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Smoking Chimney

Recipes from a working kitchen · Cape Town

Carrot Cake

By Marna Ross Updated 12 August 2026 4.79 from 58 ratings
It took me literally years and years to finally be happy with the perfect Carrot Cake! This dearest readers and fellow friends are a TREASURY CARROT CAKE RECIPE - if you are fortune enough to own a coffee shop or you have a bakery business on the side, this carrot cake recipe is a must try! Most chefs are not very keen on sharing their million-dollar recipes to anyone out there. And in my start-up years of cheffing, I didn't either. But becoming older - and I must say wiser too - I am ready to share all my recipes on The Smoking Chimney. There for anyone to enjoy and to practice.This carrot cake recipe is easy to make - some recipes I came across takes up too many carrots to grate (which take up too much time) and this recipe is lovely. The different spices makes it very tasty, as well as the pineapple adds some moist to it as well. This carrot cake makes up 2 round cakes, ideal for a double stack cake. Carrot cake are a bit more of an expensive cake to make, especially with the price of nuts these days and cream cheese. But I can promise you this cake is definitely a must. It is quite a large cake and you can get a lot of slices out of it, depending on the seize of the slice of course. It works fantastic at birthday parties, high tea and for baby showers or just your ordinary cake treat for the week. I have never made cup cakes of it, but am very sure they will come out beautifully too. I can add that this cake freezes exceptionally well - there for no excuse that you would not finish all in a few days. Freeze it and take slices out as you need it. You will see it is a million dollar winner recipe!
A slice of moist carrot cake layered with rich cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts.
Prep 40 min
Cook 20 min
Total 1 h
Serves 12

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Ingredients

Carrot Cake

  • 2½ cups flour
  • 2½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons bicarb of soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 230 ml sunflower oil
  • 3-4 medium seize peeled and grated carrots
  • 1 x 400 g can crushed pineapple
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup pecan nuts, chopped

Frosting

  • 175 g cream cheese
  • 100 g butter
  • 15 very large heavily heaped DESSERT SPOONS of icing sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla essence(1 cap of the bottle)
  • chopped pecan nuts to garnish

Method

Carrot Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 170° Celsius

  2. Grease the 2 cake tins very well with spray and cook (to easily turn the cakes out- I find spraying a bit more helps the cakes not to stick and ease the turning process)

  3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda, cinnamon, all spice and salt together in a bowl

  4. In a separate large jug, combine the eggs, sunflower oil, grated carrots, pineapple and syrup, and sugar together

  5. Whisk it well

  6. Add the egg and oil mix to the sifted dry ingredients, then add the chopped pecan nuts

  7. Stir to combine and divide it equally into the 2 prepared cake tins

  8. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean

  9. The baking time depends on the strength of your oven (This is just an estimate time, it could be ready quicker or take longer)

  10. Remove from the oven and leave a bit to cool

  11. Then turn them out on a wire rack to cool

Frosting

  1. Combine the SOFTENED butter and cream cheese and beat very well with an electric beater ( TIP: It is important to use softened butter and cream cheese. If it is too hard, quickly pop them into the microwave until just softened a bit. But be careful that if it is too long in the microwave the butter will melt and the cream cheese will split up. So make it a quick one!)

  2. Add the VERY WELL HEAPED DESSERT SPOONS of icing sugar, then add the vanilla essence. Beat further ( TIP: It is important to add enough icing sugar for the correct consistency. You don't want a too runny frosting, but not too stiff either. It must be easy to work with it when icing the cake with your spatula

  3. Ice the cake with the frosting after cooled down properly

Assembling

  1. Place the cake on the cake stand, frost the top part and then the sides of the first layer, continue with the top of the second layer and last the top

  2. Garnish the top with chopped pecan nuts (and the sides if you prefer)

  3. Garnish with lovely nasturtium flowers (yellow and orange) or lovely white roses or any other flowers to your liking

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