Carrot Cake traybake

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This carrot cake traybake is a perfect family bake. Really easy to make and cut into portions, it's delicious, light and gently spiced and is topped with the most incredible orange buttercream icing. Fantastic with coffee or as a dessert and always a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Course Cake, Dessert

Cuisine American, British

Keyword carrot cake traybake

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 40

Total Time 55

Servings servings

Calories 469kcal

Author Jo Allison

Equipment

Ingredients

Cake

250 g self-raising flour or plain/all-purpose flour + 2 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
250 g carrots coarsely grated
100 g walnuts roughly chopped, see notes
200 g brown sugar light or dark
150 ml neutral oil (light olive oil, sunflower oil or cold-pressed rapeseed oil)
150 g plain yogurt dairy or soya
2 medium eggs

Orange Buttercream Icing

100 g butter dairy or plant block butter
240 g icing sugar sieved
2 tablespoon single or double cream dairy or soya
zest of one orange
Extra walnuts or other nuts for decoration (optional)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 180°/160°C(fan)/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and prepare baking pan by greasing and lining it with some baking paper.
Put all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, spices) in a large bowl and give them a mix with a whisk. Alternatively, you can sieve them in.
250 g self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon mixed spice, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Add coarsely grated carrots and roughly chopped walnuts. Mixed them into the dry ingredients with a spoon or spatula.
250 g carrots, 100 g walnuts
In a large jug (or another bowl) whisk together brown sugar, oil, yogurt and eggs. You want nice and uniform mixture.
200 g brown sugar, 150 ml neutral oil (light olive oil, sunflower oil or cold-pressed rapeseed oil), 150 g plain yogurt, 2 medium eggs
Next, pour wet mixture into the bowl with dry ingredients and mix until combined. I like to use a spoon/spatula and use folding motion to incorporate all the ingredients.
Pour cake batter into prepared, lined cake tin and bake in preheated oven for approximately 30-40 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
***Pro Tips*** Ovens vary so you might want to check doneness of your cake at around 30 minutes. My temperamental fan oven takes 40 minutes at 160°C.
Once ready, take the cake out of the oven and leave it in a tin for a few minutes before taking it out onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Icing

As your cake is cooling, prepare the icing.
Sieve icing sugar into a bowl.
Melt butter in a pan or microwave and pour over icing sugar, following quickly with cream.
Whisk it all really well with small whisk (or wooden spoon) until the mixture is nice and smooth and without any visible lumps. Add orange zest and continue mixing until incorporated.
At this point the icing will be quite runny but once in the fridge it will set to the perfect consistency.
The icing prepared this way can be left in the fridge until the cake is ready and cool.
100 g butter, 240 g icing sugar, 2 tablespoon single or double cream, zest of one orange
***Quick Tip*** Wait for the cake to cool completely before topping it with icing.
Spread the icing over the cake and decorate as you wish.
Slice into portions and enjoy!

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate, per serving of cake with icing but without pistachio nuts on top and based on 12 servings. This information should be treated as a rough guideline only.
Walnuts can be substituted with pecans, included half and half with raisins or sultanas or left out altogether if you're nut-free.
For more info on ingredients and possible substitutes see 📝 Ingredients and Substitutes above.
Freezer friendly.

Nutrition