Today’s Recipe
Who doesn’t love a good carrot cake? We certainly do. In fact, we would classify it as one of the best cakes to bake, because it’s easy and turns out super yummy! Plus, cream cheese frosting is freaking delicious. Although not ~technically~ Scandinavian, since it was developed somewhere else in Western Europe (disputed whether it was England, France, or Switzerland), it’s a popular cake all around the world and we wanted to share our recipe with you! Plus, we Danes do love adding grated carrots to our baked goods (see gulerodsboller), so sharing this recipe was a no-brainer for us. This is the perfect cake for a special occasion or just for a weekend baking project. Yum!
Vegetables in Cake…?
Some people may hear “carrot cake” and think…why? Why put carrots in a cake? But the carrots don’t have a particularly strong flavor, so you can barely taste them, but they do make the cake moist. They also complement the spices in the cake perfectly, resulting in the classic carrot cake flavor that we all know and love. And if you think carrot cake is dense and gross, then that means that you’ve just eaten bad carrot cake. In this day and age, though, we would hope you’re open to the idea of vegetables in cakes. At the end of the day, what’s the real difference between fruits and vegetables anyway? And we’re happy to add fruit to our cakes, so why not vegetables?
A Delicious Carrot Cake
A delicious carrot cake should be moist, fluffy, and sweet, with some light spices running through it. Ours is flavored with cinnamon, vanilla, and brown sugar. It’s such a comforting and nostalgic flavor, and it’s perfect for any season, whether you’re making it on a cold winter day or a sunny summer afternoon. We also recommend adding orange zest to the cream cheese frosting, because it just lifts the flavor profile of the cake and makes it tangy, fresh, and sweet all at the same time. If you don’t like cream cheese icing, you can also make a vanilla buttercream or white chocolate ganache – both would be delicious. Seriously, even if you have some carrot cake doubts, try our recipe and we’re certain it will convert you!
Ingredients
This recipe is made up of classic cake ingredients: eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, oil, milk, baking powder, and salt. Then, it has the flavors that make carrot cake what it is: cinnamon, vanilla extract, and shredded carrots. The number of carrots you need for this recipe is very dependent on the size of the carrots you have – you may need five or six medium-sized carrots! And don’t be daunted by the amount of carrot, it adds the best texture and is quite literally in the name of the cake, so you can’t skimp on it. For the frosting, you’ll then need softened butter and cream cheese, icing sugar (powdered sugar), orange zest, and salt. Finally, you’ll need decorations, whether that’s chopped nuts, sprinkles, fondant, flowers, or anything else.
Instructions
The recipe is pretty straightforward. Start by whipping up the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and tripled in size. It should reach the ribbon stage, which means when you pick up the whisk, the mixture runs off and then settles on the surface of the mixture for a few seconds. Then, you’ll add your wet ingredients and carefully mix. Sift in your dry ingredients, carefully folding them into the wet mixture in two batches so you don’t deflate the air that you’ve whipped into the eggs. Then, add the carrots and divide the batter evenly between two cake tins. Bake for 25-40 minutes (a very broad range of time, yes, but it can vary depending on the size of your tins and your oven). Let the cakes cool.
Decoration
To make the frosting, beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in the icing sugar slowly, a little bit at a time, until fully combined. Then, add a pinch of salt and some orange zest, which will enhance the flavors of the cake and the frosting even more. Decorate the cake – we cut each cake carefully in half and spread frosting between each layer. Then, we decorate the top with some cute little blobs, and finish with sprinkles. You could do something fancier if you like, or just leave it super simple, and the flavor will speak for itself. This one will be a hit, we promise! Let us know if you try the recipe in the comments below, or post a picture on social media and tag us! We always love to see your bakes 🙂
Gulerodskage (Carrot Cake)
Ingredients
CAKE BATTER
- 4 large eggs (room temperature)
- 200 grams brown sugar
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 350 grams all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice blend)
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger (optional)
- 1/8 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves (optional)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175 ml milk (room temperature – we usually just heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds before adding to the batter!)
- 175 ml vegetable oil
- 350 grams grated carrot (the number of carrots will vary – if you have 3 large carrots that could be enough, but if they are on the smaller side you could need 6 carrots!)
FROSTING
- 226 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 340 grams cream cheese, softened *we recommend using a high quality cream cheese or Philadelphia cream cheese (it has stabilizers added to keep it from splitting) – if not, you may find that the frosting will get liquidy!
- 200 grams icing/powdered sugar
- Splash of vanilla extract
- Orange zest (optional)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (176 C).
- Wash, peel, and grate your carrots (we use the coarse side of our grater) and set aside until ready to add to the batter.
- Add your eggs and both sugars to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Using the whisk attachment (you can also do this using a handheld mixer!) beat the eggs and sugar together until light in color, and about doubled in volume. The mixture should also thicken, and when you lift the whisk out of the mixture, the mixture that runs off back into the bowl should sit on the surface for a second before sinking back in – this is ribbon stage!
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon + additional optional spices, and salt) and whisk together really well.
- In a liquid measuring cup or bowl, mix together your milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add half of the wet ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture in the mixer and mix on low for 10-15 seconds.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl of the stand mixer and mix on low for 10-15 seconds, until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed.
- Repeat adding the remaining wet ingredients and mixing, and adding the remaining dry ingredients and mixing. Give the mixture a few folds with a rubber spatula at the end to make sure nothing is stuck on the bottom.
- Add in your grated carrot and gently fold into your batter.
- Grease and line two round baking pans (we used two 9 inch (~23cm) diameter pans) with parchment paper.
- Divide your batter evenly between the two pans.
- Put them in the oven on a center rack (next to each other) to bake for about 25-35 minutes. The cakes will be done once a knife/skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Once the cakes are baked, let cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, remove the parchment paper from the bottom, and leave to cool completely.
- Prepare your icing by beating together softened butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer for a few minutes until well combined. Make sure the butter and cream cheese aren't too soft, or the icing could become runny.
- Add in your icing sugar a bit at a time until fully combined, then add a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla extract.
- Add the orange zest (if you want to!). Continue beating until light and fluffy.
- When the cakes have cooled, you can decorate however you would like! We made this into a layer cake by trimming off some of the rounded tops.
- Slice each of the cakes in half so you have four cake layers.
- Place the first layer on a plate or cake stand. Add icing to the top and spread in an even layer (keep in mind that we will have four layers of icing, including on the top, a little bit left for the sides, and some extra for piping on top as well, so divide the icing accordingly!)
- Add another cake layer, and repeat with icing the top, until you get to the last layer! Add icing on top of that layer as well.
- Using a bit of icing on an offset spatula or knife, fill in the gaps around the edge, but leave the cake edges bare (for a bit of a "naked" cake look!)
- We like to use the rest of the icing to pipe dollops in a ring around the edge on the top. You could also just add this icing all around the edge instead!
- Add any additional decoration, such as sprinkles, slice, and enjoy! Make sure to store this cake in the fridge.
