There are a few rules for good carrot cake: always cream cheese frosting, never raisins, always walnuts or pecans (sorry, those with allergies!), and absolutely never pineapple or coconut. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you about this particular carrot cake.
Some time around 2009, during a vacation in London, I stumbled upon The Hummingbird Bakery. They specialised in such novelties as American cupcakes and pies, uncommon in the British Isles. The display was filled with neatly organised and beautifully decorated cupcakes (this was the height of cupcake mania) and layer cakes like I’d never seen before.
That first time I tried a couple of different cakes, including their carrot cake. And my, what a cake it was! A moist, delicate, fluffy cake, delicately spiced and interspersed with bits of chopped walnut. A heavenly cream cheese frosting brought the whole thing together. The perfect carrot cake. I was already thinking up a plan to stuff as many cakes as possible into my suitcase.
Thankfully, the founder of The Hummingbird Bakery, Tarek Malouf, did everyone a solid and published a cookbook. Instead of having to find a packing and shipping solution for a 3-tier carrot cake, I picked up a copy of The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.
Hummingbird Bakery Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 300 grams light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 300 milliliters neutral vegetable oil e.g. canola or sunflower
- 300 grams all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus extra to decorate
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 300 grams carrots shredded
- 100 grams shelled walnuts or pecans chopped, plus 75 grams extra, chopped and whole, to decorate
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 600 grams powdered sugar sifted
- 100 grams unsalted butter softened
- 250 grams cream cheese cold
Instructions
Bake the cakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Line the bottoms of three (20cm) cake tins with baking parchment and grease the sides.
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and oil until all ingredients are well incorporated (don’t worry if the mixture looks slightly split).
- Slowly add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla extract. Continue to beat until well mixed. Fold in the grated carrots and walnuts until evenly dispersed.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tins and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool for about 10 minutes in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting:
- While the cakes are cooling, beat the icing sugar and butter together in a deep bowl on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together. It will have a sandy texture.
- Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.
- When the cakes are cold, put one on a cake stand or plate and spread about one-quarter of the frosting over it with a palette knife or spoon. Place a second cake on top and spread another quarter of the frosting over it. Top with the last cake and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides. Finish with the extra walnuts and a light sprinkling of cinnamon.
Notes
- Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.
- If you don’t have enough cake tins, simply refrigerate the batter while baking the layers one at a time.
This recipe was just brilliant! Made the sponges the day before and put them in the fridge. They were no problem to ice the next day and the cake held really well. Very tasty. I don’t ever leave the reviews but this one was exceptional thank you. FYI I did press the grated carrots with paper towels to remove excess moisture so sponges weren’t too soggy
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you 🙂
Best carrot cake recipe.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the cake 🙂
Best carrot cake recipe.
Tha batter seems dry but gets moist when adding the carrots at the end. I like to use more walnuts for texture, 200g instead of 100g. Also add a bit more carrots ans a bit less sugar 250g instead of 300g.
I tried once to use less oil and it was a disaster,
I have made it many times, it was my son’s 1st bday cake, it never disappoints,
What a great recipe! My sister loves carrot cake so I made this for her birthday and she would not stop raving about it.
I’m glad your sister enjoyed her birthday cake! Thank you! 🙂
This made a delicious carrot cake for my husband’s birthday. Definitely one to repeat!
Is it possible to freeze pieces once iced? It makes a large cake so keen to save some.
Thanks!
Hi Clare, I’m glad you enjoyed the cake! I’ve frozen iced slices of this cake before. Just be sure to freeze the slices unwrapped for about an hour or until the icing is completely hard. Then wrap tightly with 2 layers of plastic wrap followed by 1 layer of aluminium foil, and return to the freezer. I like to put the wrapped pieces in a freezer bag for double measure.
Thank you for sharing! I just have one question. Do you think it’s possible to reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe?
Hi there! King Arthur Flour has an excellent blog post about how to reduce the amount of sugar in a cake recipe! Click here for that post!
In short, King Arthur Flour suggests you can confidently reduce the amount of sugar in any cake by 10% (so less 30 grams in this recipe). They suggest the maximum reduction for a cake like this one (sponge cake) without compromising the texture to be 25% (less 75 grams).
For the frosting, I suggest starting with 100-150 grams less powdered sugar. You could even start right off the bat with 200 grams less sugar, and taste as you go a long. Alternatively you could start with very little sugar and add more to taste. The good thing about the frosting is that you can always add a little more sugar!
Good luck and thanks for reading the blog! 🙂
It’s a great and reliable recipe and I really like your photos to accompany this post. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you liked it!
This is one of my favourite recipes and never fails to impress but can it be made into a swiss/jelly roll? If so, would the recipe need adjusting?
Thanks
You could definitely turn this into a Swiss roll! I recommend making about 1/3 of the recipe to fit inside a 32 x 23 x 2cm (13 x 9 x ½ in) Swiss roll tin. Good luck!
Absolutely perfect!! Thank you xx
Thank you!
Wanted to add that I divided this recipe by 4 to make mini cakes and worked a treat xx
Mini cakes are a great idea! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Tastes so good and is so easy to make
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Have you tried the blackberry ricotta cake? It’s super easy to make and my guilty pleasure for breakfast! Here’s the link if you want to give it a try: https://thekitchenin6l.com/blackberry-ricotta-cake/
Do you know if I can bake this 2 days before the event?
Absolutely! Make sure to tightly wrap the unfrosted cake layers in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. Better to frost on the day of, but you can also make the frosting ahead of time and store in the fridge. Just make sure to let everything come to room temperature for about 1 hour before frosting and serving.
Love using this recipe. Have made it many times. How could I adapt the recipe to use two 9inch tins please
I love that you love using this recipe! To adjust it to two 9-inch pans requires some math – you need a 12% reduction in batter volume. Given that it’s not a significant adjustment to make, and you’d still end up using 3 eggs (who wants to use 2.64 eggs, right?), I suggest baking the full recipe, and using any excess batter for muffins 🙂