Cardamom and Tea

spiced carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

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Today’s my birthday! 🥳 To celebrate, I’m sharing this spiced carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It’s flavored with caraway and cardamom, inspired by Samin Nosrat’s saffron cardamom carrot cake and Ruby Tandoh’s caraway poppy carrot cake.

I absolutely love caraway, which you don’t often find in baked goods in the US. Yet you can (somehow!) very easily find bottles of it in most supermarket spice aisles. And while it’s not super easy to find in baked goods, you’ve definitely experienced it in one well-known item: seeded rye! It’s most commonly used in savory dishes (like my favorite Assyrian cheese), but it’s often really delicious with sweet things. Plus, it traditionally pairs nicely with carrots, so it’s a perfect addition to carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

a few easy substitutions:

  • Absolutely feel free to use extra cinnamon in place of the caraway and cardamom for a more classic carrot cake.
  • If you hate raisins, you can omit them here. They will not affect the structure of the cake.
  • Likewise, walnuts are optional too. Or feel free to substitute pecans to go in a different direction.

I finished developing this cake recipe a while ago, so today, it’s all pancakes and cupcakes for breakfast, gin rummy and a bánh mì picnic in the park, and dinner at my favorite pasta place. Will there be any food that doesn’t heavily feature carbs? Probably not! It’s my favorite birthday tradition!

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spiced carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

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5 from 2 reviews

This carrot cake is flavored with caraway and cardamom, for a delicious take on a classic. Feel free to substitute more cinnamon in place of the cardamom and caraway for a more traditional carrot cake.

inspired by Ruby Tandoh and Samin Nosrat
very loosely adapted from this King Arthur’s Flour recipe
carrot rose styling inspired by lots of things on pinterest, like this one from the feedfeed

  • Prep Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
  • Yield: 12 pieces

Ingredients

for the cake:

  • 265g neutral oil (1 1/4 cups), e.g. canola or vegetable
  • 200g brown sugar (1 cup)
  • 200g granulated sugar (1 cup)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (6.5g)
  • 4 large eggs (215g)
  • 325g grated carrots (3 cups)
  • 250g all purpose flour (2 cups)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground caraway seeds (4g)
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom (2g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (1g)
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (0.5g)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves (0.5g)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda (11g)
  • 115g chopped walnuts (1 cup)
  • 75g raisins (1/2 cup)

for the frosting:*

  • 1 8oz package cream cheese (225g), softened at room temperature
  • 1 stick of butter (115g), softened at room temperature
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar (220g)
  • Optional decorations: 1 extra carrot, extra caraway seeds and ground cardamom

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F/177° C convection.** Butter 2 8-inch cake pans and line them with parchment rounds, and then butter the parchment.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and eggs until fully combined. Add the carrots and stir to distribute. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cardamom, cinnamon, caraway, ginger, cloves, and baking soda. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, and mix until there are still visible patches of flour. Add the walnuts and raisins, and continue mixing just until everything comes together and you no longer see flour (do not over-mix).
  4. Evenly distribute the cake batter between the 2 pans, and smooth out the tops. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  5. Remove from the pans and gently transfer to a cooling rack.
  6. While the cakes cool, make the frosting. Combine the softened cream cheese, butter, salt, and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl). Use the whisk attachment (or whisk by hand/with a hand mixer) on very low speed to slowly bring everything together. Once there is no more dry powdered sugar, increase the speed to medium high, and beat for about 3 minutes. Stop once the frosting is noticeably lighter and fluffier.
  7. Once the cake layers are completely cool, frost the cake: If your cakes have humps, carefully shave off the hump from one layer. Place the flattest layer on a cake display or large plate. Spoon a little more than 1/3 of the frosting onto the first layer, and spread it almost to the edges. Set the second layer on top, and top with the remaining 2/3 of the frosting. Spread the frosting out to the edges, making casual swooshes on its surface as you go (less is more—don’t mess with it too much).
  8. Optionally, decorate the cake: Take an extra carrot, and shave about 20-25 strips away with a peeler (try to have a combination of wide and narrow). If they’re not immediately flexible, place these strips in a bowl of cold water, and let them sit for 15 minutes. Once they start curling, take them out of the water and pat them dry, then wind them into somewhat tight spirals (start with a wide strip, and optionally wrap a second narrower strip around it for a less perfect look). Place them on the cake (the frosting will hold them and keep them from unraveling), and sprinkle with a little extra cardamom and caraway.

Notes

* This makes enough frosting for a naked or semi-naked cake, but if you want to go with a fully frosted cake, double the quantities of frosting ingredients.

** No worries if you don’t have convection—it might just take a couple minutes longer to bake through.

To make ahead: This cake can totally keep in the fridge for 12-16 hours without staling one bit. But like all floury baked goods, the fridge is a staling environment, so you’ll want to avoid keeping it in there much longer. I like to store individually wrapped slices in the freezer (microwave for just a couple seconds to thaw, or let it sit at room temperature for a couple hours). If you want to make some components further ahead of time than 16 hours: 1) You can make the frosting a few days in advance and store in in a sealed container in the refrigerator (give it a couple hours to come back to room temperature before frosting the cake). 2) You can bake the cake layers up to 3 months ahead of time, and freeze them tightly wrapped in plastic. Let them sit at room temperature for a couple hours to thaw.

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spiced chocolate banana tahini cake

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Today I’m celebrating my blog’s third anniversary with this spiced chocolate banana tahini cake. It’s a combination of a whole bunch of my favorite flavor pairings, and I hope you enjoy it too. This one is just a simple two layer cake, but it’s got a lot sandwiched together. Here we’ve got two layers of super moist chocolate cardamom cake, two thin layers of tahini-honey, and a layer of sliced banana.

The whole thing gets covered in your favorite chocolate frosting. In these photos, I’ve used a sour cream ganache that I’m still experimenting with, so there’s no frosting recipe to share, but you can use cocoa cream cheese, buttercream, or another variety of your choosing (this ganache, this American-style buttercream, and this cream cheese frosting would be good starting points, if you’re looking for inspiration).

Tahini-honey always whips together magically. Each ingredient starts out thin and runny, but when you add moisture to tahini, it seizes up and becomes spreadable. If you whip it together with just the right amount of honey, two thin and runny liquids turn into frosting. It’s beautiful to see the process, and even nicer to eat.

If you’re looking for a different recipe with a similar flavor profile to this one, try one of my other favorites:

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spiced chocolate banana tahini cake

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5 from 2 reviews

  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 90 minutes
  • Yield: serves 8 to 12

Ingredients

for the cake:

  • 350g granulated sugar (1 3/4 cups)
  • 3 large eggs (165g)
  • 350g buttermilk (1 1/2 cups)
  • 160g neutral oil (3/4 cup) – e.g., canola, vegetable, etc.
  • 210g all purpose flour (1 3/4 cups)
  • 70g cocoa powder (3/4 cup)
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom (2.5g)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (4g)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda (5g)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt (4.5g)

for the filling:

  • 3 small/2 large ripe (not overripe) bananas (300g out of their peels)
  • 125g tahini (1/2 cup)
  • 85g honey (1/4 cup)
  • Pinch of cardamom

for decorating:

  • 3–4 cups of your favorite chocolate frosting recipe (whipped ganache, cocoa cream cheese frosting, chocolate buttercream, etc. You can also use poured ganache, but you’ll only need about 2–3 cups)
  • Sprinkles for decoration (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Butter 2 8-inch round cake pans, line them with parchment rounds, and then butter the parchment.
  2. Combine the sugar and eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk at high speed for about 4 minutes, until it’s about double in volume, and very thick and pale (the trail of the batter should fall off the beaters and disappear into itself after 1 full second).
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and oil until combined. Add to the whipped egg/sugar mixture, and fold in carefully.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift half of the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients, and fold together until almost combined (make sure you scrape the bottom and sides several times). Sift the remainder of the dry over the wet ingredients, and fold together until there are no dry pockets (do not over-mix).
  5. Distribute the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Drop them on the counter from about 1 inch once or twice, to knock out any big air pockets. Bake for about 22 minutes. They are done once you can insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.
  6. While the cakes bake, prep the filling. Slice the bananas into 1/2-inch thick pieces. Whisk the tahini and honey together until they thicken.
  7. Once the cakes are done, trace around them with a paring knife, remove them from their pans, and place on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely. Once they’re cool, shave off any humps if they’ve domed significantly (I’ve never had doming issues with this recipe, but it depends a bit on your oven and pans).
  8. Spread the tahini mixture on the tops of both of the flat/leveled cakes. Place an even layer of sliced bananas on just one cake, sprinkle with a little pinch of cardamom, and invert the other cake tahini-side-down on top of it to make a sandwich (cake, tahini, banana, tahini, cake). Carefully transfer to a rotating cake display, and place a few strips of wax paper around and under it to keep the display from getting messy.
  9. Decorate with chocolate frosting, top with sprinkles (optional), and serve.

Notes

A note on making ahead and storing: Cake stales quickly in the refrigerator, although this one does alright for short periods in the fridge, since it’s made with oil instead of butter (still, it will stale more quickly in the fridge than at room temperature). If you’re using the kind of frosting that can be left at room temperature, you can leave this whole cake out for several hours. If your frosting is perishable, and you need to store it for a few hours before serving, feel free to stash it in the fridge for a few hours (but try not to go much longer than 4 or 5). If you want to make it earlier than the day of, wrap and freeze the cake layers individually (after they’ve cooled completely), keep the filling and frosting in the refrigerator, and assemble the day you plan to serve. If you have leftovers after serving, wrap slices individually and freeze them. Microwave each slice for just 20-60 seconds to thaw, as needed.

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