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Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

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BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

4.5
16

This cake looks beautiful!! What is on the top for decorations? Did you make that too? –
by ,
August 24, 2011


4.5/
5.0stars

This cake looks beautiful!! What is on the top for decorations? Did you make that too?

BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup granulated/castor sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 8-ounce can pineapple slices
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups/650 grams grated peeled carrots (from about 5-6 large carrots)
2 inches fresh old ginger, finely grated
1 cups walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 (8-ounce/226-gram) packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1 stick/4 ounces/113 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups/230 grams confectioners’/icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.

For cupcakes: Line 24 cupcake molds (2 12-standard muffin tins) with liners, or butter and flour them.
For layered cakes: Butter two 9-inch-diameter or three 8-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with parchment, butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour.

If using walnuts, lightly roast them on a baking tray or a frying pan, about 4-5 minutes. Leave to cool before processing them finely.

Meanwhile, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger in medium bowl to blend. Set aside. Place the pineapple slices in a blender and add some of the juices from the can. Discard excess liquid. Puree until smooth and set aside.

In a separate large bowl, whisk sugars, pineapple puree and oil until well blended. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Add in the flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the vanilla, carrots and fresh ginger. Add in the walnuts and raisins, if using them.

For cupcakes: Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for about 5 minutes. Transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

For layered cakes: Divide the batter equally between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 30 minutes each for 8-inch cakes or about 40 minutes each for 9-inch cakes; or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for about 15 minutes. Turn out onto cooling racks. Peel off parchment; cool cakes completely before icing.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat all the ingredients on medium speed until fluffy. Chill the frosting for about 20 to 30 minutes or until it has set up enough to spread smoothly and hold its shape.

For cupcakes: Place the maple cream cheese frosting into a piping bag fitted with your tip of choice and pipe onto cooled cupcakes accordingly.

For layered cakes: To assemble a layered cake, with an offset spatula, frost the top of one cake and place the other cake on top. Repeat for a three-layered cake. Frost the sides and top with a thin layer of frosting, chill the cake for about 30-45 minutes. Frost the cake completely to cover and decorate with swirls on the top. Chill cake for at least 30 minutes or till frosting is set. Bring to room temperature before serving.

BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

One of my favorite root vegetables is carrot. I love carrot in my soups, drinks (carrot juice), so it’s no surprise that I love carrot cake, even though the idea of adding carrots to a cake is somewhat bizarre, but carrot cake is a good cake. My contributor Pick Yin at Life is Great is here to share her carrot cake recipe, topped with a rich and decadent maple cream cheese frosting. Just the name alone is mouthwatering enough. Check it out!

BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

Carrot cake…who knew I’d love it?

When I first announced to Vijay that I’d make some soon, he asked “The white one or the black one?” – referring to the Chinese fried radish cake rather than this baked cake frosted with cream cheese. He knew I’m not that girl who’d put a root vegetable and a cake together and I’d sooner turn a bunch of carrots into a pot of soup before considering them in a healthy dessert…

BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

However, with more than a handful of friends professing themselves as carrot cake fans and Bee listing it as something she’d like to see featured here, it was imminent that I’d be baking one and eating some. There’s a first time for everything in life, so with not much reference or recommended recipes to fall on, I studied a few recipes and adapted what I thought were the best elements from each to come up with a carrot cake I really didn’t want to share.

The base recipe is from no other than my favorite celebration cake lady. Deb’s cakes had never failed me. I wanted a smooth crumbed cake—no chunky bits of nuts or fruits in my cake, please—one that’s packed with flavor, yet moist and preferably melt in my mouth, along with an exceptional frosting. I was pleased that my adaptation worked out really well. It took some will power on my behalf to refrain from cutting into the cake layers as they cooled. I resorted to snacking on what little crumbs that were falling off the cooling racks instead.

Carrot cake die-hards would each have their own favorites but the best thing about this carrot cake is you can alter it to your preference. Don’t like pineapples? Use some apple sauce instead. George Calombaris’s mother used apricot jam in hers. You won’t really taste any of the fruit but the flavor and texture of the cake would be greatly improved. Don’t have walnuts? Use pecans, macadamias or even cashews.

There isn’t really a recipe set in stone when it comes to a carrot cake. There’s only a favorite. I hope this version of mine would be yours too.

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Carrot Cake Recipe

BEST carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting, the best carrot cake recipe ever, must try | rasamalaysia.com

Servings 24 cupcakes
Author Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 cup granulated/castor sugar
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 1 8- ounce can pineapple slices
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs room temperature
  • 3 cups/650 grams grated peeled carrots from about 5-6 large carrots
  • 2 inches fresh old ginger finely grated
  • 1 cups walnuts optional
  • 1/2 cup raisins optional

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 2 8-ounce/226-gram packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature
  • 1 stick/4 ounces/113 grams unsalted butter room temperature
  • 2 cups/230 grams confectioners’/icing sugar sifted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
  2. For cupcakes: Line 24 cupcake molds (2 12-standard muffin tins) with liners, or butter and flour them.
  3. For layered cakes: Butter two 9-inch-diameter or three 8-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with parchment, butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour.
  4. If using walnuts, lightly roast them on a baking tray or a frying pan, about 4-5 minutes. Leave to cool before processing them finely.
  5. Meanwhile, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger in medium bowl to blend. Set aside. Place the pineapple slices in a blender and add some of the juices from the can. Discard excess liquid. Puree until smooth and set aside.
  6. In a separate large bowl, whisk sugars, pineapple puree and oil until well blended. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Add in the flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the vanilla, carrots and fresh ginger. Add in the walnuts and raisins, if using them.
  7. For cupcakes: Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for about 5 minutes. Transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.
  8. For layered cakes: Divide the batter equally between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 30 minutes each for 8-inch cakes or about 40 minutes each for 9-inch cakes; or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for about 15 minutes. Turn out onto cooling racks. Peel off parchment; cool cakes completely before icing.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

  1. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat all the ingredients on medium speed until fluffy. Chill the frosting for about 20 to 30 minutes or until it has set up enough to spread smoothly and hold its shape.
  2. For cupcakes: Place the maple cream cheese frosting into a piping bag fitted with your tip of choice and pipe onto cooled cupcakes accordingly.
  3. For layered cakes: To assemble a layered cake, with an offset spatula, frost the top of one cake and place the other cake on top. Repeat for a three-layered cake. Frost the sides and top with a thin layer of frosting, chill the cake for about 30-45 minutes. Frost the cake completely to cover and decorate with swirls on the top. Chill cake for at least 30 minutes or till frosting is set. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Recipe Notes

For a soft batter and a cake with a melt-in-your-mouth crumb, like Deb I grated the carrots by hand with a box cheese grater and like her, I will not lie to you - it takes some elbow grease to get the required 3 cups. You can use the food processor but you will get thicker pieces - take care not to over do it or you will end up with carrot pulp swimming in carrot water. Like most cakes without butter and using oil instead, this is a very moist one so I chilled the cooled layers in the freezer prior to frosting.

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75 COMMENTS... read them below or add one

  4. Instead of pineapple slices pureed, I use well-drained canned crushed pineapple. The pineapple canned in pineapple juice. I think if you used canned pineapple in syrup, it loses the pineapple taste too much.

    Reply

  20. Tried this today, unfortunately didnt turn out too well. The cake was far too dense/wet and thats after cooking it for an extra 40mins! so not sure what went wrong, should the carrots be squeezed to remove excess liquid?
    Flavour was great though

    Reply

    • MyM: An extra 40 mins? Did you bake all the batter in one tin? The carrots should be just grated. Did you use all the liquid from the canned pineapple? The prepared pineapple puree should come to no more than 1/4 cup.

      Reply

      • I used 3×8″ tins, had slightly more than 1/4 cup of puree but didnt use any juice, was going to check the cake earlier to make sure it hadn’t dried out by not using the juice. Nevermind, maybe I was just unlucky, it happens.

        Reply

        • There are some people on Smitten Kitchen who found the cake too wet/oily/heavy for their liking. Some reduced the vegetable oil by up to 1/2 cup and found the cake still pretty good.

          Regarding the longer baking time, if this happened before to your other cakes, I reckon checking with an oven thermometer might help to see if the temperature is right. Hope this helps!

          Reply

    • I just wanted to ask, if anyone ever tried this cake. Because I’ve tried it an it was horrible and ended up in garbage. I had the same problem as you!

      Reply

  23. Julia: Thank you! Yes, it was some toffee hazelnuts which was a little too dark.

    Luke: To make the toffee hazelnuts:

    Roast some hazelnuts or macadamia – I used the oven, you can also do it with a frying pan. Let cool to room temperature. Poke the base of each nut with a toothpick.

    Melt some sugar in a heavy-based saucepan – I used castor sugar. Without stirring over medium low to medium heat, move the pan around from time to time to even out the caramel. Once a nice golden brown color is achieved, remove from heat and let cool till the caramel thickens enough to coat the nuts. (Don’t let the color be as dark as mine, I overdid it.)

    Dip the prepared nuts into the caramel to coat evenly. Lift upwards 90 degrees to drip and create the ‘spike’. Cut of the cooled sugar strand with a pair of kitchen scissors and leave to rest on a plate/tray lined with parchment paper. Once caramel is fully set, remove the toothpick and set the nuts upright.

    Reply

  26. The cake looks so pretty and delicious. I am going to make this cake for my husband 40th birthday! Could I ask you where do you get the cake stand?

    Thanks in advance!

    Tini

    Reply

  27. Hi! I wanted to make this as a 2 layer 9″ cake, but slice the layers in half to make 4 thin layers. Will I need to double the maple frosting recipe for 4 thin layers? Or is the quantity of frosting in a single recipe enough? If you could please give me some advice on this ASAP. Many thanks!

    Reply

  31. This cake is absolutely beautiful, Bee! I need this in my life…I am one of those who loves carrot cake without raisins…alright making this soon! :)

    Reply

  32. This cake looks beautiful!! What is on the top for decorations? Did you make that too? If so could you tell me how you did it? Thank you!!

    Reply

  33. 1. I made your carrot cake recipe last night and it was amazing.
    2. For a shortcut, just use a rectangular 13″ pan (saves cutting the round layer cakes and icing them) you also don’t have to freeze the cake before icing it.
    3. DELICIOUS! The most amazing carrot cake ever.
    4. I think hand grating the carrots was key to the moist amazing in the mouth feel of this recipe–so take the time-shave them end on–instead of side-ways–that way you don’t scrape your fingers.
    5. I did not have the fresh ginger, only the dry, but it still worked.
    6. I used fresh pineapple –pureed in the mixer attachment of my handmixer.
    7. The icing is very rich, if you have sugar issues you might want to give that a miss, because the carrot cake without tastes like a delicious sweet carrot bread-cake and could easily work on its own-and could save you some time–though then it would not be the traditional carrot cake.
    8. Somebody please tell me what those amazing looking decorations are on the first page for this recipe–the nuts are pistachio, but what are those dripped looking globes sticking up–that’s so decorative and I want to do a fancy one like that some day.

    excellent recipe
    You rock!
    best,
    Karen

    Reply

    • Jessica and Kmotc:

      To make the toffee hazelnuts:
      Roast some hazelnuts or macadamia – I used the oven, you can also do it with a frying pan. Let cool to room temperature. Poke the base of each nut with a toothpick.
      Melt some sugar in a heavy-based saucepan – I used castor sugar. Without stirring over medium low to medium heat, move the pan around from time to time to even out the caramel. Once a nice golden brown color is achieved, remove from heat and let cool till the caramel thickens enough to coat the nuts. (Don’t let the color be as dark as mine, I overdid it.)
      Dip the prepared nuts into the caramel to coat evenly. Lift upwards 90 degrees to drip and create the ‘spike’. Cut of the cooled sugar strand with a pair of kitchen scissors and leave to rest on a plate/tray lined with parchment paper. Once caramel is fully set, remove the toothpick and set the nuts upright.

      Reply

  34. My daughter & I made this recipe this evening for her 7th grade social studies class. They need to make an asian cuisine…. so I googled & your website came up. This is fabulous carrot cake! We made about 50 mini cupcakes with one recipe… awesome & amazing! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes! Thank you!

    Reply

  35. it looks amazing. I want to make it really bad. But I am allergic to fruits.. is there something i can replace the pineapple with, or can i leave it out of the cake? It looks beautiful!

    Reply

  37. Can’t wait to bake this beautiful cake! How many days in advance (without frosting) could I bake this? Or does it freeze well?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  38. Would never make any part of this again! Tastes good, but the cake is WAY too moist and crumbly, and crazy dense. The icing is soup, even after adding an extra 3 cups of icing sugar it runs right off the cake, even after chilling for 30 mins, which I have never done with cream cheese frosting in the past. I am a very experienced baker and never have issues with other recipes I try, so wishing I hadn’t tried this one at all!

    Reply

    • Angie – I am not sure what happened because we adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and didn’t have any issues. I apologized that you didn’t have a successful carrot cake. :(

      Reply

  40. Sounds delicious! But I want to say thank you for using both imperial and metric measurements! It makes it so much easier! Thank you!!

    Reply

  41. Made this recipe today…I substituted with dark brown sugar….added 1/4 cup extra flour so it’s not so dense as stated. I sifted the flour beforehand as well. Came out moist n delicious define try a recipe I’ll use til I die lol

    Reply

  45. Hi. I read through the comments below and found out that you use matcha powder and caramelise nuts to decorate the cake. May i know how you make that moon shape thing and jt didnt look like matcha powder but more like crushed green nuts? Thank you

    Reply

  46. I’ve made this recipe dozens of times and it is a real crowd pleaser. Everyone LOVES it! No adjustments to the recipe needed. Thank you for an excellent recipe! :)

    55.0

    Reply

  48. Hello! I love your photography and recipe sounds amazing! I was hoping you could please share with me where your cake plate is from? It’s gorgeous! Been looking for a nice one for a long time. Thanks in advance

    Reply

  51. I made this cake today as a test run for my husbands birthday this weekend, it was amazing! Everyone, including all 5 of my young kids, loved it – which is not always an easy task!
    I cooked the entire mix as one large square cake, it cooked perfectly, I plan to make two batches for a large square, 2 layer cake for the party.
    No changes needed, I just need to try the sugared hazelnuts and source some local matcha powder.
    Thank you so very much, my husband insisted on a carrot cake and I am so very glad I found this recipe.

    55.0

    Reply

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