Our Favorite Carrot Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why not use butter in carrot cake? ›

The two simple ingredients that makes this cake amazing are the oil and Greek yogurt. I love using oil in cakes because not only does it make your cake moist, but it also STAYS moist for much longer than if you used butter. That's because oil is 100% fat where butter is around 80%.

The key to a soft and fluffy carrot cake is to have the carrots bake into the crumb. If you coarsely grate the carrots, then they will not bake as quickly and will stay as threads through the cake which can get stuck in your teeth. For maximum flavor and the best texture, you'll need to grate them finely.

Don't Let Carrot Cake Be A Breeding Ground For Bacteria

Carrot cake is dense and moist thanks to some combination of butter, milk, eggs, buttermilk, sour cream, and cream cheese, all of which are perishable and are breeding grounds for bacteria, including Salmonella.

Carrot cake usually contains more saturated fat than fruit cake thanks to the frosting, which is typically made from cream cheese. The higher fat content also means it's higher in calories. Carrot cake is lower in fibre, so may not be as filling.

Vegetable oil contributes moistness far more reliably, a result of the fact that oil remains liquid at room temperature while butter solidifies. Liquid contributes to the sensation of moistness, and therefore cakes made with oil often present as moister than their butter-based counterparts.

Well, you have yourself a really yummy carrot cake, and in my mind, that qualifies as a culinary masterpiece. Now, before we go much further, someone is bound to make a snarky comment about the “black spots” in the cake. THOSE ARE WALNUTS.

Carrots add sweetness and moisture to a batter. Carrot cakes have been around for centuries, but the modern carrot cake can be traced back to World War II when carrots were suggested as a way to add sweetness to cakes when sugar was being rationed, according to the World Carrot Museum of Skipton, England.

If you have too much flour in a recipe and not enough fat, like butter or oil, your cake is going to be dry and hard. For best results, I would encourage you to use a scale when baking, but if you don't have a scale, then just make sure you're using measuring cups correctly.

"Raisins are controversial in a carrot cake," says Saffitz. Whether or not you add them is up to your tolerance for the chewy little nuggets—same goes for chopped walnuts (just be sure to toast them first for better flavor).

You're aiming for that light, airy texture in your carrot cake, and then it turns out dense. What's the culprit? Well, it could be too little baking soda. It might seem like a simple ingredient, but baking soda provides a lot of the lift and fluffiness in your cake.

Can you leave carrot cake batter overnight? ›

In the morning, bake the batter straight from cold and it will be ready in under 1 hour. The overnight option deepens the flavor and maximizes digestibility. Or, you can do a same-day bake if you prefer. Flavored with chai spice: Most carrot cakes are made with ground cinnamon only.

What you can't do, however, is leave carrot cake out on the counter indefinitely. If you want to keep carrot cake in tip-top shape from beginning to end, the FDA recommends that you don't leave it on the counter for any longer than two hours.

Homemade carrot cake can last for 2 to 3 days at room temperature, 5 to 7 days in the refrigerator, and up to 3 to 4 months in the freezer. Store-bought carrot cake typically has a longer shelf life due to preservatives and airtight packaging. To maximize the freshness of carrot cake, proper storage is essential.

The water that's present in butter strengthens the gluten in a cake's flour, resulting in a crumb that's more dense and not quite as tender as a cake made with oil.

Baking with oil not only requires less work, and results in fewer dirty dishes, than butter, but it also produces tender, moist baked goods that get better with age and boast an impressively long shelf-life.

Curdled cake batter

Cake mix can curdle when you add eggs or milk that are too cold. This reduces the overall temperature of the batter and prevents the ingredients from emulsifying properly together, leaving little pockets of fat where the butter won't mix in.

The job of butter in baking (besides being delicious) is to give richness, tenderness and structure to cookies, cakes, pies and pastries. We alter the way butter works in a recipe by changing its temperature and choosing when to combine it with the other ingredients.