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Dessert for one! Or a few! We love small batch desserts. Because let’s be honest, you don’t need to feed a crowd everytime you make a dessert. Or maybe sometimes you just want enough to satisfy your craving. This small batch carrot cake is our take on a classic, but smaller!
A soft, spiced carrot cake layered with tangy-sweet cream cheese icing. It’s melt-in-your mouth good! This petite carrot cake for a small gathering. Perfect for picnicking this spring and summer or taking to a small gathering with friends. Maybe you are just craving a bite of cake. This recipe’s for you.
Looking for more dessert recipes? Check out these!
Brown Butter Chocolate Pistachio Cookies
Small Batch Carrot Cake
What You’ll Need
- Butter
- Oil (vegetable oil or olive oil)
- Brown Sugar
- Cane Sugar
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla
- Egg whites
- Salt
- Spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg & cloves
- Baking Powder
- Carrots
- Rasins
- Pecans
- Cream Cheese
- Powdered sugar
Tips for Making a Perfect Carrot Cake
Use a box grater to grate fresh carrots. Don’t use pre-shredded carrots for carrot cake. They are dry and are likely very larger shreds that would affect the texture. Freshly shredded carrots will ad some moisture to the cake.
Line cake pan with parchment paper. This will allow for clean and easy removal from the cake pan. It is a tried-and-true trick that will save you a lot of clean up time too!
Room temperature ingredients. It is important that your butter, eggs and cream cheese are room temperature so that you have a smooth batter. Chilled ingredients are harder to blend together and can make a clumpy texture. This will help get you the cake texture you want.
Whip egg whites into soft peaks and fold into batter. This is KEY for making a super soft and fluffy cake. The egg whites will be folded into the cake batter after you have made the batter. It may seem kind of backwards to stir in the eggs at the end of making the batter, but this technique will make the cake light an airy, while keeping the moisture.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream cheese frosting is the best pairing with carrot cake because the tartness of the frosting balances very well with the sweetness of the cake. Making cream cheese frosting from scratch is not hard to do at all.
How to make cream cheese frosting: Using an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Gradually mix in powdered sugar into the cream cheese mixture until combined.
You’ll spread half of the cream cheese on top of the bottom cake layer and the second half of the frosting will top the cake.
What Spices are in carrot cake?
The spices give so much flavor depth and warmth to the cake. Spice blends vary in almost any carrot cake recipe you’ll find. But they typically have cinnamon and nutmeg. For this cake, we used a delicious blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
Can I make this recipe for a larger crowd?
Yes, if you want to make a larger cake, double the entire recipe. You will also want to use 9-inch pans to make two larger cakes to stack.
Can you make cupcakes instead of cake?
Of course!! You should have enough batter to make 10-12 cupcakes.
How do you store cake?
Have leftovers? Here’s what we recommend for storing the cake on the countertop, fridge, or freezer.
Countertop: You can store frosted cake on the counter up to 3-4 days. Any parts of the cake that have been cut and are exposed will stale more quickly. Store cake on counter in a dome-covered cake pan or on a plate covered with foil.
Fridge: Frosted cake will be good in the fridge for up to 5 days. Place your frosted cake in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes so that the icing on the cake can harden a bit. Cover with plastic wrap to avoid any odors from the fridge to seep into the cake.
Freezer: Cake in the freezer will last up to three months. You can either store the cake as a whole or in slices. However you store the cake, it is important to wrap the cake in plastic wrap and a layer of foil to prevent freezer burn.
How do you reheat frozen cake?
We don’t recommend reheating frozen cake. This could remove a lot of the moisture that is left in the cake, making it dry. We recommend thawing at room temperature. You can thaw frozen cake at room temperature overnight or for at least 6-8 hours. If you are thawing slices of cake, it could take 2-3 hours to thaw.
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Small Batch Carrot Cake
- Total Time: 60 minutes – 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
A soft, spiced carrot cake layered with tangy-sweet cream cheese icing. It’s melt-in-your mouth good!
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp butter, room temp
- 1/4 cup oil
- 3/4 c light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cups buttermilk
- 3 egg whites (room temp and whipped)
- 1.5 c flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1/2 cup rasins
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 4 tbsp stick butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and line two 6-inch round cake pans.
- Start by whipping egg whites in an electric mixer with whisk attachment on high speed until stiff peaks form. Remove from bowl and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and spices. Set aside.
- In an electric mixer, with paddle attachment, add butter and oil. Cream butter and oil on medium speed until it comes together.Add in sugar and vanilla and mix on high until creamy.
- Pour in 1/2 cup of buttermilk with 1/3 of flour mixture and mix until just combined. Repeat this 2 more times until you’ve added all the buttermilk and all the flour mixture.
- Remove bowl from electric mixer and gently fold in whipped egg whites until combined.
- Fold in grated carrots, pecans and raisins.
- Pour into 2 lined greased and lined cake pan and bake in oven for about 35-45 minutes. Check to make sure cake is done by inserting fork/tooth pick. If it comes out clean, it is done.
- Cool completely on wire rack. Let cake cool completely and make cream cheese icing. If cake is not cooled completely, the icing will melt.
- Cream Cheese Frosting. Beat cream cheese, butter until smooth. Add in powdered sugar, vanilla and spices.
- Spread or pipe the icing on top of the cooled cake in an even layer. Place the second cake on top and spread the second half of the frosting on the top. Top with chopped pecans, slice and serve!!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 40-50
