Homemade Carrot Cake Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting (2024)

FAQs

Does carrot cake with cream cheese frosting need to be refrigerated? ›

Due to the cream cheese in the frosting which has a high moisture content, this cake needs to be refrigerated. The good news is that since the cake layers are made with oil (not butter), they will remain soft even when cold. Cover the cake well and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

With its mellow carrot sweetness, warm notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and rich, tangy frosting, carrot cake is simply irresistible. This traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is one of our favorites.

Powdered sugar – Aka confectioner's sugar. It thickens and sweetens the frosting. Make homemade powdered sugar, or use store-bought.

While the addition of butter and powdered sugar does help to stabilize it, cream cheese frosting should only be left out at room temperature for two hours before it needs to be put in the fridge.

Absolutely yes, and that goes for store-bought and homemade cream cheese frosting. As cute as those frosted cupcakes look sitting on your kitchen counter, you need to pop them into the fridge to ensure they're safe to eat the following day.

Ingredient: Grated carrots - 3 cups (2 large carrots)

Carrot cake is oil-based, rather than butter-based. This keeps it moist and helps it last for days. Unfortunately, it also means you lose the leavening power that creaming butter and sugar would bring. (Creaming, or beating together the two ingredients on high speed, aerates the butter.)

Carrots contain pigments that are sensitive to changes in pH balance. When the shreds of carrot come into contact with the alkaline baking soda, a chemical reaction takes place that causes the pigments to change color.

Recommended Beers to Pair with Carrot Cake

We want more hops and bitterness in the beer to contrast the cake's sweetness, so American styles are the best. If you like double or Imperial IPA (the hoppiest of all IPAs), that's an even better beer to match this meal.

If yours is too runny, you've probably got too high a proportion of butter and/or milk. I don't want to say you've got too little sugar, because although this may be the case, if what you're going for is a less sweet frosting adding sugar would be kind of contradictory.

Can you whip cream cheese frosting too much? ›

While you can over-whip the frosting after you add the heavy cream, you cannot over-mix the 1st 3 ingredients in the recipe. Beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract together for as long as you need to rid all of the cream cheese lumps. Stop and scrape down the mixing bowl as needed.

Using Icing Sugar to Thicken the Frosting

- Just add 2 loosely packed tablespoons (16 grams). In some countries, icing sugar is called powdered sugar or confectioners sugar. This method will make the cream cheese frosting sweeter as it is adding extra sugar to the mixture.

What you can't do, however, is leave carrot cake out on the counter indefinitely. If you want to keep carrot cake in tip-top shape from beginning to end, the FDA recommends that you don't leave it on the counter for any longer than two hours.

Fillings and toppings should be kept refrigerated." It also states, "Dessert containing cream cheese, whether baked or unbaked, should be covered and stored in the refrigerator. Use within 5 days."

Do you need to refrigerate cinnamon rolls? Unfrosted cinnamon rolls do not need to be refrigerated and will keep best at room temperature. Iced cinnamon rolls, and especially rolls with cream cheese frosting, should be stored in the fridge.

Refrigeration is only necessary if your kitchen gets very hot during the day, if you're making a cake that won't be served for more than three days, or when cake includes a fresh fruit filling or topping, or whipped cream frosting.