I still had some carrots left and I decided to make a carrot cake. Carrot cake is one of my favorite desserts and I especially like the cream cheese frosting. As I had never actually made a carrot cake before I went looking for a recipe and I came across this one that sounded good. I really liked that it included maple syrup in both the cake and the frosting. In an effort to make it a bit lighter I replaced some of the oil with apple sauce. I figured that the apple sauce would help keep the cake moist and it would also add some flavour. The carrot cake ended up tasting great and being nice and moist. The cake part was so nice that I really didn’t mind the higher cake to frosting ratio. The maple flavour in both the cake and the frosting was also really nice. I will be making this again. Must not eat any more slices today…
Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (ground)
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (grated)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1 1/2 cups carrots (grated)
- 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (softened)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
directions
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar and brown sugar in a bowl.
- Mix the eggs, oil, maple syrup, applesauce, and carrots in a bowl.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and pour into a greased 9×5 inch loaf pan.
- Bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until a toothpick poked into the middle comes out clean, about 45-60 minutes.
- Remove the cake for the pan and let cook on a wire rack.
- Mix the cream cheese and maple syrup in a bowl.
- spread the cream cheese frosting on the top of the carrot cake.
oooh, This sounds really good. I love cakes that have cream cheese icing. Great thinking on using a loaf pan.
Kevin, that’s a dangerously good looking carrot cake.
Lovely! Carrot cake is fab.
You need to invite someone over to share that yummy carrot cake with you!! Love the maple cream cheese frosting!
All I can say is…perfect kevin!!!
This looks so de delicious!!! and the carrot soup too! I will try the two. Gloria
One of my favorite dessert. First time I see a recipe with maple syrup in it. I really have to try it. Looks good.
That look so moist! I love carrot cake and have never tried it with maple syrup, I bet it is so good.
This cake looks so good, Kevin – I love new ways of baking with carrots and the idea of adding maple syrup is wonderful!
I like carrot cake. Do you know in Malaysia/Singapore, there is a kind of carrot cake which is savory and fried? Yes, it’s called carrot cake too.
I love carrot cake as well – and the addition of maple sounds wonderful!!
I like how you substituted apple sauce for the oil. Prefer your recipe over the one I previously made, think I will give it a go, as would like to make one as a gift! Thanks for sharing.
I made this cake today and everyone loved the fact that there was very little white sugar. I did have trouble getting the frosting smooth. There always seemed to be small bits of cream cheese. Good cake!
Kevin, are the ingredient measurements that you list constitute the "halved" amount of the recipe? Should I double it then to fit say a 9×9 pan? Thanks, and I love your recipes!
Rian G.: Sorry for the confusion there! The recipe as written is for a 9×5 inch loaf pan and I was musing about doing it as bars in a 9×9 inch pan rather than as a loaf. If you want bars, you can use the recipe as written in a 9×9 inch pan and they will be about an inch tall and the baking time will be less. I would start pushing the toothpick into the center to see if it comes out clean (indicating that it is done baking) at around 25 minutes.
I cleaned up the recipe to remove my confusing musing. 🙂
Enjoy!
Awesome cake, the best carrot cake I've ever tasted! I didn't have any applesauce but used some sour cream and a bit of honey instead, that turned out fine.
Hi Kevin, I adore your cakes and i have baked a few.
I just made this carrot cake with a little change as you like strange flavors i will give you my recipe ! instead of apple sauce I bolied some figs with some sugar and made puree and in another cooking pot i boiled red wine and sugar and a bunch of figs when they where well cooked i sliced them and mixed them in the batter. I had men asking for the recipe !