Carrot Cake Traybake!
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A delicious, easy, and moreish carrot cake traybake with cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts!
Carrot cake
So, this may be controversial, but carrot cake is my favourite flavour cake. I know, I know, I say everything is my favourite but I do genuinely adore a good chunky slice of carrot cake.
So… it’s time for a carrot cake traybake! Easter time is usually full of chocolate and such, which I obviously adore.. but it’s not to everyone’s taste. I get that, and I accept that, and to be honest… I love carrot cake. I based this recipe on my carrot cake recipe, and it’s just so good! Not trying to blow my own trumpet of course
Traybake cakes
It’s such a versatile recipe, that I thought I would make it a bit differently by making it into a traybake! Traybake cakes aren’t something I have done a lot of, but to be honest they are SO much easier than a layer cake! You just have to show it into the tin, bake it, and slather on the decoration! No fancy layering or piping required.
I didn’t quite double my carrot cake recipe as it would have been too much for the tin, but its an ‘increased’ version which is ideal. I literally use a traybake tin for this as it was the right size, but any traybake style tin is good. You will just want it to be a similar size to the one I have used.
My chocolate fudge traybake cake has always been so popular, along with my school cake… a traybake tin is so popular for bakes and so versatile for recipes that I just really recommend grabbing one.
The cake
The cake itself is so light, and so (I hate to use the word) ~moist~, it is just delicious. Honestly I think carrot cake is one of my favourite cakes, if not my actual favourite, so I devour far too many pieces when I make this recipe. And you know, its got carrots and raisins in so it’s clearly good for you.
The recipe uses an oil base for the sponge, along with a mix of brown sugar, eggs, flour, bicarb, and then the flavours. I add a little orange zest because I adore orange in the sponge of a carrot cake, it’s got the carrots (obviously), some raisins as mentioned above, and then the spices. I wanted to make my carrot cake nice and warm as always so I put in some mixed spice, ginger and cinnamon.
This mixture is so easy to mix together in a bowl with a spoon or spatula. Honestly, you don’t need to use a mixer for a carrot cake, you just need a large bowl. I tend to mix the wet ingredients together first, and then I add the dry and mix until just combined.
Cream cheese frosting
I did make this slightly different to my carrot cake however and used a cream cheese frosting like the one in my red velvet cake. I thought a carrot cake traybake would need a bit more jazzing up, and the cream cheese frosting is ideal. Its silky, its smooth, and it tastes damn good.
Often people can have problems with making a cream cheese frosting and its often down to over mixing, or the water content of the cream cheese. Some countries cream cheese has a higher water content, and even different brands do. If you feel like yours is extra specially water, you can try and squeeze some out before adding to the butter.
When mixing the frosting, you want to be gentle. You really can’t over mix it otherwise you might have a sloppy mess! Either way though, because the cake will have to be stored in the fridge, it’ll firm the frosting up somewhat anyway! And then with the addition of the crunch of the nuts, its DELICIOUS.
Make sure to use full-fat cream cheese, leave out the spices if you don’t fancy it, but either way.. just follow the recipe and trust me you’ll love the frosting.
Recipe adaptations
You can see in the pictures how delicious it looks, but it is definitely versatile. Add more nuts, no nuts, add more raisins, or no raisins… its entirely up to you. If you wanted to use a buttercream topping so it doesn’t have to be kept in the fridge, then you can easily use the one from the original carrot cake recipe. It’s the best thing to do if you want it to be out at a party for example or you have to travel with it!
I swapped up and adapted the recipe in March 2024, and the only difference was the cream cheese frosting. I will say I really do prefer my new cream cheese frosting recipe which you can find here, and the one on this post is a delicious spiced version for this traybake.
Tips & Tricks
- I use this traybake tin for my cakes
- The raisins are optional, or interchangeable with nuts if you prefer
- This cake will last for 3 days in the fridge
- The cake can freeze for 3 months
- If you need to have the cake at room temperature for any length of time, you can switch the frosting to buttercream to make it safe
Carrot Cake Traybake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 300 ml sunflower oil
- 5 medium eggs
- 350 g light brown sugar
- 500 g grated carrots (grated weight)
- 150 g raisins
- Zest of 2 oranges
- 400 g self raising flour
- 2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsps mixed spice
- 1.5 tsps ground ginger
- 1.5 tsps ground cinnamon
Frosting
- 125 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 125 g icing sugar
- 250 g full-fat cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Extras
- 100 g chopped nuts
- carrot decorations
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line a 9x13” tin with parchment paper
- Add the oil, eggs, sugar and carrots to a bowl and mix
- Add the raisins, orange zest and mix
- Add the flour, bicarb and spices and mix
- Pour into the tin and bake for 50-55+ minutes and leave to cool in the tin
- Beat the butter on its own until smooth
- Add the icing sugar and spices and beat until smooth
- Add the cream cheese and mix again
- Decorate the cake with the frosting, and sprinkles and chopped nuts if you fancy
Notes
- This recipe will last in the fridge for 3+ days
- This can freeze for 3+ months
- The raisins are optional, or interchangeable with nuts
- I use this baking tin for my cake
- Here is an in-depth post about cream cheese frosting if you need extra help
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J x
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Can I use olive oil instead?
Turns out I only have 230g SR flour 😭 can I use plain flour for the rest?
Honestly the best cake I have ever made. I made it for a family get together and everyone was full of compliments! They thought id bought it 🤣
Thankyou jane
Hi Jane! What would be the quantity of ingredients please to cover this traybake in buttercream instead of cream cheese frosting ? Thank you x
Hi 🙂
Do I just double the recipe to get a thicker tray bake? I’d like it to be about an Inch & 1/2 tall? I have a 9×12 inch tin.
Any help would be great!
Made this on 11th July. The last time I baked a cake was in 2023, so it’s been a long while.
I hadn’t made a carrot cake in many years, but at the same time, I wanted to make a tray-bake cake! I already got strong impressions of the simplicity that this recipe is, and my trust was already in it.
Grating carrots took its time, but putting it all together was straightforward, and proudly I baked the mix to bring about a very moist sponge (45 – 50 minutes). I didn’t have fairtrade ground ginger, but a little more mixed spice was good enough.
This recipe is excellent. The real highlight for me is that carrot cakes can often have bananas in the mix, and walnuts, both of which I have no liking for (not eaten a banana in +15 years, and have a nut allergy). Thus for this recipe to have neither by default, it was meant to be, for me!
Happy baking 🙂
Can I add nuts and keep the raisins too? If so how much of the nuts please
Made this a couple of times now to rave reviews.
Couple of tweaks. I soak the raisins in OJ for a couple of hours before adding & I replace about a quarter of the flour with wholemeal. Didn’t have any ginger this time so added more mixed spice and some freshly grated nutmeg. YUMMY!!!!
Soak the raisins in OJ?? That’s genius!! 😍
Would it work to use butter instead of oil, and if so, how much please? I try not to use seed oils because of the harmful linoleic acid. Thanks.
Hi – If you were to half this recipe how many eggs would you use?
I’ve made this with 4 large eggs instead of 5 medium & it’s come out great so I would say 2 large should be fine
2 !
Can i use vegetable oil instead of sunflower?
thank you
Yes!
I’m making this cake for a friend but she doesn’t like any dried fruit (weirdo! lol) so what can I use instead please?
You can replace with nuts, or leave it out!
Hi jane, if i make half how many eggs do i use please and what size tin 9 x9? Thanks Sue x
You can half it and do it in a 7×7 (thicker) or 8×8 (thinner) tin using 3 medium eggs – or you can scale the recipe down (x0.7 for everything) and use 4 medium eggs and a 9×9 tin
Made this to take to work and everyone went on about how good it was and that it was the best carrot cake they’d ever had. So many people asked for the recipe. I made it without raisins as I don’t like them.
Hi Jane. Can I bake the cake today and leave it in a tin, then ice it tomorrow? I don’t want to risk cake being in fridge for a day before serving in case it goes really hard. Thanks!
Hiya absolutely, though I usually freeze my cakes before decorating as I find it much easier! x