Orange Carrot Cake

An excellent spiced carrot that’s like the perfect combination of Christmas and Easter flavors! The orange flavor and cream cheese frosting adds brightness to the warm spices, making a perfectly balanced dessert that gets better as it rests!

This original recipe is from the Schmidty Wife: https://theschmidtywife.com/orange-spiced-carrot-cake/

The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup all-purpose or cake flour (165 g)
• 1 tsp. baking soda (4.8 g)
• ½ tsp. baking soda (2 g)
• 1 ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon (3.1 g)
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg (1 g)
• 1/8 tsp. cloves
• 1 tsp. vanilla (5 g)
• 2 large eggs (~100-110 g)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (118 g)
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. white sugar
• ½ cup melted unsalted butter, or vegetable oil (110 g)
• Zest of half an orange (~4 g / 1 tsp.)
• Juice of half an orange (29 g / 2 Tbsp.)
• 1 ½ cup finely shredded carrot (195 g)
• Optional mix-ins: Nuts like walnuts or pecans, or raisins

*Notes: You can use all light or dark brown sugar. There may be subtle differences in flavor. For spices you can use all cinnamon for a slightly brighter flavor.

Directions:

1. Grease or line an 8” / 20 cm round (preferably) or 9” / 23 cm round cake pan with butter and/or parchment paper. Use 2 round pans or one 9x13” pan if doubling the recipe.
2. Preheat a conventional oven to 350ᵒF or 175ᵒC.
3. Peel and shred the carrots and zest and juice the orange. Set it aside.
4. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together and set aside.
5. In a mixing bowl mix together the white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. You can whisk by hand for 5 minutes, instead.
6. Add the orange zest, orange juice, and the oil/butter and mix until smooth.
7. Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture, just until combined, do not overmix!
8. Fold in the shredded carrots, and nuts or raisins if using.
9. Bake until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. This took me about 40-45 minutes for a 9x13” pan. 8” round pans may only need 20-28 minutes.
10. Let the cake(s) cool in the pan. Remove and frost once the cake(s) is cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. (225 or 250 g) cream cheese, at room temperature*
• 8 Tbsp. / ½ cup / 4 oz. (113 g) butter at room temperature (salted/unsalted are both fine)
• 1/8 tsp. salt; omit if using salted butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups of powdered sugar (418 g)
• Optional: Cinnamon, nuts or other things for garnish

*Note: The standard amounts of packaged cream cheese in the U.S. and Canada are different, but the whole 225 g or 250 g package is fine for this recipe.

Directions:

1. This recipe makes about twice as much frosting than needed for a round 1 layer cake, but you can freeze leftovers or make a 2-layer (or bigger) cake.
2. When the cake is completely cooled, start making the frosting.
3. Cream the butter and salt (if using) on medium speed, until very smooth and lighter in color.
4. Cut the cream cheese into ~1” cubes and add to the mixer bowl, one at a time, on low speed, mixing until combined between each addition. Stop the mixer once all the cream cheese is mixed in, do not overmix.
5. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar with the mixer on low speed. Mix just until combined.
6. The next part may sound weird, but it is what I learned in a bakery. Pulse the frosting by switching back and forth between low and medium-high speed. Keep pulsing until the frosting is light (off-white or cream colored), fluffy, and creamy. This may take anywhere from 10-30 pulses. Don’t overdo it.
7. Spread over the cake once the cake is cooled. You may not need all the frosting, there’s probably ½ cup too much, but use as much as you like!

The ingredients I used. You can experiment with using melted butter instead of oil! You can also experiment with using cake flour!

I prepared a 9” round baking pan with butter and parchment paper. Just butter is also okay, or you can also do butter + flour and tap out excess flour.

Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Add the eggs and sugars to a mixing bowl.

And mix together.

Add the oil/butter, orange zest, and orange juice.

After mixing in the oil/butter, orange zest, and orange juice.

Add the flour mixture.

After folding in the flour mixture just until combined.

Add the carrots.

After folding in the carrot.

Before baking.

The cake is baked! I let it cool in the pan.

Frosting

Add the soft butter (and salt if using) to a mixer.

And cream the butter until it is very light in color (like mayonnaise) and smooth like this.

After gradually adding the cream cheese, one piece at a time and not overmixing.

Add the powdered sugar and vanilla.

And mix on low speed until the sugar is mixed in. Now, pay attention to how yellow and thick this is, we want to keep mixing (by pulsing) until it’s very soft fluffy and almost white it’s so pale.

After pulsing until very soft, fluffy, and creamy white.

Look at how good this looks! If you skip the pulsing your frosting may be thick, pasty, or gritty, while this fluffy result is much more ideal!

Cake Decorating

The cake is fully cooled and ready to decorate!

After adding the frosting, I used an offset spatula and rotating cake stand to make the swirl, but you don’t have to be fancy 😊

All done! It’s a beaut!