Easy Single Layer Carrot Cake (9-inch)

An easy single layer carrot cake, made in a standard 9-inch baking dish. This moist carrot cake is packed with warm spices, carrot, and orange zest.

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How This Recipe Works

I have carrot cake every year for my birthday, so I'm always trying out different versions that I might like even more and this is one of the best easy carrot cakes I've ever made. It's great to have a single layer when you're not very many people, or when you just want some cake to have for an everyday treat rather than a special occasion.

Along with the traditional warm spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger - this cake also adds the zest of an orange for an extra boost. Oil makes for a more moist crumb than butter, but the cake is moist and delicious without being heavy. Brown sugar adds flavour and white sugar keeps the cake light. Topped with cream cheese frosting, it's the perfect simple carrot cake.

I developed and tested this recipe. Taste-testers enjoyed it but I did keep more than usual for myself!

Ingredients You'll Need and Why

These are pretty standard carrot cake ingredients, with oil taking the place of butter and carrots adding moisture. Substitutes are listed below but the base of the cake doesn't allow for much alteration. These are our notes from recipe testing. You can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Carrots: any colour of carrots will work, but purple can lend a slightly muddy colour to the cake. Peel if you'd like but we never do.
• Eggs: these should be large eggs at room temperature. To quickly bring cold eggs up to room temperature, submerge in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before beginning.
• Sugar: use light or dark brown sugar for this recipe. Plain granulated sugar is best but raw cane sugar can replace it. Note that cane sugar has larger granules that don't dissolve as easily, and the cake might have a pitted appearance.
• Flour: we have only tested this cake with plain all-purpose white flour and haven't tried with gluten-free alternatives.
• Orange: use an organic unwaxed orange if you can find one, as you're using the skin for this recipe. Wash well in any case. The orange zest can be omitted if preferred.
• Oil: any light-tasting oil will be fine, even olive oil if you don't mind the taste. Otherwise use your preferred baking oil. We don't recommend butter or coconut oil for this recipe, as they make the cake dense.
• Spices: for the best flavour, use fresh spices that have been opened within the last three months. Feel free to change up the spices to suit your personal preference. If you don't like nutmeg, for example, replace it with cardamom. We replace cloves with ginger for a flavour that's more appealing to most modern palates.
• Add-ins: mix in 1 cup of chopped walnuts or 1 cup of raisins, adding when you add the dry ingredients and carrots.

How to Make Carrot Cake

This recipe is written for a stand mixer, but we've provided notes on how to make it without one, too. The eggs and sugar are beaten before adding the other ingredients

Step 1: mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. If your flour is very lumpy, you can sift instead of whisking. We always sift baking powder and soda through a small fine mesh sieve to avoid lumps.

Step 2: beat the sugars and eggs on medium-high speed to combine. The mixture will be thickened and lighter in colour once mixed.

Step 3: add the oil in a slow stream while mixing on medium speed. This can splatter, so be careful not to pour the oil directly onto the mixing attachment. If you're making this without a stand mixer, simply move the beaters away from the oil while you're pouring it in.

Step 4: add the dry ingredients and shredded carrots to the bowl. Mix by hand now, as using beaters make it easy to over-mix the batter.

Step 5: mix until combined. Adding the flour at the same time as the carrots helps to prevent over-mixing, with less concern about using the correct method for folding.

Step 6: pour the batter into a greased and lined 9-inch square baking dish. For cleaner edges, use two pieces of overlapping baking paper instead of pressing one large piece into the dish.

Step 7: bake the cake until light golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. This cake will take longer to bake than others of the same size due to the added moisture from the carrots.

Step 8: cool completely before frosting. If the cake is still warm, the cream cheese frosting will melt and slide right off.

Expert Tips for the Best Easy Carrot Cake

• Reduce at your own risk: reducing the sugar or the oil will make the cake dry and dense. Remember that sugar is a liquid in baking, and when you reduce it without knowing how to replace that liquid, the bake will turn out dry.
• No need to peel: you really don't notice the peel in carrot cake, and it's just extra time used for no reason. It's enough to give the carrots a good scrub.
• On frosting: use standard cream cheese frosting, or try our less sweet maple cream cheese frosting, mascarpone cream, or chantilly cream. All are great with this cake.

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