrot cake will decorate any family celebration - it will definitely be appreciated!

Carrot and cranberry cake

Cranberry sourness will give the delicate cake a special piquancy and slightly highlight the carrot sweetness.

Grind 4 medium carrots on a fine grater. Mix 200 g of soft butter and 200 g of sugar, add 3 eggs and beat well. Combine the butter-egg mixture with a packet of baking powder and 300 g of sifted flour, add carrots and mix. Place the dough in a greased multicooker bowl, turn on the baking mode and set the time (60 minutes).

For the cream, boil 200 ml of milk, cool, and then mix with 200 g of powdered sugar and 200 g of butter. Beat the cream with a mixer until it becomes thick and smooth. Cut the cooled sponge cake into two layers, spread the bottom cake with cream, sprinkle with fresh cranberries. Spread the top cake with cream and decorate with crushed nuts.

Place the juicy, sweet and beautiful cake in the refrigerator for 2 hours to soak, and then serve.

Carrot cake with pineapples

Carrots go well with pineapples and other fruits, which make baked goods fresher and juicier.

Mix the dry ingredients for the dough - 200 g flour, 150 g powdered sugar, 5 g each of soda and baking powder, as well as a pinch of vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

Beat 3 eggs at high speed, gradually pour in 120 ml of odorless olive oil and, continuing to beat, add the dry ingredients. At the end of beating, the speed should be very low.

Mix the egg-oil mixture with 250 g of finely grated carrots, 150 g of ground walnuts and 150 g of canned pineapple, cut into pieces. Mix the ingredients well and place in a mold covered with oiled baking paper. Bake a tender and fragrant sponge cake for about 45 minutes at 180°C. Cut the sponge cake into two layers and soak in any fruit liqueur diluted with water.

For the cream, mix 300 g of cream cheese and 250 g of powdered sugar, add a pinch of vanilla, 200 g of thick sour cream and beat well. Coat the cakes with cream and coat the cake on top and sides, and then decorate with nuts.

Carrot baking is especially useful for children, because carrots contain many valuable vitamins and microelements. Children are usually reluctant to eat fresh or boiled vegetables, but carrot cakes and pies will not leave anyone indifferent!

I welcome all fans of the culinary extravaganza to my website! Today I want to pamper you and offer you the simplest and most delicious carrot cake recipe with photos and step-by-step instructions.

IMPORTANT! For the cake, it is advisable to take young carrots; they are juicy and have a pronounced taste.

Classic carrot cake

Let's take a classic cake with vegetable sponge cake as a basis. This recipe gained popularity in Soviet times and today has acquired numerous variations.

Cheese cream

So, the first thing we do is impregnation.

I want to make our cake with cream cheese, so I'll use Mascarpone cream cheese.

What do you need:

Mascarpone cheese - 200 gr;
Powdered sugar - 100 gr;
Butter - 35 gr.

Beat the butter, previously softened, with powder, add curd cheese, turn the mass into cream. Now we need to send him into the cold. Once cooled, it will be convenient to distribute it on the cakes, increasing the volume.

Sponge cake

Carrots - 300 g;
Almonds (or hazelnuts) - 100 g;
Sugar - 200 g;
Flour - 300 g;
Eggs - 3 pcs;
“Peasant” butter (melt) - 75 g;
Sunflower oil - 100 g;
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp;
Cinnamon powder or other aromatic seasonings - 1.5 tsp;
Juice and zest of one lemon (juice 2 tablespoons);
Ginger powder - a pinch (optional);
Salt - a pinch.

Preparation:

ADVICE! The cream will not turn out yellow if you first beat the butter until it turns white, and then add the powder and cheese.

A cake that has become a simple classic that can be the basis for many different recipes.

Recipe for carrot cake with a layer of sour cream

In this recipe, you can change the amount of ingredients to adjust the sweetness of the cake. If you make the base less sweet, then add more sugar to the cream, and vice versa. Spices will add a special taste and aroma; here, too, you can vary the quantity, replace something, or not use it at all.

For the base you need to take:

Carrots - 250 gr.;
Sugar – 150-250 gr.;
Flour – 250 gr.;
Egg – 4 pcs.;
Sunflower oil - 160 ml;
Nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts) – 100-150 gr.;
Sour cream – 200 ml;
Confectionery dry seasonings – a total of 4 grams.;
Baking powder – 0.5 tsp.

Let me remind you that you can add all the spices, or add just one. In any case, the weight should be approximately 4 grams.

ADVICE! The sour cream should be as fat as possible, this will give the cream a piquant sourness.

This dessert has one feature - it is very filling. You can offer it instead of dinner for the whole family.

With mascarpone cream

The original recipe with photographs is easy to follow.

Prepare for making cakes:

Carrots – 250 gr.;
Flour – 200 gr.;
Eggs – 4 pcs.;
Sugar – 100-150 gr. (adjust sweetness as desired);
Vegetable oil – 150 ml;
Nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) – 150-200 gr.;
Spices – 0.5 tsp;
Baking powder - approximately 6 g.

For the curd cheese cream:

Mascarpone – 200 gr.;
Sour cream or high fat cream – 150 gr.;
Powdered sugar – 100-120 gr.

Preparation:

Prepare the nuts by crushing them into fine crumbs.
Sift the flour several times.
Three root vegetables on a fine grater.
Separate the whites and beat them into a strong foam. To make the foam whip better, just add a little salt.
Grind the remaining yolks with sugar.
Add the yolks to the resulting foam and beat well again.
Now you need to gradually add vegetables, flour, baking powder and aromatic spices.
Line the form with parchment. Pour our dough into it. And bake for 40 minutes at t=180°C.
While the future cake is baking, prepare a delicate curd cream. We will cook it in two cups.
In the first cup, beat sour cream without sugar, turning them into a thick mass.
In a second bowl, beat the Mascarpone and powdered sugar.
We combine both masses. We get the most delicate cream.
Cool the finished cake, divide it horizontally into three parts, coat it with cream and assemble the cake. You can make voluminous decorations, borders, patterns.

That's it, dessert is ready!

With custard

You can also make custard for carrot cake. It is prepared simply.

What you will need:

Milk – 0.5 l.;
Flour – 100 gr.;
Sugar – 150 gr.;
Vanillin - on the tip of the knife;
Solid butter – 130 gr..

Sift the flour and mix with sugar. Pour in milk (half the serving). Bring the other half of the milk to a boil on the stove. Pour the hot milk into the first cup.
Put the mixture on the stove again, reduce the heat and bring the mixture until thick. Stir, don't forget.
Dissolve the butter, pre-cut into small pieces, in the boiling cream.
Remove from heat, add vanillin and cool.

The cream is ready.

Prepare the sponge cake in advance using the carrot cake recipe suggested above.

Diet recipe

This carrot cake recipe is without oil, eggs, sour cream and is therefore suitable for those who are fasting or for those who follow certain diets.

Semolina custard, such as this one, is suitable as a cream.

BY THE WAY: It is better to take fruit juice with sourness so that its taste complements the sweetness of the cake. You can take berry juice.

Have to take:

Semolina – 3 tbsp. l;
Fruit juice – 1 l.;
Sugar – 0.5-1 tbsp;

Making the cream:

Cook the semolina in a liter of juice along with sugar for about 15 minutes so that the sugar and cereal dissolve completely. Cool and refrigerate.
If the cream turns out too thick or thin, adjust its consistency by adding liquid or semolina.
Let's move on to the biscuit.

Carrots – 200-250 gr.;
Oatmeal – 350 gr.;
Water - 300 ml;
Sugar – 1 glass;
Soda (slaked) – 1 tsp;
Oil – 1 cup;
Lime or lemon – 2 pcs. (only the zest will be needed).

What we do:

Pour sugar into the heated oil and stir until the sand dissolves.
Pour ginger flour and zest into a cup.
Add slaked soda and water.
Combine with sweet butter.
Finely chop the carrots and add them to the dough.
Pour the well-mixed dough into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes. t=180°C.
Remove, cool, and cut into two layers.
Assemble the cake, coating the cake layers with cream. Decorate with fruits and berries.

Dessert is ready. You can use a minimum of sugar to make a dietary dish.

Carrot cake in a slow cooker

You can get an amazingly tasty and aromatic cake if you soak it in non-standard cream. Let’s call our culinary masterpiece “Orange Mood”, since it is easy to prepare, requires virtually no expense, has an amazing taste and aroma and looks excellent.

Carrots and apples – 2 pcs.;
Sunflower oil – 2.5 tsp;
Lemon – 1 pc.;
Flour – 200 gr.;
Baking powder – 6 g (sachet);
Vanillin - on the tip of the knife.

Preparing the base:

Grind vegetables and fruits on a fine grater and sprinkle with sugar. Add oil.
Mix the dry ingredients and gradually add them to the vegetable mixture and place in the slow cooker.
Set the multicooker to “Baking” mode and set the time to 65 minutes.

Preparing the cream:

IMPORTANT! To prepare this cream, you need refined sugar!

1 egg and 4 yolks
Refined sugar – 350 gr.
Oranges 4 pcs.
Rum – 2 tbsp
Low-fat liquid sour cream – 400 gr.
Gelatin 1 sachet
Water – 100 ml
Powdered sugar – 50 gr.

Peel citrus fruits. Squeeze out the juice.
Rub the refined sugar into the peel to give the cream a citrus aroma.
Boil the yolks and egg, juice, rum and sugar in a water bath for 5-7 minutes, and then add gelatin diluted in water.
Remove from heat and cool. Then add sour cream, stir and put in the refrigerator.

Coating the cakes with cream, we assemble our masterpiece and decorate it, showing imagination.

In a frying pan

If you don’t have time to create a sponge cake for a cake, but guests are about to arrive, you can make a carrot cake in... a frying pan.

Products for the test:

Flour – 200 gr.;
Serum – 250 ml;
Carrots – 2 pcs.;
Egg – 1 pc.;
Nuts – 40 gr.;
Sugar – 150 gr.;
Baking powder - on the tip of the knife;
Spices - to taste.

We start, as always, by preparing the cream.

Pumpkin – 350 gr.;
Butter “Peasant” or “Vologda” – 100 gr.;
Egg – 1 pc.;
Flour – 4 tbsp. l..

Finely chop the pumpkin and place it in the microwave for 7 minutes at full power.
On the stove, bring milk with eggs and sugar to a boil. While the mixture has not yet begun to boil, add flour and stir.
Grind the finished boiled pumpkin into puree and combine with the milk mixture on the stove.
We are waiting for it to thicken. Remove from heat, add butter and beat.
Now let's make the pancake base. Create a mixture of dry ingredients. Gradually add half of the whey and the egg.
Add the carrot mixture to the dry mixture.
Add whey and add sugar.
Grind the nuts into crumbs and also add them to the dough.
We bake pancakes.
Assemble the cake, thickly coating each pancake with cream.

To ensure that the cake is well soaked, put it in the refrigerator for 7 hours, and then, after keeping it warm for about 30 minutes, serve it to your family for tea.

Orange Curd Cake

A very original idea is to make a carrot cake with citrus curd.

Decorate this way, your imagination will tell you. The cake will turn out simply magical. Citrus fruits can be replaced with pineapples or mangoes.

These recipes with photos are delicious and simple. Try it, offer your options, maybe there will be more suggestions for creating creams and impregnations. See you again and enjoy your tea!

This carrot cake is the most delicious I have ever tried. It is very soft, juicy and at the same time airy. I saw the recipe from Yulia. I really liked the design idea. But now is not the season for figs, and any other berries and fruits are quite expensive. Therefore, I wrote down the recipe in the “barn” book so as not to forget, and decided to bake it later. But.... The other day I was given a large and beautiful bouquet of yellow roses, and in the refrigerator there were the remains of mirror glaze from a lemon-strawberry cake. (I always feel sorry for throwing away any food, so I save it “until the last.”) Well, opening the refrigerator, looking at the glaze, I noticed that the shade of glaze and roses was simply the same color. This is where the idea of how to present your carrot cake was born! It turned out, in my opinion, very beautiful and festive! It was even a pity to cut such beauty. The roses, of course, were previously soaked in cold, clean water.
I made almost everything according to Yulia’s recipe, only I used half the portion of dough, but left the amount of cream the same as Yulia’s. Instead of Philadelphia, I used cream cheese and used less powder. The cake turned out to be small, 18 cm in diameter. That’s why I give the recipe with a twist.

For the test:
- 250 g carrots, grated on a fine grater,
- 150 ml odorless vegetable oil,
- 2 eggs,
- 1 tbsp (240 ml) flour,
- 1 tbsp sugar,
- 1 tsp baking powder,
- 2/3 tsp soda,
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon,
- a pinch of salt,
- 1/2 tbsp finely chopped nuts, I used walnuts, but it would be better with almonds.

For cream:
- 500 g cream cheese,
- 50 g butter at room temperature,
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar (to taste).

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease 2 molds, 18 cm in diameter, and line the bottom with baking paper. Beat sugar with vegetable oil, add eggs one at a time. Add sifted dry ingredients and stir in with a spatula. Add carrots and nuts. Mix, weigh the dough, divide into 2 parts and put into molds. Level it well, make a small depression in the center, so after baking the cakes will be the same thickness, both in the center and along the edges. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. The skewer will be clean but slightly damp after piercing. Cool the cakes and cut into 2 parts. It is advisable to let the cakes sit for at least 8 hours before cutting. I didn’t wait and cut it fresh, so it didn’t turn out very smooth.
For the cream: beat all ingredients well. Adjust the amount of powder to taste; I didn’t want a very sweet cream. Spread all the cakes and decorate the top and sides with cream. Cool and cover with frosting or melted chocolate or chocolate glaze. Decorate with all kinds of fruit or roses.)))

Carrot Cake

I really love carrot cake! And at one time I was a real fan of this dessert from Starbucks. I could never just pass by it - complete addiction. Without false modesty, I will say that this cake, according to my recipe, turns out even tastier! And it’s very easy to do - just one or two and you’re done! And if your assistants have a mixer, then it’s even faster, although you can do it with your hands - no obstacles. By the way, this dessert can also be prepared in the form of portioned cakes, or you can simply bake it in the form of a cupcake, then simply cover it with some glaze on top. In general, there is, as always, just for experimentation. Head to the kitchen! But watch the video first ;)

Cooking time: 30 min
Baking time for cakes: 25-28 min

Ingredients for 1 cake of 2 layers with a diameter of 20 cm:
FOR CAKES:

190 g Carrots (already grated)
3 eggs
120 g White Sugar
120g Brown Sugar (I used Cassonade)
190 g Vegetable Oil
150 g Walnuts
210 g Flour
4 g Soda
5 g Baking Powder
1-2 g Salt
4 g Ground Cinnamon
1-2 g Ground Nutmeg
Zest of 1 Lemon
25 ml Lemon Juice

GENTLE CREAM CHEESE

200 g Cream Cheese (I used Philadelphia)
100 g Butter
180-190 g Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract or Paste

***I baked 4 layers: 3 for the cake and 1 for the pastries***
***increased quantities accordingly***

Carrot Cake

PROCESS:

Wash the carrots, peel and grate on a fine grater. Already in this form we measure the exact amount.

Grind the walnuts in a blender or with a knife. You don’t need to add powder at all, but don’t leave large pieces either - they should eventually integrate harmoniously into the dough.

Mix and sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add chopped walnuts and mix well. It is convenient to do this with a whisk so that there are no lumps left.

Mix eggs and sugar (both white and brown) using a mixer at high speed. The result should be a lightened homogeneous mass, increased in volume. Reduce speed and pour in vegetable oil in a thin stream. Increase speed again and mix for 30 seconds until smooth. Then add carrots, lemon zest and juice and mix everything at low speed. Also, without ceasing to stir, add the dry ingredients. As soon as everything comes together, we stop. There is no need to stir for a long time, otherwise the cakes will turn out too dense.

Grease 2 molds with butter and line the bottom with parchment to make the cakes easier to remove. Distribute the dough in equal quantities.

Bake in the oven, preheated to 175ºC, for 26-27 minutes. You can check the readiness of the cakes using a toothpick - stick it in, take it out, if it’s clean and dry, the cake is ready. Don't overdry the cakes!

Carrot Cake

Remove from the oven, let stand in the pans for 10 minutes, then carefully remove and leave to cool completely on parchment paper. The cakes can be prepared completely in advance. In this case, wrap the completely cooled cakes in cling film and put them in the refrigerator. They might stay there for a couple of days.

Preparing the cream. Mix the highly softened butter with a mixer until creamy. Add cream cheese and mix at high speed until smooth, leaving no lumps. Add powdered sugar and a little vanilla extract. At high speed, mix everything again until smooth. The finished cream needs to be cooled a little to make it easier to work with. Cover with film and put in the refrigerator.

Assembling the cake. To make the cake perfect, carefully cut off the bottom and top of the cooled cake layers, revealing their beautiful spongy structure. Place the bottom cake layer on a plate or cake stand and apply an even layer of cream on top. It should be quite thick - about 8 mm. Cover with the second cake layer and cover with cream again.

Determine the number of cakes yourself. In my opinion, two, maximum three cake layers are quite enough. By the way, the cakes can be made thinner by additionally separating them with a string, and making more cream layers between them. But then make more cream, of course.

Carrot Cake

You can also cover the sides of the cake with cream, or you can leave it open - whatever you like. I don’t like excessive refinement in carrot cake, I like this kind of light, cozy negligence, so I leave the cake “naked”, simply leveling the cream that crawls out of the cake layers with a spatula.

By the way, as an option, you can prepare small portioned cakes. Cut out the cakes using small molds.

Carrot Cake

Place the finished cake in the refrigerator to firm up a little and cool properly.

Carrot Cake

Afterwards it can be decorated with colored chocolate and walnuts. Use your imagination here!

Carrot Cake

It is better to let the finished cake rest a little in the refrigerator - a couple of hours will be enough. After that we enjoy, forgetting about everything!

If you have prepared a cake that is too big and your family can no longer handle it, you can freeze the cake. Once cooled, cut into portions, wrap each in parchment and put in the freezer. We store it there. Before serving, take it out, put it on a plate and let it sit in the refrigerator. This way, there will always be dessert in the house in case of unexpected guests, or if you just suddenly want something sweet.