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lifting a slice of carrot sheet cake from the pan
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Carrot Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

A super easy Carrot Sheet Cake topped with swirly cream cheese icing and lots of nuts for texture. Save this one for all future cake-baking needs!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time45 minutes
Course: Baking
Cuisine: British
Servings: 10 servings
Author: Margie

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 300 g soft light brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 300 ml sunflower oil
  • 300 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp vanilla extract
  • 300 g carrots grated
  • Zest of half an orange
  • 50 g walnuts shelled & chopped, plus extra, to decorate
  • 50 g pecans chopped, plus extra to decorate

For Cream Cheese Icing:

  • 220 g unsalted butter softened at room temperature
  • 170 g full fat cream cheese softened to room temperature (use Philadelphia cream cheese for the best results)
  • 600 g icing sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 170C and grease a swiss roll tin (11 x 15 inch works well) with some butter.
  • Add the sugar, eggs and oil in a bowl and beat until it comes together. You can do this in a stand mixer with paddle attachment or with a hand mixer (or by hand even!) If it looks slightly split, don’t worry, it will come back together. Add the dry ingredients (flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, salt) followed by the orange zest and vanilla extract slowly and continue to beat until well mixed.
  • Fold in the grated carrots and chopped walnuts by hand, so if using a hand mixer/stand mixer, you can stop here. Pour into the greased tin and pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool a little while in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing:

  • Add the butter and cream cheese to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. You can also use a hand mixer. Beat together on medium-high speed until completely smooth.
  • Mix in the icing sugar 1 cup at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom as you go. Add the vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.
  • If the frosting is too thin, place the bowl in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to thicken. Otherwise, it’s ready to pipe or spread!
  • Spread onto the cake and then I drizzled it with caramel sauce and more chopped walnuts and even some pecans.