Carrot cake with cream cheese icing: the Thermomix® chops the carrots in 5 seconds, and the rest comes together in the mixing bowl. Baking takes 45 minutes, plus an hour of cooling before the icing goes on. Factor that in and you have a cake that stands well above any standard carrot cake.
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 13 ✓
- 300 g carrot
- 1 orange unwaxed
- 480 g flour, type 550
- 1 sachet baking powder
- 210 g brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 1 egg
- 240 g rapeseed oil + extra for the springform tin
- 250 g sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 200 g full-fat cream cheese
- 65 g butter
- 16 mini marzipan carrots optional
Instructions 0 / 7
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1
Preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (fan 160 °C, gas mark 3).
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2
Chop the carrots.
Peel the carrots, cut into pieces and place in the mixing bowl. Chop for 5 seconds / speed 6.
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3
Juice the orange.
Wash the orange, grate the zest and press the juice. Add both to the mixing bowl along with the remaining cake ingredients and stir together for 2 minutes / speed 4.
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4
Bake the cake.
Meanwhile grease the springform tin with a little oil. Pour the batter into the tin and bake on the middle shelf for 45 minutes. Rinse the mixing bowl. Carefully release the cake from the tin and leave to cool for about 1 hour.
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5
Pulverise the sugar.
Place the sugar and vanilla sugar in the mixing bowl and pulverise for 10 seconds / speed 10.
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6
Mix the frosting.
Add the cream cheese and butter and mix for 10 seconds / speed 4.
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7
Spread the frosting over the cake.
Spread the cream over the cake and serve straight away.
Tip: You can decorate your cake with small marzipan carrots.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Oil instead of butter: there is a reason for that
We bake this cake with rapeseed oil, and there is a clear reason for it. Butter makes a cake more crumbly and slightly drier, while oil keeps the moisture locked into the batter. With carrot cake, which already brings moisture through the grated carrots, the two work well together. Switch to butter and you risk a cake that feels too firm just one day later. The brown sugar in the batter does the same job from a different angle: it holds moisture and adds a light caramel note that contrasts nicely with the cream cheese icing. White sugar would do neither.
The icing: full-fat cream cheese is non-negotiable
For the icing, the Thermomix® first pulverises the sugar at speed 10 into icing sugar. Then the cream cheese and butter go in. The important detail: the recipe specifically calls for full-fat cream cheese. Low-fat cream cheese becomes too runny and the icing slides off rather than holding its shape. Anyone who has watched a too-soft cream spread across a still-warm cake and pool on the plate will understand why this is not a minor point. The cake must also be completely cool. One hour of patience here is a requirement, not a suggestion.
The orange: the zest matters more than the juice
The recipe calls for an unwaxed orange. You grate the zest and press the juice. Both go into the batter. The zest carries the flavour, the juice provides moisture. Leave out the zest and use only the juice and you end up with a plain carrot cake, not an orange and carrot cake. That is a real difference in taste. If you cannot find an unwaxed orange, skip the zest and add a little extra juice instead. But the unwaxed version is clearly the first choice.
For a crunchy raw carrot salad made with the Thermomix®, our apple and carrot salad is well worth a look. If you enjoy cream cheese in other bakes too, our no-base cheesecake offers another option.
