Easy carrot cake traybake

Name: Easy carrot cake traybake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 90 min
Ingredients: 225 g (1 2/3 cups) self raising flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 150 g (3/4 cups) light muscovado sugar; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp mixed spice; 100 g ( 1 medium) carrot; 2 bananas; 2 eggs (large); 150 ml (1/2 cups) sunflower oil; 50 g (1/2 cups) walnuts (optional); 175 g (1 1/2 cups) cream cheese; 50 g (1/4 cups) butter; 100 g (1/3 cups) icing / confectioners sugar; dash vanilla extract

A deliciously moist, tasty and easy carrot cake traybake recipe. It’s a great bake for your little ones to help with as it all just gets mixed together in one bowl.

This carrot cake traybake is a great bake for little kids to make and one everyone will enjoy eating. It’s deliciously moist and flavoursome and topped with a tasty cream cheese frosting. Carrot cake is one of those classic bakes that’s great for cake sales, afternoon teas and just sharing with friends, and this traybake version is perfect for all those occaisions.

This carrot cake traybake is based on a Mary Berry recipe which are always delicious. It also mixes everything together in one bowl, like all the easiest bakes do, which makes it a great bake for kids.

How can kids help make the carrot cake traybake?

This is a really easy traybake for kids based on a Mary Berry carrot cake recipe.

Like all easy cake recipes, everything gets mixed together in one bowl. You don’t even need any special equipment like mixers. Once everything is measured out, you simply mix it together in a bowl with a wooden spoon.

There are some really easy tasks even young children will be able to help with. Chopping bananas can be done with a blunt butter knife before mashing them with a fork.

Older children may be able to carefully peel and grate the carrot (watching out for fingers of course!)

All children can help with the usual steps of measuring out the ingredients and mixing everything together. There’s even a chance to practice cracking eggs, an important skill for all young bakers to master. And because this recipe uses oil, rather than butter they can practice their pouring skills – it’s easy to be accurate if you have digital scales and use the ml setting.

Can I use a regular cake tin and just make a regular carrot cake?

Yes, we used a square baking tin and made a traybake, but this recipe works just as well as a traditional carrot cake. Simply use an 8 inch / 20 cm tin instead. Keep an eye on the baking as the times may differ slightly. Watch out for the sign the cake is ready (it should be coming away from the sides, and a skewer poked in the middle should come out clean.)

Or why not make a carrot loaf cake.

Do I have to use the cream cheese frosting?

No, this recipe is delicious with the cream cheese frosting, but you if you’d prefer you can use a simple icing instead. I’ve also made this traybake but with a topping of icing sugar mixed with orange juice. The orange icing drizzled on top is an equally delicious topping if cream cheese frosting isn’t your thing.

How do you store a carrot cake traybake?

Once it’s decorated, because of the cream cheese you should keep it in an air tight container in the fridge. If you want to make the traybake ahead of time you can freeze it, undecorated for up to three months. Make sure you defrost it fully before decorating and serving it.

Similar recipes

If you liked this carrot cake traybake, you’ll love some of our other easy traybake recipes:

Ginger cake
Chocolate traybake
Sultana cake
Biscoff brownies
Biscoff traybake
Victoria sponge traybake
Banana traybake
Tottenham cake
Apple traybake

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30 minutes + 50 minutes baking + 10 minutes decorating
Serves: 16

Ingredients

225g (1 2/3 cups) self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g (3/4 cups) light muscovado sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
100g / 1 medium carrot
2 bananas
2 eggs, large
150ml (1/2 cups) sunflour oil
50g (1/2 cups) walnuts (optional)

For decoration

175g (1 1/2 cups) cream cheese
50g (1/4 cups) butter
100g (1/3 cups) icing / confectioners sugar
a dash of vanilla extract

How to make a carrot cake traybake

Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C Fan / 350F and grease and line an 18cm/7 inch square traybake tin with baking paper.

* If you don’t have a square tin you can use an 8 inch round cake tin to make a carrot cake rather than a square traybake.

Add everything to a mixing bowl

Start by getting your kids to measure out the dry ingredients. We normally pop a small bowl onto our digital scales and the kids spoon out the flour, then sugar until we’ve got the right amount.

You can measure out the baking powder, cinnamon and mixed spice, while your kids are doing the flour. Alternatively, you could get your kids to spoon them out, and then level out the top with their finger.

Add all your dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl.

Next, if your kids are old enough, get them to peel and grate the carrot. I let my oldest do this – she knows to peel away from her fingers and then I take over the grating once the carrot gets too small.

If your kids are younger, get them to prepare the bananas instead. Once they’re peeled, chop them into smaller pieces before mashing them with a fork. The softer the banana, the easier your kids will find this.

Add the grated carrot and mashed banana to your mixing bowl.

Now add the eggs. Get your kids to crack the eggs into a small bowl before adding them to your mixing bowl. We never add ours straight in just in case any shell goes in. If/when it does we simply fish it out with a larger piece of shell or a teaspoon.

If you want, you can add some chopped walnuts to your traybake. They’ll add a nice bit of texture to your cake. Or save them and add them on top as decoration.

Finally, add the sunflower oil. We find the easiest way of doing this is to use the ml setting on our digital scales. It’s a great job for anyone wanting to practice their pouring skills.

Add the oil to your mixing bowl along with everything else.

Mix everything together

Once you’ve measured everything out, simply grab some wooden spoons and mix everything together.

If you need to, use a spatula to scrape down the sides to make sure it all gets well mixed in.

Bake the carrot cake traybake

Get your kids to pour the cake batter into your prepared tin, smooth down the top with a spatula.

Bake your carrot cake traybake in the oven for 50-60 minutes.

It’s ready when it is starting to come away from the sides and a skewer or sharp knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool in the tin for a few minutes before removing it from the cake tin and leaving it on a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorate the carrot cake traybake

Get your kids to measure the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar out and add them to a large mixing bowl or free-standing mixer.

Mix the cream cheese frosting together with a hand held mixer, wooden spoons or the k paddle of your mixer.

Keep mixing it for a few minutes until it’s nice and smooth.

Once your cake has cooled, spread the cream cheese frosting on top and smooth it down with a spatula.

You can decorate the traybake with a few walnuts if you’re using them.

Cut the carrot cake trayabake into 16 slices.

Serve and enjoy.

Keep the carrot cake in an airtight container in the fridge.