This easy One Bowl Carrot Cake is tender, moist and incredibly flavorful! Layer with my favorite Cream Cheese Buttercream or even the boozy Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting for an easy and epic cake!
Preheat the oven to 350℉ conventional. Prepare cake pans with parchment paper and nonstick cooking spray.
In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk eggs until smooth. Slowly whisk in the oil to emulsify. They should be pale and voluminous.
Whisk in the sugars, then fold in the dry ingredient mixture.
Fold in carrots, walnuts and raisins.
Divide between the prepared cake pans and bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with only a few clinging crumbs.
Allow to cool in pans 10 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Prepare Cream Cheese Buttercream:
Cream together cream cheese, butter, and sugar until smooth.
Add lemon juice and extract. If it gets too warm, chill it. Just pop the whole bowl and attachments in the fridge and give it an hour.
Beat with the paddle attachment on your stand mixer. Breathe. It’s just buttercream.
Assembly:
Once cake is cool, layer with buttercream!
For easiest slicing, chill before serving. This cake is DELIGHTFUL at room temperature though.
Notes
Presentation - For the cleanest slices, chill the cake before serving and slice with a sharp knife or a serrated knife!Flavor Tips - You cannot substitute for freshly shredded carrots that you squeeze of excess moisture. I use cheesecloth or a tea-towel in a pinch. You can use pre-grated carrots but they will be fatter and have variable amounts of moisture.Technique - Be sure to allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in their pans before turning out to cool completely, otherwise (even with properly prepared pans) the layers might not come out in one beautiful piece. Helpful Tools - Could I make this cake completely in one bowl? There is an important distinction between “can” and “should” in pastry. Can you mix this all in one bowl, yes. Should you mix it all in one bowl, perhaps a second momentary bowl is ok to pull out of the cupboard. Pre-whisking together the dry ingredients has two benefits: distributing the leavening and spices in the flour, and allowing for the fastest incorporation with the wet ingredients. Mixing it all in one bowl can more easily lead to an overmixed cake.Variations - You can omit the raisins and walnuts, or substitute for another dried fruit or nut of your choosing. If you don’t have light brown sugar on hand, you can absolutely substitute dark brown sugar in equal amounts. The flavor will be a bit more robust but you will still get all the benefits of the added moisture and caramel notes.Storage - Store unfrosted carrot cake well-wrapped at room temperature or freeze it! Unfrosted Carrot Cake will keep at room temperature for 3 days, refrigerated for a week or frozen for up to two months! Store unused cream cheese buttercream in an airtight, clean container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Buttercream can be frozen for longer storage. Once frosted, cake can be kept at room temperature for up to three days before the buttercream spoils. For longer storage, store in the refrigerator.Yield: 2 layer, 9” Cake