Gluten Free Carrot Cake
This gluten free carrot cake with mascarpone frosting is so delicious and moist! This is perfect for any occasion and any season with is light and fluffy texture with a slightly spiced flavour.
This recipe makes 3 6inch cake layers.
Ingredients
- 4 Eggs
- 250g Light brown sugar
- 250ml neutral oil (e.g. vegetable or sunflower)
- 190g Grated carrot
- Zest of 1 orange
- 250g Gluten free self raising flour
- 1.5tsp Bicarbonate soda
- 1⁄4tsp Ground cloves
- 1⁄4tsp Ground nutmeg
- 1⁄4tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1tsp Ground ginger
- 250g Mascarpone
- Icing sugar to taste (Specified in recipe on point 12)
Method
- Preheat your oven to 160°C.
- Grease 3 6inch cake tins and line the bottom with parchment.
- Separate your egg whites and yolks into sepsarate bowls, making sure not to break any of the yolks.
- Set aside the bowl with the yolks. Using an electric mixer, whip up your egg whites until they are fluffy. Add in 50g of your sugar and continue to whisk until you reach stiff peaks. Now set this bowl aside.
- Add the rest of your sugar (200g) into the other bowl with your egg yolks. Make sure to whisk with the electric mixer immediately as otherwise the sugar can react with the egg yolks and sort of curdle them.
- Add your oil, grated carrot and orange zest to the bowl with the yolks and again whisk.
- Now sift your flour, bicarbonate soda and spices into this same bowl. Fold in with a spoon until mostly combined, and then whisk with the electric mixer. This is just to ensure your flour doesn’t puff up and make a mess when you use the electric mixer.
- Take a big spoonful of your egg whites and mix into the cake batter to loosen it before folding in the rest of the egg whites gradually.
- Gradually fold the rest of your egg whites in spoon by spoon until there are no more lumps of egg white.
- Pour your batter into the cake tins and bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool completely before levelling and icing.
- I recommend filling your cake with a mascarpone frosting. To make this whisk the mascarpone with icing sugar. Add in 30g of icing sugar at a time until it is to the sweetness you like. Taste after you add each 30g.
- You can now decorate the outside however you like and with whatever frosting you like! have fun with your decorating!
About This Recipe
Carrot cake is one of my favourite cakes, and this carrot cake always goes down a treat with all my friends and family; even those who are not gluten free! Most of the gluten free carrot cake recipes I had tried would often be very dense and were not light, fluffy, and moist how I like them to be. The folding in of the whipped egg whites is what really sets my gluten free carrot cake recipe apart from the others. It creates a light and fluffy sponge that doesn’t have to compromise on the amount of carrot used to achieve this texture meaning it still is very moist too!
This recipe is super simple, and you don’t need a fancy stand mixer to make it either. A simple electric hand mixer will work just perfectly! In fact, I don’t even own a stand mixer! Living in Glasgow’s southside in a one bed tenement with my partner we have a relatively small kitchen, so I try to keep my kitchen gadgets to a minimum. An eclectic hand mixer does everything I could need it to, and it should do everything you need it to also!
Get creative with you cake decorating! Though sometimes classic and simple is best, if its for a birthday or you are baking it just for fun, why not get creative, do a cool design and practice your cake decorating skills. I recently made this cake as a birthday cake and decorated it with a cactus and sunset design!
FAQs
Question: How do I store carrot cake?
- You should keep the carrot cake in the fridge as it is filled with mascarpone frosting and has fresh carrot in it. Just take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you intend to eat it. Make sure not to leave it in the sun as the icing will melt and your cake will collapse.
Question: Can I make the cake the day before I decorate it? And if so, where do I keep it?
- Yes, you can absolutely make your cake the day before you decorate it, I usually do! You should wrap each cake tightly with clingfilm and store them in the fridge. Doing this means that the cake will definitely be completely cooled when you ice it, which is absolutely essential.
Question: Why is my carrot cake dry, and how can I fix this?
- If you used all the correct ingredients in the correct amounts this is likely due to the cake being cooked for too long or at a temperature that is too high. Do not blame yourself, many ovens have hot spots of don’t show quite the right temperature. A way to stop this happening in the future is either just to learn hoe your oven works and where the hot spots are and whether you should set your oven slightly higher or lower than recipes say. Another option (probably the easier one) is to purchase an internal oven thermometer which will give you a much more accurate temperature reading that you oven itself will. To fix the dry cake itself, you can brush the sponges with a simple syrup mixture. This will seep into the cakes and moisten them. They won’t be quite as moist as they would be otherwise but it is a quick fix.
If you have any more questions feel free to email me them at loveglutenfree.kitchen@outlook.com
Love Gluten Free
Hey! I’m Caroline, I love baking and cooking and finding new ingredients to create better gluten free alternatives. In 2015 I found out I had coeliac and since then it has been my mission to find great ways to make gluten free food better.
Note that as an Amazon Associate I may earn commission from qualifying purchases.
Love Gluten Free 