This Vintage Carrot Walnut Cake is closer to a European-style carrot cake. It’s fluffier and airier than the traditional American Carrot Cake, but it’s perfectly soft and moist. The cream cheese frosting has a marshmallow-like fluffiness that will make you want to lick the spatula, the whisk, the bowl and your fingers if needed ;).
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Vintage Carrot Cake Video
I hope you enjoy this video on how to make this “Rustic” European-style Carrot cake.
Handed Down Recipe for Vintage Carrot Cake
Why I love this rustic carrot cake so darn much? It’s not overly sweet. Most store-bought carrot cakes throw you into a sugar coma after half a slice, but this one is just right; bite after delicious bite. Rave reviews all around (everyone ate a lot of carrot cake this week).
My Mother-in-law shared this carrot walnut cake recipe with me and one of her friends shared it with her who inherited the recipe from her mother. This carrot cake has been enjoyed by several generations and I feel honored to pass it on to you! I baked it three times in 1 week and modified it only slightly to increase the amount of frosting, cut the baking soda in half, and decrease the sugar. It was wonderful!
I love the vintage feel of this cake – it’s easy to bake, easy to assemble, and you’ll love every bite!
More Spring Baking Recipes
There are several flavors and ingredients that I look forward to in Spring, from blueberries that get jammy when baked into desserts to lemons and, of course, carrots! Here are my go-to spring desserts that are perfect for Easter.
Here’s the Print-friendly recipe for this Vintage Carrot Cake. Be sure to print copies for all your friends!
Vintage Carrot Cake (Handed Down Recipe)
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Ingredients:
- 4 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil or extra light olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, *measured correctly
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 lb carrots, about 3 cups, grated on the large holes of a box grater
Frosting/Decor Ingredients:
- 16 oz cream cheese, softened at room temp
- 1 stick, 8 Tbsp or 113 grams of butter, softened at room temp
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted on a skillet and coarsely chopped
Instructions
How to Make the Vintage Carrot Cake Layers:
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚. Butter two 9" round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer, whisk 4 eggs and 1 cup sugar on high speed 3 min until thick and fluffy. With mixer on medium speed, add 1 cup oil in a steady stream. Whisk in 1 tsp vanilla.
- Sift 1 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp baking powder into 2 cups of flour and whisk the dry ingredients together well. With the mixer on medium low, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in fourths, scraping down the bowl as needed. Once flour is fully incorporated, use a spatula to fold in 3 cups of carrots just until evenly combined.
- Divide dough in to two round baking pans and bake at 350˚ for 30-35 min or until toothpick comes out clean (mine was perfect at 30 min). Let cake layers cool in their cake pans for 10 minutes then remove from pans and cool to room temp on a wire rack before slicing layers in half.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Once cake layers are at room temp, make your frosting: With the wisk attachment on med/low speed, cream together 1 stick butter with 2 cups powdered sugar, scraping the bowl as needed (2-3 min).
- With the mixer medium speed, add cream cheese, one chunk at a time. After all the cream cheese is in, set the mixer to high speed and beat the frosting until smooth, fluffy and no lumps remain (5 minutes), scraping down the bowl a couple of times to make sure you don’t have stray cream cheese stuck to the bowl.
How to Assemble the Best Carrot Cake:
- Place the first layer, cut-side-up on a cake platter. Spread enough frosting to cover the top and sprinkle with 2-3 Tbsp of chopped walnuts. Repeat with remaining cake layers and spread remaining frosting around the sides. Decorate the top layer with remaining chopped nuts around the top border and sides of the cake.
Notes
* to measure flour, scoop into your measuring cup and scrape off the top.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
More European-Style Cakes
I feel spoiled having grown up enjoying my Mom’s European cakes instead of boxed cakes – I can always spot the difference between a homemade cake and a store-bought one or a shortcut cake. If you love cakes that aren’t as sweet as American cakes but definitely have plenty of character and exciting flavors, check out these European-inspired cake recipes. There are so many treasures in this list!
- Italian Tiramisu
- Himmelstorte (Heaven Cake)
- Chocolate Souffle
- Almond Cake
- Baklava
- Blackberry Cake
- Poppy Seed Cake
- Black Forest Cake
Hi Natasha,
Thank you soooo much for this great cake recipe. Just made it this past Sunday and this cake is out of this world :). Everyone in my family loved it.
Yelena, thank you for such a great review on the recipe, I’m glad you all enjoyed it :D.
Thank you Natasha again for such a great recipe. I am just curious what kind of stand mixer do you use and what size. I still use a hand mixer but shopping for a stand mixer. Do you think 4.5-Quart stand mixer is enough to make such a cake?
Hi Yelena :). Yes, a 4.5 Quart mixer will work for this carrot cake. I use a professional 6 qt mixer (click here to see the one I have on Amazon) but I do bake quite a bit and it’s great for bread. If you are a bread maker or like to make big batches of dough like for piroshki, I would highly recommend buying a bigger one. If you bake only occasionally or have a smaller family, the 4.5 Qt or 5 Qt will work great :).
Nice 🙂 you have a professional. I do bake a lot, but probably not as much as you.
I am thinking of getting this one
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OXNBYC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=A2L77EE7U53NWQ
That looks like a great choice! I think you’ll love it. For the longest time I told myself I didn’t need one and then I got one and realized it’s a real time saver! I also mix ground meat in it so my hands don’t freeze 🙂
Hello Natasha,
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
I am making your carrot cake again for Thanksgiving tomorrow. It’s almost ready and I am just wondering if I should keep it in the refrigerator overnight or it’s ok to leave it out?
Thank you.
After it is frosted, you definitely want to keep it refrigerated overnight since the frosting has dairy in it.
Thank you Natasha. I realized that after I posted and watched your video again :).
Happy Thanksgiving.
Hey Natasha! In your recipe you have 1/4 tsp listed for baking powder; however, in your video you used 1 teaspoon. Which one is correct?
I just played it to make sure and the video says 1/4 tsp baking powder when I went over the ingredients. It is 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda.
Thanks for answering! 🙂 I made this cake and it came out very dense. I am not sure if I over mixed it but it did taste good, just VERY dense 🙁 Not fluffy like your picture.
It’s possible that it was over mixed, but I do have a couple questions for you. Did you bake the layers right away without letting them sit on the counter too long? Also, what kind of flour did you use? Finally, did you measure your flour by scooping it into your measuring cup with a spoon and scraping off the top? I always measure this way for most accurate measurements, otherwise it is easy to overdo it on the flour. If you weigh a measuring cup with flour that you just scooped right into the flour bin you will always get more flour that way and too much flour will cause a cake to be too dense. I hope that helps! Is there anything else that you changed or substituted in the recipe?
Natasha, this cake was absolutely wonderful! I made it for a youth gathering and they absolutely loved it! It was fluffy, moist, soft, and delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe! 🙂
That’s so great! Thanks for sharing that with me. 🙂
Dear Natasha. Could you please tell me your secret how do you manage that your cakes are so flat after they bake and cool down? For me they always turn out with a bump in the middle. Like a hill. 🙁 what do you think I’m doing wrong?
Did you have that issue with this cake? It’s either the recipe you are using (maybe a poor balance of baking powder or soda), or are you using the correct sized pan for the recipe? Are you baking in the center of your oven? It could be a number of different things.
yes, i did have the same issue with this cake…. I never payed attention where I place it in the oven, today I’m gonna make Poppy seeds custard cake, and I’ll make sure to pay attention. Thank you
My new favorite cake. Seriously, I’ve made this like 5 times in the past two weeks. It’s how goooood it is!! & I kinda feel healthy eating it. Lol
Thank you!!!
Ha ha I’m the same way, “healthy” eating. lol.
mmm thanks for this recipe!! The cake came out yummmyy! My layers were a bit less fluffy than what yours looked like. They were a bit denser, but not hard if you know what i mean. Do you know why that could be?
Other than that, love the simple ingredients and flavor, will bake again!
When you measured your flour, did you scoop it into a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top? It kind of sounds like there may have been too much flour and if you dip your measuring cup into the bin and scoop out the flour that way, it becomes compacted and you always end up with considerably more than the required amount. I’ve tested this by weighing. Also, did you possibly use a different kind of flour (such as Canadian – with a higher gluten content)?
So the cake layers won’t be as light n fluffy if I use Canadian flour?
I haven’t tested it with Canadian flour so I can’t say exactly how it would affect the recipe. Canadian flour has more gluten than American flour so it actually produces softer results, but from my experience, you usually need slightly less Canadian flour than American flour. Without testing it myself, I couldn’t give you exact amounts.
I believe I just used regular all purpose flour. As for the measuring, that may have been it. Need to actually follow this direction, never paid particular attention to the detail. Thanks Natasha! Will see how it turns out next time I make it
You’re welcome Irene. 🙂
I tried this over the weekend. It was such a delight. So fluffy and a perfect dessert. My twist to the recipe instead of 1 cup oil I used 1/2 cup and I added a tsp of cinnamon and a tsp of nutmeg.
The whole family devoured it in one sitting 😊
I’m so happy to hear you all loved it. Thanks for sharing that with me 🙂
Natasha, can you tell me please what type of Kitchen Aid stand mixer you used for this cake (5 QT, 6 QT etc.) ? Also, I am not able to find on your web-site anymore your favorite tools, the tools you use in cooking. Did you remove those pictures ?
Hi Yulia, it’s a Kitchenaid 600 series professional 6 Qt mixer. Here is the link. We haven’t found a place to put our “shop” on the new site. 🙂 https://natashaskitchen.com/shop-3/
How many grams/cups is 1 stick of butter?
1 stick of butter is 113 grams which is 1/2 cup.
This cake is missing some good old allspice and cinnamon ….
I haven’t tried those in this recipe but I do love them for fall baking.
Thats exactly what its lacking and some raisins would have been soo good
I don’t know if I’ve already told you but I totally love the new design! It’s so crisp and clean and inviting and lets your beautiful pictures shine!
This cake looks amazing, carrot cake is one of my favs!
Awww thank you so much Jaclyn! 🙂 I really appreciate that you recommended cre8d to us. They were fantastic!
Hey, I was watching this new show young and hungry and the girl mentioned your website on the show! I was so shocked and happy for you that you got sponsored by them!
Thank you Angelina :).
Hi!! I’ve been looking up recipes in your blog. They turned out absolutely brilliant when I made them. I would like to point out that 8 oz. of cream cheese is 2 sticks. I tried the recipe with 8 oz..It was perfect!
And for the dark chocolate cupcakes: Greek yoghurt isn’t available in the place I live in India! Any good substitutes?
For us, 8 oz of cream cheese is 1 stick and 16 oz is 2 sticks. I’m so glad you liked the recipes! 🙂 You might try regular yogurt but I haven’t tested it that way so I can’t say for sure.
I was thinking about a carrot cake for a while and your post gave me a push. So without hesitating and postponing I made it around 10 p.m. Thank you for all those “pushes” you are giving to me))) The cake is delicious. I didnt have walnuts so I bet it does give a needed crunchiness
I’m so happy you liked it! 🙂 And, you’re very welcome – I’m glad I could provide cake making motivation 😉
Natasha these are mouthwatering photographs. You are an artist in multiple ways. Culinary. Photographic. You rock! I like this carrot cake video I sent the URL to all my friends.
Thank you so much for sharing the video with your friends and for your very nice comment. 🙂 I’m feeling pumped 🙂
This looks so yummy! My grandmother is a Russian and she makes the best pastries and cakes. When I was just a little girl she often came to visit and always made Napoleon cake. I so love it but it looks so difficult. Will you shoot a video on how to make it?
Ooh that is a good suggestion. Thank you! Did she make puff pastry from scratch?
What a beautiful cake! My boyfriend loves carrot cake and I’m sure he’d be impressed if I made this for him!
Thank you so much Shelby! 🙂
Too sweet is my #1 complaint about most cakes ~ just the too sticky wedding cake comes to mind. Yuck. And when I’m eating carrot cake, I want to feel like I’m eating healthy. The video didn’t work for me but maybe it’s my browser, I’ll keep trying. Our local grocery store had a carrot cake recipe contest and the winners recipe was used for the stores new recipe, kind of fun!
I agree – I can’t handle sugary sweet cakes. This one was just right and very enjoyable :). About the video loading, it is embedded from youtube so should be showing up. It could be a browser issue. I just checked it on Chrome desktop and on safari on my iphone and it is playing ok. What browser and device are you using?
Wow! My carrot cake recipe is the same, only difference is that I use baking soda activated with vinegar not baking powder. We love this cake too! Very nice video! I’m glad to see you back! 🙂
Hi Valya! I’ll have to try the trick with the vinegar and see if it makes a difference. It does rise really well without it also. It’s good to be back shooting videos. Now we just have to try to keep it up 🙂
This is exactly how I’d like to eat my vegetables!
Great minds,… great minds 🙂