About the bake
This Mary Berry carrot cake recipe is a wonderful version of this classic cake. A full-fat cream cheese frosting is the traditional topping, but here a low-fat soft cheese is suggested, and it tastes equally as good.
If you prefer not to have frosting at all, spread with clear honey on top of the cake while it is hot from the oven, and sprinkles with chopped walnuts.
Fans of this recipe will also love our carrot cake traybake and our breakfast carrot and courgette muffins.
Method
Step 1:
Lightly grease an 18cm (7 inch) cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment.
Step 2:
Combine all the cake ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well until thoroughly blended. Turn into the prepared cake tin and level the surface.
Step 3:
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (fan 170°C, gas mark 4) for about 50 minutes until the cake is well risen, firm to the touch, and beginning to shrink away from the side of the tin.
Step 4:
Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes. Turn out on to a wire cooling rack, peel off the lining paper and leave to cool completely.
Step 5:
To make the topping mix together the cheese, honey and lemon juice. Spread on top of the cake and sprinkle the walnuts and pistachio nuts over the top. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Ingredients
- 150ml Sunflower oil (plus extra for greasing)
- 250g Self-raising wholemeal flour
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 150g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 60g Walnuts (chopped)
- 125g Carrot(s) (grated)
- 2 Banana(s) (ripe)
- 2 Egg(s) (free range)
- 1 tbsp Milk (whole)
For the cream cheese topping
- 250g Low calorie cream cheese (at room temperature)
- 2 tsp Honey
- 1 tsp Juice of one whole lemon
- Walnuts (chopped)
- Pistachio nuts (finely chopped)
Nutritional Information
per 115g- 423cal Energy
- 25g Fat
- 5g of which Saturates
- 38g Carbohydrates
- 22g of which Sugars
- 8.5g Protein
- 0.56g Salt
Recipe Reviews
So easy to make xxx
Terrible. No spices. This is not a carrot cake.
The cake was lovely - great flavours and quite moist, but the cream cheese topping was a disaster - very runny and didn’t taste right.
Amazing!
This CANNOT be a Mary Berry recipe. Absolutely disgusting tasting. Wholemeal flour? Thought I’d try the recipe and it’s gross. Went straight in the bin. This is NOT a carrot cake. Where is the mixed spice and cinnamon and you DO NOT put bananas in a carrot cake. I’m a baker and this is just horrible cardboard with a faint taste of banana 🤢🤮
Surprisingly awful! Not enough carrots, too much banana, flavourless and extremely oily. My teenage son requested this cake but it was inedible. I double checked the recipe afterwards and my measurements were correct. Not a fan of oil in cakes and pouring 150ml into the mix felt horrible! Stunned at the good reviews and wondering how/why my cake turned out so bad...
Ingredients
- 150ml Sunflower oil (plus extra for greasing)
- 250g Self-raising wholemeal flour
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 150g Billington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 60g Walnuts (chopped)
- 125g Carrot(s) (grated)
- 2 Banana(s) (ripe)
- 2 Egg(s) (free range)
- 1 tbsp Milk (whole)
For the cream cheese topping
- 250g Low calorie cream cheese (at room temperature)
- 2 tsp Honey
- 1 tsp Juice of one whole lemon
- Walnuts (chopped)
- Pistachio nuts (finely chopped)
Nutritional Information
per 115g- 423cal Energy
- 25g Fat
- 5g of which Saturates
- 38g Carbohydrates
- 22g of which Sugars
- 8.5g Protein
- 0.56g Salt