Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Hi ruth, that’s one big carrot cake! Normally for something that big with so much moisture it would be advisable to divide the mix into two, other wise the cake will take a long time to bake, that’s when it can start to become crispy at the sides. You could bake it at a lower temperature, use a baking core to distribute the heat more evenly and baking strips too just to ensure a level bake. I’ve never baked a 14″ carrot cake, the largest I’ve done is 10″ and just kept my eye (and my nose!) on the baking. I’ve got a couple of nice recipe if you’d like them, I can scale them up for you, but I really would be inclined to bake smaller ones first as samples. You’re much braver than I am!
Hi
I am just making my first wedding cake (It’s a practice for my daughter’s wedding in October), I’ve just finished baking the cakes and the bottom tier is a 12 inch carrot cake, it is an oil based cake and I cooked it on 150C – it took 1 1/2 hours. It has turned out nice and flat and not crispy at all. Good luck.
thanks for the responses, madeitwithlove I am now doing bottom fruit 14″ and middle (10″) & top (6″) carrot – would love your recipe for carrot cakes if you could give. My niece wants to freeze the top tier – so I guess I wont be able to made and freeze in advance or will be frozen twice which I think I am not allowed?
Hi ruth
I’ve just seen your latest post, I’m so sorry I don’t know how long ago it was. I can still get you that recipe, will post it for you in the morning. Apologies again.
Hi jb
There’s no reason why you can’t bake the whole mixture up together as one big cake but you would have to adjust the time and temperature. I would divide a 1 kg mix and bake 500g at a time. I find doing that easier because I’m useless at cutting large cakes in layers. I don’t worry about dividing madeira mix, that just bakes up beautifully each time. I don’t like to take chances with cakes containing a lot of liquid or ones which are likely to burn at the edges. Other people may not have the same problems, because I’ve had problems I tend to be more cautious.
Classic Carrot cake recipe.
Hi Ruth, this is the recipe I use for a lovely moist carrot cake, you can also put raisons into the mix, but not everyone likes them so I leave them out.
Pre heat oven 180c/ fan 160c
8″ square tin greased and lined with parchment paper
Will freeze for 3 months un iced
125g self raising flour + pinch of salt
125g soft brown sugar
125g carrots peeled and grated
25g desiccated coconut
25g walnuts chopped
100ml flora cooking oil
Good tsp vanilla extract or to taste
2 lg eggs
1tsp ground cinnamon
Sift flour, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl, stir in the brown sugar. Add the eggs and oil into the dry mix and stir well.
Add carrots, coconut and walnuts, stir until well incorporated.
Pour the mixture into an 8″ square pan and bake for 20/25 minutes or until it tests done.
I usually make a maple syrup and cream cheese frosting and decorate with marzipan carrots.
I sometimes use Lorraine Pascal’s recipe which is on the channel 4 food website, but it is rather large.
Cheers.
Hi jb1958
The carrot cake is easy peasy and it’s so yummy. If you have a food processor with the grating attachment it makes life easier. No bits of grated skin in the mix!
Hi Madeitwithlove, dont know when this post started but wondering if you had the recipe you shared scaled up to a 10″ round. I’m needing to bake four one inch layers. Is it possible to bake two lots at just over 2″ in height. What does one bake normally give you in height?
Thanks Stacey
Just noticed 2012 a while ago !
Hello StellArtois
The recipe above which I posted back in 2012 is the one I use for my son, it’s his fav cake. It can be scaled up to 10″ round from 8″ square using the ready reckoner or the cakeometer here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/how-to-work-out-what-size-cake-tin-to-use
The original recipe is for 8″ square cake 3″ deep. The factor to convert the recipe is .8 this will give you 1 x 10″ x 2″ deep cake. Please let me know if this helps.
I also love the Lorraine Pascal recipe
Thanks madeitwithlove what a quick response. I made the cake today using the above quantities unfortunately mine didn’t give me anywhere near a 3″ rise or did you mean the original recipe but you converted it for the original person asking. This is the original recipe but .8 wouldn’t give me enough for a 10″ round. I’m a bit thick when its comes to these things 🙂 How does that work?
125g self raising flour + pinch of salt
125g soft brown sugar
125g carrots peeled and grated
25g desiccated coconut
25g walnuts chopped
100ml flora cooking oil
Good tsp vanilla extract or to taste
2 lg eggs
1tsp ground cinnamon
I will try and use the cake reckoner to scale it up. Thank you so much
The above quantities are for 1 x 8″ square cake x 3″ deep. I’m so sorry you’ve been confused by the original recipe. If I were you I would convert the 8″ square to a straight 10″ round, bake it twice and layer off to the height you want. It’s really easy on the cakeometer if you find the RR a little challenging. If you do need a hand give me a shout. I’ll try and keep a look out on both forums.
madeitwithlove, would your carrot cake recipe be firm enough to be used to make Paul’s ice skate cake? Unfortunately, my skating coach’s favourite cake is carrot cake, then coffee & walnut cake, victoria sandwich and then somewhere down the line, chocolate cake! I had planned to bake a chocolate cake for my coach as I didn’t think it would be possible to carve and stack a carrot cake. I’d be very happy to be wrong on this point!
By the way, if you ever feel like a slight change from your own recipe, Delia has a similar recipe which I’ve always used in the past. Everyone who’s tried it has always loved it.
Hi GloriousFood
I haven’t made this recipe in ages but do remember it being very moist so I wouldn’t recommend for carving. Mrs Jones has a carrot cake recipe on the site to which she recommends adding at least 10% – 20% more flour if it is required for stacking or enrobing with sugarpaste. The additional flour would make the cake a lot sturdier so worth a go at carving from chilled. Have a look at what Mrs Jones says here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/online-cake-decorating-courses/mrs-jones-carrot-cake#overview
Mrs Jones advises this for all her recipes if they are to be stacked, enrobed or carved.
Thank you for suggesting Delia’s recipe. I love her recipes, especially her international savouries, yum!!
Hi madeitwithlove
Thanks very much for the advice. I’ll try this recipe over the long weekend.
I meant to include the link to Delia’s recipe earlier for anyone who wants to have a look. Here it is now:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/cake-recipes/the-ultimate-carrot-cake
x
Happy baking and happy Bank holiday w/end. x
I am making a carrot cake for my daughter’s wedding and need it to be ready a couple of days before what is the best filling to use if I cover in white ganache then fondant?
Hi nodkins 777
White chocolate butter cream is great with carrot cake. I have a small recipe which can be made in multiples here:
100g melted white chocolate
140g unsalted butter
70g icing sugar
2 tea spoons vanilla extract or flavouring of choice
Cream butter and icing sugar until very white
Add flavour of choice
Add cooled white chocolate
Beat until very creamy
There are many flavours which partner carrot cake well. Traditionally cream cheese, maple syrup, butterscotch is favoured but also orange, mixed spice, walnut. Take a peek for flavour ideas here:
http://www.foodieflavours.com/
https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/lorann-m400
https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/sugar-and-crumbs-m433
Hope some of these ideas help.
