The Best Carrot Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to make carrot cake with butter or oil? ›

Oil adds moisture (canola or vegetable oil will work) and unsalted butter adds a rich flavor. Don't substitute one for the other–we really need both here!

The ratio of wet to dry ingredients determines a cake's moisture level. If there's simply too much flour and not enough butter, a cake will taste dry. On the other hand, if there's too much milk and not enough flour, a cake will taste too wet.

Our answer. The green flecks are carrot but the colour has been changed by the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in the mixture. Some pigments are sensitive to pH balances and will change colour if they are in a very acid or very alkaline environment.

Carrot cake (also known as passion cake) is cake that contains carrots mixed into the batter.

Carrot cake is oil-based, rather than butter-based. This keeps it moist and helps it last for days. Unfortunately, it also means you lose the leavening power that creaming butter and sugar would bring. (Creaming, or beating together the two ingredients on high speed, aerates the butter.)

Think thin

It's true that carrots are the star of the show, but aim for finely grated pieces rather than chunky. The finer you grate the carrots, the more evenly they will be distributed throughout the cake (for the perfect texture), and the more evenly the cake and the carrots will bake.

You can use frozen carrots to make carrot cake, but you need to shred them before freezing — use the same process as above but be sure to peel the carrots before shredding and blanch them for less time. Here are a few recipes to get you started.

5. My cake has sunk in the middle. There are three main reasons for this: a/ the oven door has been opened before the cake has set, b/ the cake didn't go in the oven as soon as the mixture was ready or c/ there's too much raising agent.

Carrots contain pigments that are sensitive to changes in pH balance. When the shreds of carrot come into contact with the alkaline baking soda, a chemical reaction takes place that causes the pigments to change color.

Using baking powder (a chemical leavening agent) often becomes tricky. How much is enough to leaven dense, oil-based cakes like carrot cake? Sometimes, we end up using too much baking powder to help this type of cake rise, and this mistake can unfortunately make them taste bitter or like chemicals.

Why is my carrot cake dense at the bottom? ›

The first thing I would check is your baking powder. It loses it's leavening power over time, giving you a dense cake. Also check your method of mixing. Under creaming the butter and sugar mixture, and not completely mixing in the eggs have quite an impact on the finished product.

Carrot cake is thought to have originated in England where housewives used sweet products (e.g carrots) to naturally sweeten their confections during World War II. In 1943, the Ministry of Food published a short recipe for carrot cake.

With all of the beer dinners I've gone to, with the diverse range of desserts that have been served, not once has there been a carrot cake but it seems like a very versatile pairing opportunity: cream ale, coffee porter, double IPA, or another beer from Japan – Baird Jubilation – made with figs and cinnamon.

The spongy texture and moist flavor that oil creates can be a boon to certain recipes. Not to mention oil is cheaper and easier to work with. Butter will always provide superior flavor and that melt-in-your-mouth texture. In many recipes, combining the two gives the best of both worlds.

Most cake mixes call for oil, but butter will bring in amazing flavor. To substitute butter for oil in baking just melt the butter, measure it, let it cool, and add it as you would the oil. Compared to oil, butter will create a cake with a firmer, cakeier texture.

We found that real butter makes a much silkier, firmer and thicker buttercream which is perfect to hold our cakes together and spread on top. We are well known for our generous layer of buttercream in the middle of our sponge cakes (we think it's one of the best parts!).

Baking with oil not only requires less work, and results in fewer dirty dishes, than butter, but it also produces tender, moist baked goods that get better with age and boast an impressively long shelf-life.