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–+ servings
many squares of frosted cake decorated with marzipan carrots.
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5 from 2 votes

Easy Carrot Cake Traybake

Our favorite carrot cake traybake with cream cheese frosting, spices, and walnuts, this simple cake is genuinely addictive.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time42 minutes
Course: Cakes
Cuisine: American, English
Servings: 16
Calories: 395kcal
Author: Adina

Equipment

  • Square springform or another baking dish of about 9 ½ inches/24 cm.
  • Electric mixer

Ingredients

Carrot cake:

  • 300 g carrots peeled 10.5 oz, Notes 2,3
  • 250 g all-purpose flour 2 cups/ 8.8 oz
  • 250 g granulated sugar 1 ¼ cup/ 8.8 oz
  • 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon Note 4
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon star anise
  • ¼ teaspoon cardamom
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt or Kosher
  • 150 ml canola oil ⅔ cup/ 5 fl.oz
  • 4 eggs large
  • 55 g walnuts ⅓ cup chopped/ 2 oz
  • 55 g raisins ¼ cup/ 2 oz

Cream cheese frosting (Note 5):

  • 200 g brick cream cheese 7 oz, room temperature
  • 100 g unsalted butter 3.5 oz, soft
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 200 g icing sugar 2 cups/ 7 oz

Decoration:

  • 16 marzipan carrots optional

Instructions

Carrot cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F and line a baking dish with parchment paper.
  • Peel and grate the carrots on the box grater’s fine side (smaller holes). Chop the walnuts. Set both aside.
  • Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, and salt) in a large bowl using a spoon.
  • Add oil and mix shortly.
  • Add the eggs one after another.
  • Add the grated carrots, chopped walnuts, and raisins and fold them in with a spoon.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
  • Let cool in the baking dish for about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:

  • With brick/block cream cheese: Beat together brick cream cheese, soft butter, and vanilla extract until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar.
  • With tube cream cheese: Beat together 3.5 oz/ 100 g soft cream cheese (room temperature) and 3.5 oz/ 100 g unsalted butter (soft), and vanilla extract until combined, don’t overmix. Beat in 10.5 oz/ 300 g icing sugar, more if necessary.
  • Frost cake: Spread the mixture over the cake with a palette knife or a spoon.
  • Cut into 16 squares and decorate each square with one marzipan carrot.
  • Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

  1. Use a digital kitchen scale to measure the ingredients when baking; it guarantees for best results.
  2. Grated, fresh ones. Don’t use pre-shredded carrots from the grocery store; they are always so dry, which will affect the texture of the cake.
  3. You will need 10.5 oz/ 300 g carrots (peeled), about 5-6 medium carrots but I recommend weighing that quantity on a kitchen scale. Those should be about 3 cups when grated, but I don’t trust cup measuring much; I prefer to know exactly what I’m doing.
  4. You can use only cinnamon if you like; you can use all-spice or another warm spice combination, for instance, pumpkin pie spices.
  5. If making the frosting with cream cheese from a tube, use 100 g/ 3.5 oz cream cheese, 100 g/ 3.5 oz unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 10.5 oz/ 300 g icing sugar, more if necessary.

Nutrition

Serving: 1square | Calories: 395kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 67mg | Sodium: 283mg | Potassium: 157mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 3517IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 1mg