Carrot Cake Loaf Recipe With Mascarpone Frosting And No Nuts

Classic Carrot Cake In A Loaf Tin

This carrot cake loaf is super soft and moist, with enough spice aroma and sweetness that doesn’t kill your taste buds. It is spongy and fluffy, but you can taste the richness of the brown sugar mixed with the carrot at the same time.  

And the mascarpone cream cheese gives a decadent feel to the cake that you know you get a treat when served with a slice of this cake.

Here in the UK, carrot cake is such a classic that most bakers would experience making it. In fact, it’s a kind of must-try item in the baking world. At least, that’s what I thought.

So baking a delicious carrot cake was one of my goals. I tried many recipes to find the one I really like. They’re all tasty. Even though I find that most of them are either too rich and too sweet or rather hard and dense. And my first crush on carrot cake was Jamie Oliver’s recipe. It is in one of his cookbooks called Cook With Jamie. It was one of the first cookbooks that I bought when I just relocated to the UK. 

Mascarpone Twist In The Cheese Cream Frosting

The classic carrot cake uses cheese cream frosting, right? And the frosting is one of the cake’s unique selling points. 

And we can see why. Because the cake itself is a bit rich and full of flavour. So you want the frosting that feels a bit lighter to balance it. 

However, I personally find the tanginess of cheese cream gets in the way of the deliciousness of the cake. So, I use mascarpone cheese to substitute the ordinary cheese cream in the frosting. I must say it was the best decision.

Yes, mascarpone cheese cream frosting is the best match for this carrot cake loaf. 

No Nuts Ingredients

Another twist that I made for this ever-popular sweet treat was that I excluded the nuts. 

In this recipe, I don’t use nuts at all. Hence, this carrot cake is safe for those who have nut allergies.

And the bonus of this decision is that you can use this recipe as a base for classic celebration cakes such as wedding cakes, birthday cakes, etc. Because you know that the cake is definitely free from nuts, and you can serve it to all your guests without worries. 

Dump Everything Method 

This recipe is simple as it uses the dump everything method. All you need to do is, prepare the ingredients and dump it all in a mixing bowl, then mix well. 

In essence, this is what you need to do. 

Peel and grate the carrots. Then place all your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, i.e. flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, spices/ cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir well until all these dry ingredients are mixed thoroughly.

Then, you make a well in the centre of the flour mix. Add the eggs, oil and vanilla extract to it. Using a handheld mixer or a hand whisk, mix it until you get a smooth batter. 

Lastly, stir in the grated carrots and pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin. 

Bake the cake in the preheated oven at the gas mark 3.5/ 170° C/ 338°F until a skewer comes out clean. It usually takes around 40-45 minutes. 

Leave the cake to completely cool down on a cooling rack as you get on making the frosting.

Cream the butter until it looks pale. Then add the icing sugar little by little as you keep mixing. Add the vanilla extract and salt. Mix it until you get fluffy buttercream in a light colour. 

Then stir in the mascarpone cheese and mix it with a spatula.

If you feel that the frosting is too soft to spread, put it in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes or until you find it firm enough to spread. 

Top Tips For Excellent Carrot Cake Loaf

• You can grate or shred the carrots using the ordinary grater. The coarse one will give you a slightly bigger cut. I suggest you use the medium one, so you get the coarse-enough carrot pieces. If the texture is too fine, your cake will be soggy and dense. 
• The difference between grated and shredded carrots is that the grated ones have finer and shorter cuts. The shredded carrots have stringy type of pieces. Usually, you get this difference when you use a food processor to grate your carrots. Whichever cutting you choose, try to use the medium size. Not too fine, but not too coarse. 
• You can shred the carrots for this carrot cake using an ordinary grater. Just choose the medium size of cutting that gives you shredded texture. 
• Try to work as quickly as you can when mixing in the cheese. Because any type of cream cheese can be temperamental when added to the buttercream. This applies to Mascarpone cheese as well. If we overmix it, we’ll end up in a runny consistency frosting. So take care. 

Related Recipes

Thank you for coming by to check this carrot cake loaf recipe. I hope you’re now thinking of trying it out. When you do, please share what you think about it in the comments below. I’ll really appreciate it.

And please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and/or Pinterest to sneak a peek at what’s cooking in my kitchen. 

Before you go, don’t forget to check out my other sweet and dessert recipes that you may like. 

• Apple cupcake with cheese cream frosting.
• Vanilla velvet cake.
• Dairy-free chocolate brownies traybake.
• Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse frosting.

Thank you and all the best.