Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
A proper classic carrot cake studded with walnuts and warm cinnamon, finished with a tangy lemon cream cheese frosting. A serious teatime winner, and easier to pull off than it looks.
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
- 3 medium organic eggs
- 300g (about 4) carrots, grated
- 125g demerara sugar
- 50g walnuts, chopped
- 175g plain flour
- 75g plain wholemeal flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 50ml milk
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 200g full-fat soft cheese
- 125g icing sugar, sifted
- 30g soft unsalted butter
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Grease a deep, 18cm round cake tin and set it aside.
- Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the grated carrots, vegetable oil, sugar, and walnuts, mixing well to combine.
- Sift the plain flour, wholemeal flour, ground cinnamon, and bicarbonate of soda together into a separate bowl and mix well — combining the bicarbonate of soda with the flour here rather than adding it separately later ensures it's distributed evenly through the batter instead of clumping in one spot.
- Gently stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture until only half combined. Warm the milk in a small pan until just warm to the touch, then remove from the heat and stir it into the batter until just combined — take care not to overmix once the milk goes in, as overworking the batter at this stage is what makes carrot cake turn dense and tough instead of tender.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. If it needs more time, bake in 5-minute increments, testing again each time. Let the cake cool completely in the tin.
- Place the soft cheese, icing sugar, soft butter, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a food processor and whizz until smooth. Alternatively, beat everything together with an electric mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon.
- Spread the frosting generously over the cooled cake, then chill in the fridge for about an hour, until the frosting has set firm, before slicing.
Chef's Note: This is a genuinely proper carrot cake — freshly grated carrot and warm cinnamon give it real depth, while the wholemeal flour mixed in with the plain flour adds a slightly nutty, hearty texture you don't get from an all-white-flour version. Stopping the stir at "just combined" once the warm milk goes in is the single most important technique here; overmixing at that stage is the most common reason homemade carrot cakes come out dense instead of light.
The hour of chilling before slicing isn't optional if you want clean slices — the frosting needs that time in the fridge to firm up enough to hold its shape once you cut into it. This cake keeps beautifully, covered and refrigerated, for several days, and the flavor if anything improves after a day of resting.
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