Who says you can't eat carrot cake whenever you want? Here is the next best thing to a slice of cake. Toast it and eat it for breakfast!
This sweet bread recipe is perfect for Spring and Easter or any time you have a craving for carrot cake.
If you love carrot cake but don't like the frosting here is a way for you to soothe those cravings.
It has all the flavor of a carrot cake but with the dense texture of a sweetbread.
This sweet bread recipe makes a 10 inch loaf. It is moist and stays fresh a very long time.
Bake a few loaves ahead of time and freeze for later.
Vintage Easter Recipes
I was looking through my vintage cookbooks looking for a carrot cake recipe.
Now that Spring is here and Easter is coming early this year I thought I would make and share a vintage carrot cake recipe.
But guess what? In the 5 or 6 vintage cookbooks and booklets I looked in I couldn't find a carrot cake recipe. What’s up with that?
I discussed this with my MIL because all of the really old vintage recipe booklets I have come from her, her mother and grandmother.
She couldn't remember eating carrot cake when she was young. She could remember eating it as an adult but not as a child.
So what does that mean? Carrot cake wasn't around then? Or where she grew up carrot cake wasn’t something they ate?
Could carrot cake be a regional thing? As a young child my MIL lived in Dover, Ohio. Her family then moved down to South Florida.
The same area of South Florida that I would also move to and grow up in. I remember eating carrot cake. Is it a southern recipe?
This recipe has been adapted from a Carrot Cake recipe found in a Betty Crocker Cookbook circa 1996. The recipe was for a Carrot Cake but after I made it and baked it, it turned out more like a bread than a cake. To me carrot cake is fluffy and soft.
This recipe turned out dense like my cranberry bread. The recipe as it was originally written in the cookbook is not the way it turned out.
How to make a Carrot Cake Bread
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 3 cups finely shredded carrots
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350.
Step 2: Grease a ten-inch loaf pan with shortening and lightly flour, set aside.
Step 3: With a wooden spoon mix the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended.
Step 4: In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
Step 5: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold until just moistened.
Step 6: Add the shredded carrots and chopped nuts and fold until the shredded carrots are evenly incorporated.
Step 7: Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes.
Step 8: Once done cool the cake on a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.
FAQS
Carrot cake or carrot cake bread recipes always always use oil instead of butter. The oil is what makes carrot cake based recipes very moist and tender.
Expert Recipe Tips
- Baking times: Baking times will vary. Adjust baking times to fit your oven and pan size. Check at about 40 minutes. If the bread is still moist in the center cook for another 5 to 10 minutes longer.
- When is the bread done?: Insert a toothpick in the center. Bread is done when the toothpick comes out clean.
- Slicing bread: Allow the bread to cool completely before cutting. Hot or even warm sweet breads can crumble if not cooled before cutting.
- Freezable: This bread freeze well. Slice and wrap individual slices before freezing.
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Carrot Cake Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 cups finely shredded carrots
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. degrees.
- Grease a ten-inch loaf pan with shortening and lightly flour, set aside.
- With a wooden spoon mix the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended.
- In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold until just moistened.
- Add the shredded carrots and chopped nuts and fold until the shredded carrots are evenly incorporated.
- Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes.
- Baking times will vary. Adjust baking times to fit your oven. Check at about 40 minutes. If the bread is still moist in the center cook for another 5 to 10 minutes longer. Insert a toothpick in the center. Bread is done when the toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool completely before slicing. This bread would freeze well.
Notes
- Baking times: Baking times will vary. Adjust baking times to fit your oven and pan size. Check at about 40 minutes. If the bread is still moist in the center cook for another 5 to 10 minutes longer.
- When is the bread done?: Insert a toothpick in the center. Bread is done when the toothpick comes out clean.
- Slicing bread: Allow the bread to cool completely before cutting. Hot or even warm sweet breads can crumble if not cooled before cutting.
- Freezable: This bread freeze well. Slice and wrap individual slices before freezing.
Nutrition
I also made a cream cheese frosting and topped a slice with the cream cheese frosting and a spoonful of carrot cake jam.
It was very tasty like this.
The Carrot Cake Bread has a very good flavor without the cream cheese frosting. But I bet it would taste awesome toasted with some cream cheese on it.
Originally when I read the recipe I expected to make a carrot cake so I made the frosting and planned on filling the center of the cake with a layer of frosting and a thin layer of the carrot cake jam.
I had to improvise when the recipe baked up dense like sweet bread instead of a cake.
You could serve this as is or make a cream cheese frosting as I did for a topping. Or even a spoon of whipped cream would be nice. Some people like Carrot Cake Cupcakes instead. For me I love carrot cake so much I will eat carrot cake cupcakes or carrot cake bread. I'm not picky!
