This Carrot Cake Loaf recipe is super easy. It comes together quickly, is great to make ahead, and is perfectly moist and light. The Carrot Loaf Cake itself is dairy free, or there is an option to finish it with a silky maple cream cheese frosting.
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Table of contents
- Carrot Loaf Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- How to make Carrot Loaf Cake
- Dairy Free Carrot Loaf Cake Recipe
- Can this Loaf Cake be made ahead of time?
- Carrot Loaf Cake with no Frosting
- Carrot Loaf Cake FAQ
- For more recipes using Filippo Berio, check out:
- Made this recipe and love it?
- Why is this recipe in grams?
Carrot Loaf Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Hi hi! Happy Spring! I am just popping in here to share this recipe for Carrot Loaf Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. This is a super easy recipe that is great to have as a back pocket staple. It comes together fast, and keeps extremely well, so is great to make in advance. The Carrot Loaf Cake is light and moist, and the maple cream cheese frosting isn't too sweet and pairs perfectly. I hope that you love this one as much as I do!
How to make Carrot Loaf Cake
This recipe is super, super easy. The Carrot Loaf Cake doesn't require a mixer of any sort - you just stir it all together and then pop it in the oven.
- Combine the wet ingredients - We are counting sugar as a wet ingredient here. Brown sugar, granulated sugar, Filippo Berio Delicato Extra Virgin Olive Oil, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.
- Mix together the dry ingredients - This carrot loaf cake has flour, leavener (baking powder and soda), salt, and then a few warming spices. I used cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, but feel free to mix it up a little if you like.
- Combine it all together - Dump the wet into the dry, and mix until incorporated. Easy easy.
- Add the carrot - Carrot goes in last. I like to fold it in with a rubber spatula or a whisk.
- Bake - The Carrot Loaf Cake bakes for about an hour until perfectly golden brown and cooked throughout. Once it is done, remove it from the oven and leave to cool until you are ready to frost it!
- Make the Cream Cheese Maple Frosting - The Maple cream cheese frosting is super easy to make - either combine everything by hand or use an electric mixer. Spread it on the top and you are good to go!
Dairy Free Carrot Loaf Cake Recipe
Carrot Cake is often sneakily dairy free, as it relies on Oil as the fat rather than butter. Instead of a neutral oil I went for something a little more flavourful and used Filippo Berio's Delicato Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which is light in flavour but still has that lovely olive oil flavour. I love using it in baking where I want the oil flavour to come through but not be the main character. Alternatively, their extra light olive oil is another favourite of mine and what I use whenever a neutral oil is called for in a recipe.
Can this Loaf Cake be made ahead of time?
This Carrot Cake Loaf is super moist, so is perfect for making ahead of time. You can make the loaf cake, and store it either wrapped or in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days ahead. You can make the frosting ahead of time if you like too and just give it a quick re-whip when needed. I made carrot loaf cake to take to a friend during testing and just popped the frosting in a wee container so she could add it herself once she got home. She mentioned it was still soft about 5 days after, so the loaf cake keeps extremely well thanks to the oil in the recipe.
Carrot Loaf Cake with no Frosting
If you wanted to keep the whole carrot loaf cake recipe dairy free there are two options. The first is to finish the carrot cake with a little turbinado sugar before baking, and leave off the frosting. This will make it beautiful and crunchy on the top. The other is to make a glaze with a little powdered sugar and either lemon or orange juice, and use that instead! The Maple Cream Cheese frosting is super good though!
Carrot Loaf Cake FAQ
If you want to, go for it! I would add about 80 grams of chopped toasted walnuts to the mix at the same time as the carrot.
I used a 1 lb Loaf tin for this carrot loaf cake (8"x4"). You can use a slightly larger one if that is all you have, but the cake will bake up a bit wider and shorter.
Yes, it should be great as muffins too, although I haven't tried it. Muffins are mini versions of quick breads, which is what this loaf cake is (same as banana bread etc), whereas cupcakes are mini versions of cakes. Fun fact! The leavening is usually different in a quick bread and a cake, but for the most part a quick bread recipe can be turned into muffins easily.
Something simple made with some powdered sugar and lemon or orange juice would be lovely on this and would keep the whole thing dairy free!
I have no idea sorry. You could try with a 1:1 cup for cup situation, but I don't know how it would go!
For more recipes using Filippo Berio, check out:
Made this recipe and love it?
If you make this Carrot Cake Loaf recipe, I would LOVE for you to leave me a review below and let me know how you liked it! Make sure to tag me on Instagram if you make it!
Why is this recipe in grams?
I post my recipes in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. Posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups, then you are welcome to convert it yourself via google. However, please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!
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Carrot Cake Loaf
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf cake 1x
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Carrot Cake Loaf recipe is super easy. It comes together quickly, is great to make ahead, and is perfectly moist and light. The Carrot Loaf Cake itself is dairy free, or there is an option to finish it with a silky maple cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Carrot Loaf Cake
- 130g light or dark brown sugar
- 65g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 125g Filippo Berio Delicato Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 210g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¾ tsp cardamom
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 180g freshly grated carrot
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 225 full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 35g powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
- ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
Instructions
CARROT CAKE LOAF
- Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Grease and line a 1 lb (8"x4") loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper that extends over the sides.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, Filippo Berio Delicato Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and vanilla until well combined.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Add the grated carrot and switch to a rubber spatula, and mix until incorporated.
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 60 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed lightly and a skewer or tester inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container until ready to frost.
MAPLE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- In a medium bowl using a spatula or electric mixer, combine together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth and incorporated.
- Add the maple syrup and mix to combine.
- Spread the frosting over the surface of the cooled carrot loaf cake. Slice into pieces using a serrated or sharp knife.
Store leftovers in an airtight container either covered at room temperature or in the fridge.
Keywords: Carrot Cake, Carrot Loaf Cake, Loaf Cake, Dairy Free, Maple Cream Cheese
can't wait to try this!
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All your olive oil recipes are so delish!! This one looks as good as your others!!
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I made this last night in two 6in baking pans because my loaf pan was in use and they baked in 35 minutes and were delicious!! I love all the spices and it's so moist!
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Ahhh so happy you love!
Hi! My loaf is baking now and it smells delicious. QUESTION...grams of powdered sugar for frosting is 30gm....is this accurate? Seems like very little powdered sugar compared to any other frosting recipe I've made. Would love to know if this is accurate? I'm making it now, so I will probably add a bit more powdered sugar, yet I value your opinion. Thank you! Love your recipes and website!
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Hi! Yep that's the correct amount - I wanted a very cream cheese forward icing and then the maple means you don't need much. Make it first and see how you go before adding extra!
Thank you. I added more powdered sugar before I saw your response. It’s a fantastic recipe. Next time I will try your frosting recommendations. This is definitely a make again recipe.
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Yay so happy you loved! 🙂
My daughter made this for my birthday a few days ago. It was delicious, so soft and light. Spices were lovely and the frosting is our new favourite 😍
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Yay so happy it went well! Happy Happy birthday x
I made this for our family get together and it was absolutely delicious! I did swap the sugar for coconut sugar and I didn't have ground ginger. I used pumpkin spice instead which does have ground ginger. So while it wasn't followed exactly, it was absolutely delicious. You have converted me to a scale-using baker and am now so bothered when recipes do not list gram measurements. This is my new go-to carrot cake recipe! I never liked the busy nuts and fruit often found in carrot cake so this one is perfect!
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Yummmm! SO happy you love and even MORE happy to hear you're a convert to grams baking! It really is the best! x
Made this recipe today as muffins and it turned out great! It made 8 pretty big muffins, baked for 24-25 minutes, also used sunflower oil instead of olive oil. The carrot cake was super moist plus the frosting is perfection!
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This recipe was absolutely delicious! Probably my favorite carrot cake recipe to date. The cake itself was remarkably light and the frosting was perfectly balanced.
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Ah yayyyy so happy you enjoyed! I need to make it again - it keeps so so well too!
Hello, why do you have to add salt to this? Does it make a difference? Thanks!
Hi! You have to add salt to the cake (and all other baked goods) to give the cake flavour. Salt helps cut through the sweetness. It makes a big difference - that is why I included it in the recipe 🙂