Perfectly moist, spicy, covered with airy cream - this is how carrot cake with cheese cream turns out according to our recipe. As you will see, making a delicious carrot cake at home is very easy. Lovers of cream cheese will enjoy this incredible dessert, which is perfect for both holidays and everyday life. We will reveal the secrets of making carrot biscuits, find out whether soaking is needed for carrot cake, and tell you how to simply and beautifully decorate a carrot cake with cheese cream.
How to make carrot cake with cream cheese?
First we will prepare the cake layers for the carrot cake, and then we will make the cream cheese. The easiest way is to bake two cakes, which are then cut into two parts. You will get four cake layers, which we will generously spread with cheese cream. Let's talk about some of the secrets of making carrot cake with cream cheese.
- The main ingredient of our cake is carrots , which must be taken in sufficient quantities. It will make the cake moist, sweet and give the cakes such a beautiful color. You can grate the carrots or use a blender, which will chop them into fine grains in seconds. Most people prefer a smooth texture with no large chunks of carrot visible, so it's best to grate the carrots finely or use a blender.
- In our Cream Cheese Carrot Cake recipe, we use equal parts regular white sugar and brown sugar. Brown sugar will make the carrot cake more moist and tender and add a special flavor to the cakes. If you can't use brown sugar, use regular sugar (you will need about 260 g of sugar). In this case, carrot cake with cheese cream will turn out a little sweeter. For a more caramel flavor, you can use only brown sugar.
- In addition to walnuts, you can add raisins, chopped prunes, other dried fruits (about 70 g) to the carrot cake dough, or you can add nothing additional - carrot cakes turn out wonderful on their own, including thanks to the spices.
- To give carrot cake with cream cheese a spicy taste, use ground cinnamon, a little nutmeg, ground allspice and ground cloves. You can add a little more ginger. These spices will give carrot cake with cheese cream a wonderful, unique aroma for which this dessert is so loved.
- What are the subtleties when baking carrot cake layers? It is necessary to properly prepare the baking dish. To make the cakes easy to remove from the pan, place parchment paper on the bottom. Grease the sides of the pan and the parchment paper on the bottom with a little butter.
- It is important to maintain the cooking time for the carrot biscuits so that the middle of the cakes are baked. The brown color may indicate that the cake is ready, but the center of the cake may be runny (check with a toothpick). At the same time, you need to try not to dry out the cakes in the oven.
- For the cream we will use curd cream cheese (creamcheese, “Philadelphia”). We will mix it with whipped cream and powdered sugar. This cream is softer and lighter than cheese cream, which is made from butter. Cream 33% fat (no less!), as well as dishes and whisks for whipping, should be well cooled.
...baking.
You can do this in any form you have. Metal detachable, silicone or sliding ring for baking and assembling cakes. I have just such a ring, it, of course, without a bottom, and I will show you how I adapted to bake cakes in it. I just remember very well how some time ago I was tormented by the question of whether it’s even possible to cook something in such a ring, whether the dough will leak out, etc. It’s possible! :) Moreover, I like cakes from the ring even more than baked ones in other forms, for some reason they turn out taller and smoother.
I set the diameter I need. In this case it is 18 cm.
I place a piece of foil on a baking sheet with a flat bottom, and on it - a square of baking paper, such that the mold fits on it.
I put the whole form on it and kind of wrap it in foil. I try to press the foil tightly to the base of the mold, making a kind of “cover”. This way I know for sure that the dough will not leak.
It is advisable to weigh our dough (taking into account the weight of the bowl) and divide it into 4 parts. I got 915 g of dough. Round up, and it comes out to 229 g for each cake. Place the prepared pan on the scale and pour a portion of the dough into it. You don’t have to weigh it, just do what is called “by eye,” but then the chances are very high that the cakes will be too different in thickness and the cut will not be as neat as you want.
Place the crust in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. I say “approximately” because everyone’s oven is different. You can check the readiness with a dry splinter. It may come out with crumbs, because the cakes turn out a little damp, but there should be no traces of wet dough! The color is pleasant, rich yellow, closer to orange, golden.
We took it out of the oven, let it sit for a couple of minutes and carefully ran a knife between the walls of the pan and the edge of the cake. If the pan is non-stick or silicone, you don't need a knife.
Remove from the mold.
Let cool without removing from the paper.
We wash the pan, wipe it dry (I do this with disposable paper towels, it’s very convenient!), pour in the next portion of dough, put it in the oven... In general, bake the remaining three cake layers in this way and cool them completely. Moreover, we still need to do...
Carrot cake with cream cheese: ingredients
Using the following quantities of ingredients, you can prepare a carrot cake with four layers (bake two sponges and cut them) in a mold with a diameter of 18 cm.
- Carrots 330 g
- Flour 220 g
- Walnut 60 g.
- Eggs 3 pcs.
- Brown sugar 130 g
- White sugar 130 g
- Unscented vegetable oil 180 ml
- Soda 1 tsp
- Salt ¾ tsp.
- Ground cinnamon 1 tsp
- Nutmeg ¼ tsp.
- Ground allspice ¼ tsp.
- Ground cloves ¼ tsp.
For the cheese cream:
- Cream cheese 560 g
- Cream 33% 150 g
- Powdered sugar 130 g
This amount of cheese cream will be enough to layer the cake layers and cover the top of the cake. If you want to cover the sides of the cake with cheese cream, then prepare more of it (You will need approximately 250-300 more g of curd cheese and the appropriate amount of cream and powdered sugar).
...chocolate smudges.
For them we need to prepare chocolate ganache.
Take 70 g of cream 33%. Pour them into a saucepan. And bring to a boil, but do not boil.
Remove from heat, add 90 g of dark chocolate (from 50%).
Mix. It won't look very attractive at first.
But gradually the mass will become homogeneous, glossy and quite attractive.
For shine, add 40 g of butter to it.
Stir thoroughly until the butter has completely melted. The mass should not be completely liquid, but flowing. For chocolate drips, you should also pay attention to the temperature of the ganache. Optimal is about 33 degrees. Below - the ganache becomes too thick to easily flow from the edge of the cake, above - it will flow to the substrate, remain a puddle on it, and on the cake itself it will look like a flat stripe, and not an alluring convex smudge.
Little by little, using a tablespoon, spread the ganache onto the edge of the very cooled cake (you can first keep it in the freezer for about half an hour) so that the chocolate drips from it. Don't pour all the ganache into the middle of the cake at once and don't expect it to spread nicely on its own. This is a mistake many novice home pastry chefs make. Play it safe and go around the entire edge of the cake first...
...and then apply the rest to the middle.
Well, then there is a huge scope for imagination! Take any seasonal (or not so seasonal) berries and fruits and place them on the cake in any order. You can sprinkle all this richness with powdered sugar, as I did. I really like the way it looks in such cases: fruits and berries seem to be dusted with snow. If you are afraid that it will melt, use a special non-melting powder, it is sold in large supermarkets.
The best carrot cake is ready! Delicious and beautiful! If you love spice, this will definitely become your favorite! By the way, for those who cook to order: I specially weighed the finished cake. Taking into account the decor, it turned out to be 1745.
Have fun adventures in the kitchen, inspiration and, of course, bon appetit!
Many thanks to Alesya for the recipe, in whose wonderful magazine I saw this super cake! And for advice on drips - cake to Anya! https://cook-hobby.ru/solenaya-karamel-ot-pera-erme.html
Do you need soaking for carrot cake?
The question “how to soak carrot cake” may arise for those who have never made this delicious dessert and are used to soaking biscuits. The carrot cakes should turn out tender, soft and moist - you can easily cut a piece with a spoon, so the soaking for carrot cake is not done according to the classic recipe. In order for the cake to combine faster and better with the cheese cream, the top crust of the baked cakes can be carefully cut off.
Carrot cake with cream cheese: recipe
1. Chop the walnuts (it is best to chop the walnuts with a knife). There is no need to make the pieces too small.
2. Wash and peel the carrots. To prepare carrot cake with walnuts, it is better to use a food processor (blender) - in it the carrots can be chopped to the ideal size. So, cut the carrots into pieces about 5 cm long. Place them in a food processor (blender) and grind until fine crumbs. If you don't have a blender, grate the carrots on a fine grater.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place parchment paper on the bottom of an 18cm diameter pan. Grease the parchment paper and sides of the pan with butter.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. Stir – it’s convenient to use a whisk for this.
5. Place 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture in the bowl with the walnuts and stir (this is necessary so that the walnut pieces do not sink to the bottom of the cake when baking).
6. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Combine them using a mixer at low speed (less than a minute).
7. Pour vegetable oil into the sugar-egg mixture in a thin stream, continue to work with the mixer at low speed until you get a homogeneous consistency.
8. Pour the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Combine with a mixer at low speed.
9. Add chopped carrots and walnuts. Stir with a spoon.
10. Pour half of the Carrot Cake Cream Cheese Batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 37-45 minutes (a toothpick should come out clean from the middle of the carrot cakes).
11. Remove the carrot cake cake from the oven. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature.
12. Bake the next sponge cake.
13. Prepare cream cheese for carrot cake. To whip the cream, place it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Place the bowl and whisks in the refrigerator. The bowl in which you will whip the cream can be placed in another, larger bowl, filled a quarter full of ice water. Beat the cream at low speed at first, gradually increasing it. As soon as stable peaks appear - the cream will hold its shape, stop whipping (overwhipped cream can cause the cream to separate). Add powdered sugar and cold cream cheese to the cream. Beat at low speed until smooth. It is better to put the finished cream in the refrigerator for half an hour (an hour).
14. Cut off the top crust of the carrot cakes so that they are better soaked in the cheese cream. Using a knife or string, divide each cake into two equal parts.
15. Assemble carrot cake with cream cheese. Place the bottom cake on the plate on which you will serve the cake. Calculate the amount of cream so that it is enough to layer all the cake layers and cover the top (and sides of the cake, if you have prepared the required amount of cheese cream for this). Using a piping bag or a simple spoon, pipe some of the cream cheese onto the carrot cake (smooth out if necessary). Complete the cake
16. Decorate the carrot cake with cheese cream to your liking or use the instructions below.
From sour cream
The cream for carrot cake made from sour cream is tender and at the same time sour, so the dessert will not be cloying.
It is often supplemented with fresh or dried berries and crushed walnuts to enhance the taste and aroma.
What ingredients will you need?
For the sour cream cream you will need:
- 120 g unsalted butter, soft;
- 240 g cream cheese, soft;
- 2 tbsp. heavy cream;
- 2 tbsp. sour cream;
- 2 tbsp. powdered sugar;
- 1 tbsp. l. vanilla extract.
Step-by-step cooking process
To prepare the creamy sour cream, you will need to follow these steps:
- In a deep bowl, combine half the butter and oil and beat them together for about 5 minutes. until light and airy.
- Then you need to add 1 tbsp. l. vanilla extract and 2 tbsp. powdered sugar, continuing to beat until completely mixed.
- In a separate bowl, beat 2 tbsp. of heavy whipping cream until thick and fluffy.
- Add 2 tbsp to the whipped cream. sour cream and mix gently using a rubber spatula.
- After this, you need to combine both whipped mixtures in one bowl and mix very carefully using a soft spatula. There is no need to beat the cream at this stage as it will become runny.
- Sour cream must be applied to the cake within 30-60 minutes after preparation, otherwise it will “deflate”.
How to decorate a carrot cake?
Carrot-brown cakes contrast perfectly with snow-white cream cheese. Therefore, the sides of the cake will look good open (“naked” carrot cake at home is very appropriate). You can use a special spatula to level the cake (you can also use a carved spatula to minimally decorate the top and/or sides of the carrot cake). You can also do a lazy decorating of the cream cheese carrot cake by using a fork to create patterns on the cream cheese top and a spoon to make scraggly stripes along the sides of the cake. Use walnuts for decoration - you can lay out whole “butterflies” of walnuts around the perimeter or over the entire area of the cake, or decorate the carrot cake with walnuts chopped with a knife.
Carrot cake with cream cheese turns out so incredibly tender and delicious that it is almost impossible to stop at one piece. Once you realize how easy it is to make Carrot Cream Cheese Cake, you'll want to make it over and over again.
From the cream
Flavored whipping cream is a great topping for any cake.
Finishing the beating by hand will give them a much better consistency.
What ingredients will you need?
To make whipped cream, you need:
- 3 tbsp. very heavy cream;
- 5 tbsp. granulated sugar;
- 1.5 tsp. vanilla extract.
Step-by-step cooking process
This simple cream is prepared as follows:
- Chill the bowl and beaters for 20 minutes. in the refrigerator or 5 minutes. in the freezer.
- Next, pour the heavy cream into a bowl and beat on medium speed until it begins to thicken.
- Next, you need to reduce the mixer speed to medium and gradually add sugar, without stopping whipping, until soft peaks form.
- After this, you need to add vanilla extract and continue to beat by hand (with a whisk) until the cream becomes homogeneous and stiff peaks form.
What can I add?
You can make fruit-flavored whipped cream. Berry and citrus flavors are perfect for adding to carrot cake.
Raspberry or strawberry cream:
- Instead of vanilla extract, add 2.25 tbsp. raspberry or strawberry puree (berries crushed in a blender) to the cream while adding sugar, and increase the amount of the latter to 7 tbsp.
- Before you start whipping the cream by hand, you need to try it and adjust the content of the berry additive.
Lemon or orange cream:
- Instead of vanilla extract, you need to add 0.25 tbsp. plus 2 tbsp. l. freshly squeezed lemon juice and 1 tbsp. l. finely grated zest to the cream when adding sugar, and increase its amount to 8 tbsp.
- To add orange flavor you will need 0.5 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice and 1 tbsp. l. finely grated zest, no need to change the amount of sugar.
