A super moist carrot cake filled with warming spices and juicy, plump raisins, topped with a pipeable cream cheese icing!

Now let me start by saying I LOVE carrot cake! I think it’s probably my favourite cake and I’m potentially a little bit obsessed with it…

Several years ago, my friend’s sister had made the most AMAZING carrot cake I’d ever tasted and I’m pretty sure this is where my obsession began.
It was the moist-est cake I’d ever tried, packed with flavour with that melt in your mouth texture. I asked her for the recipe (several times, in different ways), but she never gave it to me… so I have spent many many hours testing different carrot cake recipes to try and come up with a direct taste replica of this amazing cake, and ladies and gentlemen… this is it! This is ‘the one’.

As with any cake, there is an art to it. If it’s slightly over baked it will be drier, so I have verged on the slightly underbaked side here to keep as much moisture as possible because, for me, there’s nothing worse than a dry carrot cake!

Find all my baking tips in the recipe card and notes section at the bottom of the page.

I hope you love this cake as much

as I do!

Eloise x

Ingredients

Carrot Cake

• 2 large eggs room temperature
• 100 g dark brown sugar
• 75 g granulated sugar
• 50 ml buttermilk
• 175 ml vegetable oil
• 230 g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 220 g carrots finely grated
• 100 g raisins juicy, plump

Cream Cheese Icing

• 50 g unsalted butter softened
• 50 g cream cheese room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150 g icing sugar

Instructions

For the cake

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C (fan) and line an 8.5×5″ (3lb) loaf tin with parchment paper
• In a large mixing bowl, add your eggs, dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, buttermilk, and vegetable oil. Mix these altogether with an electric whisk or stand mixer
• Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then fold them into the mix using a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined
• Fold in the grated carrots and raisins until evenly spread throughout
• Pour the mix into your loaf tin and smooth it out evenly
• Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes. This is a very moist cake, so a toothpick should still have some moisture on it, but it shouldn’t be completely wet. If you overbake, the cake it will be drier
• Leave to cool for 20 minutes in the tin, before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing

For the cream cheese icing:

• In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand whisk to beat the softened butter until creamy, then whisk in the cream cheese and vanilla extract until combined
• Gradually add the icing sugar and whisk until smooth and creamy
• Place the cake onto a serving plate and pipe or smooth on the icing however you wish. Enjoy!

Notes

• This cake will last 3-4 days in the fridge – it should be stored in the fridge because of the cream cheese icing
• For firmer icing, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes before piping it onto the cake
• You can omit or swap the raisins for walnuts, pineapple, or anything you like, but please note the raisins add to the ‘juiciness’ of the cake
• This is the loaf tin I use

Nutrition