Surprise inside Carrot Loaf Cake

This Surprise inside Carrot Loaf Cake is the ultimate Easter cake with a hidden bunny in each slice! Yes, I understand the irony of having a bunny in a carrot cake, but how adorable is it?! Incredible moist Carrot Pound cake packed with spices and walnut and covered with an ultra-creamy, light cream cheese frosting is a recipe you have to make for Easter!

Jump to:

• Ingredient notes
• 5 Expert Baking tips
• More Carrot cake recipes
• More Easter recipes
• RECIPE CARD
• Surprise inside Carrot Loaf Cake

Ingredient notes

For the bunny insert

1. Butter: Use always unsalted butter as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. In this recipe, the butter needs to be at room temperature which technically means soft enough to be able to cream but not too soft or runny so avoid last-minute microwaving
2. Icing sugar: Icing sugar dissolves quickly while creaming with butter hence being the best choice when it comes to this sponge. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article in here
3. Egg: Room temperature as always
4. Almond flour& AP flour: There is a mixture of All purpose flour and almond flour in the bunny insert recipe, the almond will provide a slight marzipan taste and moistness. It is worth buying good quality ground almonds, without skin. Straight after baking, the sponge will be a bit more fragile due to the almond therefore make sure you do not break the cake while flipping onto the cooling rack. Alternatively, replace almond flour with an equal amount of AP flour
5. Orange zest (optional): Creates even more flavor and goes super well with almond

Exact Ingredient quantities can be found at the end of this recipe, in the RECIPE CARD.

For the carrot loaf cake

1. Oil: this is an oil-based cake (no butter) that keeps the cake super moist, soft, and fluffy. Butter-based cakes tend to harden a lot in the fridge, with oil we won’t have this issue. Use no flavor vegetable oil
2. Sugar: I am using a combination of granulated white and brown sugar. I absolutely love the brown sugar deep molasses flavor and regularly use it in Carrot cake. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article in here
3. Egg: Room temperature as always
4. Flour: I am using pasty flour to make this Easter Carrot loaf cake but AP works too, they are so-called “soft flour” which are low on protein resulting in a delicate, tender texture. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my article in here
5. Walnut: I am using walnut meal/walnut flour too besides pastry flour, which makes the cake extra moist and deep in flavor. If don´t have walnut flour, replace it with an equal amount of flour
6. Baking powder + Baking soda: Makes the cake tender and helps the rise
7. Salt: We always need at least a pinch of salt in any cake batter to balance the flavors
8. Spices: I recommend a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or feel free to use pumpkin spice. I have a DYI pumpkin spice recipe in here
9. Carrot: Carrot will give further moistness to the cake, I recommend peeling carrots then shredding them fresh. It is a juicy, moist, wonderful addition to the cake
10. Orange zest (optional): Goes super well with carrot and brown sugar and gives a beautiful extra fragrance to the cake.

Exact Ingredient quantities can be found at the end of this recipe, in the RECIPE CARD.

For the cream cheese frosting

1. Mascarpone: Very rich Italian cream cheese, exceptionally smooth, and easy to spread or whip. The flavor is milky and naturally slightly sweet.  Use it at room temperature. Many cream cheese frosting recipes call for butter, however, once you make it with mascarpone, you will never want to make it with butter again! This cream cheese frosting without butter does stay light even in the fridge, unlike butter. Do not overbeat though while whipping, stop as soon as it becomes creamy and fluffy to avoid grainy, soupy texture
2. Cream cheese: I always use full-fat Philadelphia tub (the one that is available in Europe) when I state cream cheese in my recipes, it makes this Easter carrot cake super refreshing and creamy. I find it easy to cream and very pleasant in taste. I usually beat it with a hand mixer for less than a minute, just until it becomes fluffy and increases a bit in volume to avoid overwhipping
3. Icing sugar: Icing sugar/powdered sugar is the first choice when it comes to whipping up the frosting. The question I often get is whether the quantity is a typo. NO, it´s not! You do not actually need a lot of sugar when you are using mascarpone! Instead, let the cream cheese and mascarpone shine

Exact Ingredient quantities can be found at the end of this recipe, in the RECIPE CARD.

5 Expert Baking tips

1. How to make the bunny insert

The best part of this Easter carrot cake is the bunny shape hidden in each slice! It might look very difficult to make, but in fact, it is a super easy baking hack

• Make an easy sheet cake according to the recipe
• Once baked, allow it to cool completely on a wire rack. Using a bunny-shaped cookie cutter, cut bunny shapes out of the sponge. Note: The cookie-cutter should be lower than the height of your loaf tin so the bunny log won´t be too tall
• Arrange the bunny shapes tightly after each other. Wrap them together in foil and freeze them while assembling the carrot cake. Note: The length of the bunny pattern should be 3 cm / 1 inch shorter than the length of your loaf tin so you will have some carrot cake batter on each end
• Make sure that the bunny shapes are well frozen together before assembling the Carrot loaf cake

2. How to make Carrot loaf cake

This Carrot loaf cake is a wonderful and easy cake recipe that is super moist with velvety crumbs, incredibly delicious.

• Grease your loaf tin, mine is 10x20cm / 4x8inches, make sure to adjust the recipe according to the size of your tin or it might overflow/will stay too flat
• The baking temp will be 175 C / 347 F but preheat the oven +20C / 68F as oven temp will drop when you open the door and place the baking tin in
• Use Digital oven thermometer to understand your real oven temp, this is very important especially if you are a beginner and/or often struggle with your oven
• Ingredients must be all measured with a Digital scale
• Eggs must be at room temperature
• Shred carrot fresh
• Whip Oil, egg, and the 2 different kinds of sugar with an Electric hand mixer for only a minute or two until combined
• Sift dry ingredients together (flour, walnut flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, spices) before adding to the mixture
• Dry ingredients must be folded in by hand (using Rubber spatula). Do not use a mixer at this point
• Then fold in the shredded carrot

3. How to assemble

Once you have the frozen bunny shapes and the Carrot cake batter ready, it is time to assemble and bake! Assembling is the most critical part of the baking process; basically, you have to make sure that you place the Easter bunny log into the cake batter neatly, gently press the log into the carrot cake batter, and make sure that the bunnies properly stand without leaning to any direction.

• Pipe a thin layer of carrot cake batter on the bottom of the loaf tin then remove the bunny shape pattern from the freezer
• Place the bunny shape pattern in the middle of the loaf tin into the cake batter making sure that the pattern does not lean on any side, it is in an upright position. Tip.: Push the bunny pattern sort of down into the cake batter. During baking, the cake will rise with the bunny pattern and if you do not push it into the cake batter at this stage, the bunny pattern might move
• Pipe the rest of the carrot cake batter around the bunny pattern, make sure that the level of the cake batter is the same on all 4 sides of the pattern otherwise the cake won´t be symmetrical and again the bunny pattern might move
• Pipe more cake batter on the top of the bunny shape and smooth the top with an offset spatula
• Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. It is worth inserting the toothpick into the middle sort of close by the bunny insert as that is where it bakes the slowest
• Let the cake slightly cool in the tin for 10 minutes then very carefully remove the cake from the tin and place it on a cooling rack

4. How to make cream cheese frosting without tons of sugar

I am using my go-to cream cheese frosting; it is whipped cream cheese, mascarpone, and a small amount of icing sugar whipped until fluffy, pipeable consistency.

While making cream cheese frosting there are a couple of tips worth following:

1. sift the powdered sugar 2. use full-fat cream cheese and mascarpone 3. do not over whip the ingredients, literally stop after it gets fluffy

Basically, you will have to whip the mixture with an electric hand mixer for a minute or two until it reaches a creamy, fluffy consistency then stop – that is where a lot of people make the mistake. Bear in mind that the frosting won´t get stiffer after this point, in fact, if you overbeat it, it will get only runnier then it will break. I don´t use my stand mixer to whip cream cheese frosting since it is really easy to overwhip it.

Well, that is it! Making the Cream cheese icing for the Carrot loaf cake is super simple and quick, and now you learned how to make it healthier, without tons of sugar!

5. How to make the piping decoration

I used a middle-size round nozzle tip and a teaspoon to decorate this Easter carrot cake, it is a super easy yet creative way to decorate a loaf cake.

1. Move frosting into a piping bag fitted with round nozzle tip
2. Pipe one "row " at once
3. Then grab a teaspoon and gently press the back of the teaspoon on the piping pattern creating the effect you see on the picture
4. Pipe another row of frosting
5. Repeat the process with the teaspoon
6. Continue until you got to the end of the loaf
7. Gently hint with walnut

More Carrot cake recipes

Easter Bunny Head Carrot cake - Carrot cake shaped into a super cute bunny head is the ultimate Easter cake!

Carrot Mini Bundt cake - These Mini Bundt cakes have the perfect individual serving sizes and the most amazing soft, melt in your mouth texture with silky cream cheese frosting and a super-easy yet decorative candied carrot finish

Light and airy Carrot mousse cake - If you are looking for a light and airy carrot cake recipe you found the One! Melt in your mouth, velvety texture with the most amazing cream cheese mousse filling

More Easter recipes

Speckled Easter egg cake - Strawberry cake with Ruby chocolate whipped ganache frosting that does not only look stunning but also extremely delicious with all-natural flavors and colors! Plus, learn how to make chocolate decorations like a chocolate nest or molded chocolate!

Easter egg cookies - These cookies are the easiest baking choice for Easter, besides, they are crispy and chewy, gooey and buttery, sweet but not overly sweet, super delicious, everyone will love them.

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