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Carrot Cake Traybake Recipe
The UK’s classic carrot cake transformed into a delicious traybake! In my somewhat biased opinion, this is one of the BEST cakes you’ll ever eat. Here’s how I make it!
Picture this… an incredibly moist and light sponge, perfectly flavoured with freshly grated carrots and a blend of warm spices such as cinnamon and ground ginger. But wait, there’s more!
This tasty sponge is topped with an irresistible layer of cream cheese frosting and completed with a sprinkling of diced walnuts for that extra oomph. Doesn’t this sound like pure bliss to you?
As it’s made in a traybake tin, not only does this carrot cake taste amazing, but it’s also a lot quicker and easier to make than the usual tiered or sandwiched versions. That’s why I think it’s a great treat to make throughout the year, not just at Easter.
This recipe has been tried and tested on my family and friends, and they love it just as much as I do. The flavours work amazingly well, and it looks delicious too.
The Tin Size I Used
When making traybake cakes, I most certainly always use a 9″ square baking tin (23 x 23 cm). With this tin size I get around 16 chunky cake slices, but you can cut the slices smaller or bigger if you wish.
Alternatively, you can also opt for a more rectangular baking tin as mine is quite square.
Watch How To Make It
Recipe Ingredients
Below are the few ingredients needed to make this recipe:
- Flour: I always use self-raising flour to make cakes, this is what helps it to rise. Bicarbonate of soda is also added to this recipe.
- Oil: My go-to choice is sunflower oil, though you can use vegetable oil or any mild-flavoured oil. Some people like to use olive oil, though it has more of a stronger taste.
- Carrots: Fresh carrots are best for this recipe, though I’ve noticed that some supermarkets sell grated carrots. While I haven’t tried it myself, it could be a time-saving alternative.
- Sugar: I prefer using light brown sugar in this recipe as it adds moistness and a caramelised flavour. If you prefer a darker cake colour, you can opt for dark brown sugar or use a combination of both for a richer tone.
- Eggs: I used 4 medium eggs left at room temperature (for ease of mixing into the sugar and oil).
- Spices & Flavourings: To achieve the classic carrot cake flavour, I add vanilla extract, cinnamon, grated orange zest, mixed spice, and ground ginger to this recipe.
- Cream Cheese Frosting: To make the frosting, I whisked icing sugar, butter, vanilla extract and cream cheese together. The frosting is then topped with a sprinkling of diced walnuts just like Mary Berry’s carrot cake traybake!
How To Make Carrot Cake Traybake
Below is a step-by-step guide on how I made this carrot cake traybake. Full recipe instructions are on the recipe card:
Step One:
Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C Fan, gas mark 4) and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Whilst the oven is preheating, grate your carrots and zest the peel of one orange.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sunflower oil, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs until combined. This takes me roughly 30 seconds.
Add grated carrots and orange zest to the bowl and whisk together until evenly distributed.
Step Two:
Pour flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and mixed spice to the mixing bowl and mix together.
Step Three: