Rolled Carrot Cake

I never cared for carrot cake growing up. To be fair, I wasn’t a big cake eater in the first place, but I found carrot cake especially blech. I don’t know if it was just getting older or different recipes, but carrot cake is now one of my favorites and something I often order in cafes. This rolled carrot cake is a fun variation and would make a great Easter dessert.

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 8-10 minutes
Servings: 10-12 slices

Ingredients:

For the cake:

¾ c sugar
3 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 T oil
1 ¾ c finely grated carrots
¾ c flour
½ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 T cinnamon
powdered sugar for dusting

For the frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
5 T unsalted butter, softened
1 t vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Directions:

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 11×17 or similar sized jelly roll pan with parchment or foil. Spray with a light layer of non-stick spray, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Add in the oil and grated carrots and mix well.

Add in the remaining dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly, stopping the machine, scraping the sides often and mixing again.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly darker and the center is set.

Immediately upon removing from the oven, sprinkle with an even layer of powdered sugar.

Invert the entire pan onto a long strip of parchment paper.

Carefully remove the foil or parchment used to bake and discard.

Sprinkle another even layer of powdered sugar on the underside of the cake.

Starting at one of the shorter ends, fold the parchment over the edge of the cake and begin to roll the cake, leaving the parchment in place and rolling with the cake. Keep the cake tucked tightly as you roll. The cake needs to be rolled while still hot – it should be cooled off enough to handle by now, do not wait too long or the cake will harden and then break when rolled.

Once the entire log is rolled, place in the fridge or freezer until cooled entirely.

For the frosting:

In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine the softened cream cheese and butter.

Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar. Mix on low until combined.

Bump up the speed to medium for an additional minute and scrape down the sides. Mix thoroughly until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.

Once the cake has cooled, carefully unroll the log.

Spread an even layer of frosting over the entire surface of the unrolled cake (I put more frosting on than is my preference–it’s easy to think there isn’t enough frosting, but it squishes up when it’s rolled and a little goes a long way).

Carefully reroll the cake with the frosting in the middle, keeping it snug as you roll.

Wrap in parchment and chill for at least 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

And there ya go! Rolled carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! It’s so very more-ish and while we tend to have carrot cake around Easter in the States, it’s a year round treat in other places, so there’s no reason not to make one today!