Orange Carrot Cake (Gluten Free)

An excellent spiced carrot that’s so bright and delicious! The orange flavor and warm cinnamon are so perfectly balance this cake. And the cream cheese frosting adds a silky sweet tangy richness to it all! This cake is on the sweeter side, so if you want to experiment with adding less sugar to the sugar or frosting, or use less frosting feel free! This cake is great and can easily convert someone who is not GF. It gets better as it rests!

This recipe is different from the other Orange Carrot Cake recipe, but if you prefer the flavor of this cake you then feel free to substitute the gluten free flour for wheat flour! This original recipe is from a bakery I worked at.

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

Ingredients:

• 195 g white sugar (1 cup)
• 133 g canola oil (1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp.)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla (2 g)
• 1 Tbsp. Orange juice (15 g)
• 1/2 Tbsp. Orange zest (3-4 g)
• 2 large eggs (100-110 g)
• 148 g 1:1 gluten free flour (1 cups, spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 Tbsp. Cinnamon (3.8 g)
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder (2 g)
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda (1.8 g)
• 7 g salt (1 tsp.)
• 225 g finely shredded carrot (2 cups)*

*Note: I didn’t finely shred the carrot, as you’ll see below, but I do recommend finely shredding it.

Directions:

1. Grease or line an 8” / 20 cm round (preferably) cake pan with butter and/or parchment paper. Use 2 8” round pans or one 9x13” pan if doubling the recipe. Note: In the photos below I used a 9” round cake pan and it was too wide, an 8” pan is best.
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, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
5. Mix sugar, oil, vanilla, orange juice and zest together in a mixing bowl.
6. Add eggs and mix completely.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined.
8. Mix in the carrots.
9. Pour into the prepared pan(s). Bake 8” cake, rotating if needed, for 35-45 minute and 9×13” for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out completely clean. Note: It’s important to completely bake the cake, gluten free cakes can be tricky and sometimes take longer to cook (you’ll see in the photos mine was slightly underbaked in the center).
10. Let the cake(s) cool in the pan. Gently remove and frost once the cake(s) is cool. Note: If you let the cake cool to room temperature and then refrigerate or freeze it (covered) then it might be easier to move and decorate!

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.

The ingredients I used. I used an all-purpose gluten free flour, but a 1:1 GF mix would be best.

I prepared a 9” round baking pan (but you should use an 8” round 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 sugar, oil, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla to a mixing bowl.

And mix together.

Add the eggs.

And mix in.

Add the flour mixture.

After mix well (with gluten free flour you don’t have to worry about overmixing).

Add the carrots. I recommend shredding them more finely than you see here, but this size still worked.

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! It’s delicate so be careful removing from the pan! Chilling it in the refrigerator (after it gets to room temperature) may help with decorating.

After adding the frosting.

All done! It’s a beaut!

I added a bit too much frosting but devoured it nonetheless (over about 4-5 days, don’t worry!)