Carrot Sheet Cake

5 from 2 votes

Made with a moist, cinnamony cake base infused with freshly shredded carrots and topped with a rich, creamy vanilla cream cheese frosting, this moist, nut-free, butter-free carrot sheet cake will satisfy your sweet tooth without feeling guilty about skipping your veggies!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 371kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Carrot Sheet Cake

220 g Vegetable oil
150 g Granulated sugar
100 g Brown sugar
3 Eggs at room temperature
250 g All purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
½ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoon Cinnamon
230 g Carrot peeled and freshly shredded

Cream Cheese Frosting

460 g Cream cheese full fat (33%+) e.g. Philadelphia, use it cold
150 g Mascarpone full fat (41%+), use it cold
60 g Powdered sugar sifted
½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
orange and green gel food coloring for the carrot decoration

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Carrot sheet cake

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and grease or line a 23 x33 cm (9x13 inch) sheet pan with parchment paper.
Using an electric hand mixer, whip together the room temperature eggs, oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for 1-2 minutes until well combined.
Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt) into the wet ingredients. Gently fold them in, then add the shredded carrot and fold it in using a rubber spatula.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake at 175°C (350°F) for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow the carrot sheet cake to cool to room temperature before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

Whip together the cream cheese, mascarpone, vanilla and sifted powdered sugar using an electric hand mixer. Once the frosting reaches a fluffy, pipeable consistency, stop whipping to avoid it becoming runny.

Assemble

Spread the cream cheese frosting evenly over the cooled carrot sheet cake, reserving about half a cup for the carrot decoration.
For the carrot decoration, color one portion of the cream cheese frosting green and the other orange using high-quality gel food coloring. Transfer the colored frostings into two separate piping bags fitted with a small round nozzle. Pipe carrot shapes on top of the cream cheese frosting, as shown in the picture.
Serve the carrot sheet cake fresh. Any leftovers can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.

Notes

Ingredient notes:

Measure your ingredients with a digital scale for accuracy.
All cake ingredients must be at room temperature to properly emulsify.
For the frosting, it is important to use high-fat content cold cream cheese and mascarpone to achieve a stable, not runny frosting.

Technique notes:

Baking this cake takes 25 minutes in my oven. However, you should focus on the texture, not the time. Apply the toothpick test (it should come out clean) to avoid overbaking your cake - that would result in a dry texture.
Cream cheese frosting is very easy to overwhip. When whipping, stop as soon as the mixture has reached a fluffy consistency and stiff peaks. It won't get stiffer after this point. In fact, if you overbeat it, it will only get runnier, and then it will break.
For the carrot decoration, only use concentrated high-quality gel food coloring, e.g., Americolor; we don't want to ruin the frosting with cheap supermarket food coloring.

Nutrition