This moist Chocolate and Carrot Cake recipe is based on my Spiced Carrot Cake (one of my favourites). This is a super moist and nicely spiced carrot cake that is taken to a different level by adding just a little cocoa powder to the sponge. The cream cheese icing is a superb addition to the cake and complements it really well. This is one of my new favourite cake recipes!
The reason I came up with this in the first place, was when I was tasked last year to make the 60th birthday cake for two people! The cake of choice was carrot, but I wanted to make an impressive, tall, 4-tiered carrot cake that would have a bit of contrast when you cut into it. So I made two sponges of my favourite Spiced Carrot Cake recipe, and decided to add chocolate to make another two slightly darker cakes to provide that contrast. I have included pictures below of the two birthday cakes I made. One of them was also made gluten-free, as this cake mixture lends itself superbly to make it gluten-free (more info below)!
I really hope you enjoy this recipe, it’s a special one to me and I hope you love it as much as I do 😊!
A few tips for making this Chocolate and Carrot Cake
This cake is actually very quick and easy to make. And for more of a challenge or impressive birthday cake (see above), you can combine it with my Spiced Carrot Cake recipe to make an impressive 4-tiered showstopper!
This recipe follows a very easy all-in-one method, however, I would recommend starting by adding all the dry ingredients to the bowl. From there, you can add the raisins and walnuts to coat them in the flour. This initial coating will stop them from sinking to the bottom of the tin! For a gluten-free version of the cake, simply use gluten-free self-raising flour and add a teaspoon of Xantham gum to the mix! After that, all you do is add all the ingredients and mix!
The cream cheese icing is another one of my special recipes. This is one of my favourite icings to make, starting with a buttercream base (butter + icing sugar), with the subsequent addition of some tangy soft cheese and quark. Quark is a dairy product that is very popular in German baking recipes (search my blog for more recipes/info) that is available to buy in most UK supermarkets. Either keep the icing plain, or flavour it with some grated orange zest as I did here. A perfect addition to the chocolate and carrot cake!
More Delicious Cake recipes!
I have many delicious cake recipes on my blog, ranging from easy traybakes that are ready in no time, to slightly more time-consuming cakes that are more than worth it for their looks and flavour! Check out some of my favourites below:
- Spiced Carrot Cake
- Black Forest Gateau | Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte | German Baking Cake
- Lemon Drizzle Cake | Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake
- Gluten-free Chocolate Orange Cake
- Apricot and Honeycomb Cake
- Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cake
- Butterscotch Traybake
- Spiced Almond and Marzipan Cake
- Strawberries and Cream Sandwich Cake
- Christmas Snow Cake
- Sticky Toffee Cake with Pecan Praline
- Blackberry Cinnamon Crumble Cake
- Checkerboard Cake
- Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Curd
- Mary Berry’s Frosted Walnut Cake
Moist Chocolate and Carrot Cake (gluten-free)
Recipe
Ingredients:
FOR THE SPICED CARROT CAKE:
- 175g self-raising flour (or 175g gluten-free self-raising flour + 1 tsp xantham gum)
- 20g cocoa powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 100g raisins
- 100g walnuts, roughly chopped
- 2 medium eggs, beaten
- 140ml vegetable oil
- 200g light brown sugar
- 300g carrots (about 3 medium), grated
FOR THE ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
- 125g butter, slightly softened
- 175g icing sugar
- 1 orange, zest only
- 150g full-fat soft cheese
- 125g Quark
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins
- 1 palette knife
- A few extra walnuts or edible flowers, to decorate (optional)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 160°C. Lightly grease the two sandwich tins and line the bottom with baking paper.
- Put the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl and mix. Then add in the walnuts and raisins and toss them in the flour until coated to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake while baking.
- Add in all the remaining cake ingredients to the bowl. Beat with an electric whisk or wooden spoon until all the ingredients are well combined. The mixture is fairly wet – so don´t worry!
- Equally divide the mixture between the two prepared tins (weigh the mixture if you want to be exact).
- Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes start shrinking away from the sides of the tin and an inserted skewer or toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove the finished cakes from the oven and leave them to cool on a wire rack in the tin for about 10 minutes. Then carefully remove them from the tin, peel of the baking paper, and leave on the wire rack to cool completely.
- To prepare the orange cream cheese icing, add the butter to a mixing bowl and beat for 5-10 minutes until very fluffy and pale in colour. Then add the grated orange zest and sift in about half of the icing sugar. Mix, then add the remaining icing sugar and beat until smooth.
- Then add in the cream cheese and quark and beat into the butter and icing sugar mixture until smooth. If the icing is a little too runny, you can always add a little more icing sugar. Chill the icing in the fridge to firm up until needed.
- Once the cakes have completely cooled level the surfaces of the cakes by cutting off some of the tops with a sharp knife (and then eat the offcuts!!!).
- Place one of the cakes on the serving plate and spread over half of the orange cream cheese icing. Place the other cake bottom side up (so that you have a flat top) on the first cake and spread the remaining icing over the top and around the sides of the cake.
- Finish by decorating the cake with a few whole or chopped walnuts, edible flowers, or any other decoration of your choosing.
