This Lemon Carrot Cake is a perfect combination of zesty, tangy and sweet flavors. It contains both the juice and zest of lemon, which makes it light and refreshing. Carrots inside make it wonderfully moist.
Do you love carrot cake? Lemon cake? How about combining these in one cake which is so fresh with lemon flavor and so sweet with carrots? Also, I thought lemon would make it refreshing, so I added its juice and zest into this so yummy cake!
Turkish women love to make bread kind of cakes and they almost always make a variation besides other treats when they have some guests. They can easily make a simple and basic cake when they have even unexpected guests. I can hear that you’re asking “What is that simple cake?” Mix egg, sugar, oil, yogurt(optional), flour and baking powder and bake! That’s it! Experienced moms don’t even need to measure things, they don’t use cups or kitchen scale! They start with mixing sugar and egg and add other ingredients one by one. They taste it, and add extra sugar if needed.
They decide the amount of flour by looking at the thickness of batter, if it’s creamy and sticks to spatula, that’s fine. If they have any ingredients to enrich their cake like raisins or nuts in their pantry, they add it too. Interestingly enough, their cake always rises very well! You see how easy to make a simple cake for them! And when you happen to ask the recipe, you can guess how they will reply: “I just mixed everything, that’s it!” What a clear and easy to follow recipe! I admire their instinctive method of making cake.
This Zesty Lemon Carrot Cake wasn’t made with the method of experienced moms, I measured the ingredients. But I can say that I didn’t follow a recipe to make it, I decide the amounts myself. I thought I got the basic idea of making fluffy and well-risen cakes, so I decided to create my own cake! Following a few important tips, it’s impossible to go wrong!
TIPS
- All ingredients must be at room temperature.
- Mix sugar and eggs very well at the beginning.
- After mixing all liquids, continue mixing with a spatula when you add dry ingredients.
- Always preheat oven!
Simple steps, aren’t they?
You can create your own cakes too by keeping these tips about how to make fluffy cakes in your mind!
I love to add raw lemon zest on cakes to give them extra freshness, and although this zesty lemon carrot cake contains lemon inside, I couldn’t help topping it with more zest too! It has a slightly crispy crust and is super zesty and soft inside, so I will be making it again, and I hope you try it too!
Other Lemon Desserts
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Zesty Lemon Carrot Cake
Carrot cake flavored with lemon
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup oil
- 1 and ½ cup carrots, grated
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest, grated
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Optional topping:
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 320F/ 180C. Line the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until creamy.
- Add in oil and mix well.
- Add in the grated carrots lemon zest and lemon juice.
- Sift the flour and baking soda into the bowl. Mix just until everything combines. Don't over-mix.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes.
- Let it cool for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan.
- Remove and let it cool completely.
- Sift powder sugar on it and garnish with lemon zest.
Notes
I used whole wheat flour as always, but you can replace it with all purpose flour.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 307
- Sugar: 27.6 g
- Sodium: 189.9 mg
- Fat: 15.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 40.8 g
- Protein: 3.4 g
- Cholesterol: 46.5 mg
Keywords: lemon carrot cake
Lucinda Swartz says
My daughters and I used this recipe to make a cake for the Easter bunny. It turned out delicious and I enjoyed making a cake with healthy ingredients, such as carrots, with my daughters. They were excited about grating the carrots and lemon. Wonderful recipe!
4/11/2020
★★★★★
Erin fiorini says
where's the recipe !?
Zerrin says
Hi Erin! Thank you so much for asking this. It was a guest post I made for yummly blog and the recipe was supposed to be on their website only. I just checked it now and unfortunately, the page is gone. I will try to find the recipe and post it here soon.
Danilo Linhares says
So, where's the recipe??
Zerrin says
Will share it soon.
Sadie says
Hi Zerrin,
This recipe looks amazing, but l was wondering if canola could replace the Olive oil in.
Thanks
Reeni says
What a beautiful cake and a taste of spring Zerrin! My great grandma used to bake the same way - I can cook like that but not bake. This turned out so good for making it up yourself!
Shelley says
So very yummly!!!
Jill says
This looks and sounds delicious. I love lemon cake and carrot cake so this is my idea of cake heaven! Would really love to make some right now 🙂
Zerrin says
Thank you Jill! It's so easy too, you can make it any time:)
Rosa says
It looks and sounds divine! Anything citrusy gets my vote.
Cheers,
Rosa
sara says
Gorgeous! This cake is so pretty, love it. 🙂
Zerrin says
Thank you Sara! It was scrumptious too:)
Bam's Kitchen says
I love lemony lemon cake and love carrot cake and to combine the 2 is brilliant. I can tell by your photos how moist and delicious this is. I don't think I will even miss the cream cheese frosting.
Zerrin says
Thank you Bam! You can be sure that you will not miss any frosting when you make this cake!
TasteofBeirut says
So beautiful and so original! I have seen many hundreds of versions for carrot cake , but never one like this! it is brilliant! carrot and lemon, how natural, why did we not think of it? instead we add heavy things to it to make it richer and heavier by the spoonful! I am trying this.
Zerrin says
Thank you Joumana! This cake is definitely lighter, and so tasty that you don't need any additions like cream. I'm sure you will love it!