Ingredient

Carrot cake

Carrot cake is an oil-based cake carrying a great deal of moisture, which is why it stays soft for days when a butter sponge would have gone dry. The carrot is doing almost nothing for flavour and almost everything for texture.

What the carrot does

Grated raw carrot releases water as the cake bakes, steaming the crumb from the inside and keeping it damp. It also contributes sugar and a little colour. What it does not contribute is much flavour — a carrot cake tastes of spice, brown sugar and oil far more than it tastes of carrot.

Grate it finely on a box grater rather than in a processor, which tends to produce chunks that stay firm. Do not squeeze the water out; the water is the point.

The same logic makes courgette and beetroot cakes work, and the same rules apply.

Why oil, not butter

Stays soft

Oil is liquid at room temperature and in the fridge, so the crumb never firms up. Butter cake goes hard when chilled — a problem when the frosting requires refrigeration.

No creaming

There is no fat to aerate, so the lift comes entirely from raising agents and eggs. That makes it a very quick cake to mix.

Less flavour of its own

Which is why carrot cake is heavily spiced. Butter would compete.

More forgiving

Hard to over-mix into toughness, hard to dry out. A good cake to make with children.

The method

1. Whisk flour, raising agents, salt and spices together thoroughly.
2. Whisk eggs, sugar and oil until smooth and slightly thickened.
3. Stir the grated carrot and any nuts or sultanas into the wet mixture, not the dry — it distributes better.
4. Fold the dry into the wet until just combined.
5. Bake at a moderate heat until a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs. It is a wet batter and takes a while.
6. Cool completely before frosting. Cream cheese frosting on a warm cake slides straight off.

Cream cheese frosting that holds

The commonest complaint about this cake is a frosting that goes runny.

• Use full-fat block cream cheese, not the soft spreadable kind in a tub, which contains far more water.
• Beat the butter and icing sugar together first until smooth, then add the cream cheese and beat only briefly. Over-beating cream cheese breaks it down into liquid.
• Keep everything cool. If the kitchen is warm, chill the bowl.
• If it is already too loose, chill it for half an hour and beat again briefly. Adding more icing sugar mostly makes it sweeter, not stiffer.
• A little lemon juice or zest sharpens it and makes the sweetness bearable.

Keeping and freezing it

One of the very few cakes that is better on the second day, and the reason is the oil and the grated carrot.

• Unfrosted, it keeps for four or five days in an airtight tin at room temperature, and improves for the first two.
• Frosted, it needs the fridge, because cream cheese frosting does. Take it out an hour before serving or it eats cold and dense.
• It gets moister, not drier. Moisture migrates out of the carrot into the crumb over the first day.
• Freeze it unfrosted, wrapped tightly, in layers or whole. It thaws almost indistinguishably.
• Frosting freezes badly, going grainy on thawing. Make it fresh.
• Freeze individual slices wrapped, which is the most useful form to have in a freezer.
• Do not wrap it warm, which traps steam and makes the surface sticky.

Common questions