The walnuts are a must in carrot cake. I think they pair wonderfully with the chai spices too. If you don’t have walnuts, pecans are another great option.
Ok, pop on your kettle, make yourself a cuppa and get ready to enjoy a slice of this chai spiced carrot cake deliciousness!
Chai Spiced Carrot Loaf
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
This chai carrot loaf is infused with your classic chai spices of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Of course these also feature in traditional carrot cakes but you’ll be adding a touch of extra goodness to make that chai shine through.
Ingredients
Scale
- Cake
- 1 ½ cups (225g) plain all purpose flour, use gluten free flour if preferred
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cardamon
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 140g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) coconut sugar or raw granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 250g carrots, freshly grated, I grated mine in the food processor
- 1 cup (100g) raw walnuts, roughly chopped
- Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (150g) icing/confectioners sugar
- ½ tsp ground cardamon
- 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ cup (50g) raw walnuts, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Cake
- Preheat oven to 180ºC (356ºF). Line a 9” x 5” loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Mix until well combined and set aside.
- For this next step, you can use either the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached or in a large mixing bowl using a hand beater.
- To the mixing bowl, add softened butter and beat on low speed for a few seconds until creamy.
- Pour in sugar and beat together until well combined and creamy, about 1 minute. Scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add eggs, one at a time and beat until well combined after each addition.
- Add grated carrots and beat until just combined.
- Add flour mixture half at a time, beating into the wet mixture until just combined, beat through remaining flour until a soft batter is formed.
- Gently fold through chopped walnuts.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf tin.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. The top should spring back when slightly pressed.
- Let cake cool in pan for 15 minutes.
- Remove cake from pan by turning it over onto a wire cooling rack. Tap on the pan slightly to help the cake come out.
- Let cake cool completely on the wire rack.
- Lemon Icing
- In a small mixing bowl, add icing sugar and cardamon, whisk together.
- Pour in lemon juice. Mix with a spoon until well combined and no lumps of sugar remain. The consistency will be quite thick.
- Pour icing over cooled cake and gently spread to the edges, it will drizzle down the sides.
- Sprinkle frosting with chopped walnuts.
- Slice, serve and enjoy!
- Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, for 4-5 days.
- Prep Time: 30min
- Cook Time: 45min
Annika says
Thanks for the prompt reply Sam, will comment here again once I'm done baking.
Samantha says
You're most welcome Annika, hope it all went well 🙂
Annika says
Hi, I don't have the recommended pan for this recipe but I want to try it (on 8x4 pan though), would you know the baking time for 8x4 pan? Thanks!
Samantha says
Hi Annika, an 8x4 pan is a similar size to the one recommended (9x5). I would suggest checking your loaf at 35 minutes and if it's still wobbly/not set in the middle, continue baking it further in 5 min increments. Checking it again at the 40min mark. Then check it with a toothpick inserted into the middle until it comes out clean. It will have a similar baking time to the original recipe but just keep an eye on it and check it first at 35 minutes to see how it's going. Hope that helps! Kindest, Sam