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Carrot Cake Bread Recipe
This Carrot Cake Bread Recipe is perfect for Spring and Easter orany time you get a craving for carrot cake. It has all the flavor of a carrot cake but with the dense texture of a sweetbread. This carrot cake bread recipe makes one 10 inch loaf. It is moist and stays fresh a very long time. Bake a few loaves ahead of time and freeze for later.
Carrot Cake Bread recipe revisited
I was looking through my vintage cookbooks looking for a carrot cake recipe. It has been a while since I have posted to The Vintage Recipe Project. Now that Spring is here and Easter is coming early this year I thought I would update 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? I’ll have to do more research to figure this out.
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 cook book is not the way it turned out for me.
Carrot Cake Bread recipe updated 2015
How to make a Carrot Cake Bread
Makes 1-10 inch loaf
- 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 nuts
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- 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.
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Ingredients
- 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 nuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- 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.
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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.
Carrot cake bread with cream cheese frosting and topped with carrot cake jam. Photo from 2012
Originally when I read the recipe I expected to make a carrot a 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!
Diane
The first time I had carrot cake was in the early 80's. We never had it before then. I may try this just to have a change from my carrot cake recipe. Thanks for sharing the recipe and the review!
Berlin Lunchbox
Looks great! Carrot cake/bread, with homemade carrot cake jam. So nice!
Nancy Minchew
In “my world” carrot cake IS more like a bread than cake. It is dense, moist and WONDERFUL!
Sarah Auzina
I wound up with several pounds of left over carrots from Thanksgiving, this sounds like the perfect recipe to use some up!
sounak
hi
I am cake lover, thanks for sharing carrot cake recipe.
I really impress with your carrot cake picture and recipe, great article.
thank you
mary sargent
Can apples be used instead of carrots?
Arlene Mobley
Mary
I’m sure apples would be fine to use. You may have to bake it a little longer because apple have more moisture than carrots do.