Jamie Oliver's not so pleasing carrot cake - help!

[eekazombie]

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/a-rather-pleasing-carrot-cake-with-lime-mascarpone-icing

I made this cake last night and it was dripping in grease! My whole oven floor was covered and when I turned the cake out it was still so oily. It's been in kitchen paper all night and still seems so greasy and dense. I broke a bit off and you can't even taste the carrot. It's really sweet too.

Can I save it? I have a little time this morning to attempt again but no idea what went wrong. There seems a lot of eggs and butter?

I thought I'd try it as it had almonds in which I thought would keep the cake moist for a couple days as it needs to survive a long journey today to be eaten tomorrow. Shouldn't have trusted Jamie for a cake!

Looking online I found this carrot cake recipe to compare with Jamie's. Equal amounts of fat and sugar feature in both recipes, but Jamie's recipe only has 5g more flour than this recipe, when it uses 75g more sugar anf fat, so my guess would be that you need more flour to "mop up".

Based on the BBC carrot cake needing 175g / ml of flour, sugar and oil, I'd maybe up the flour ratio in Jamie's recipe to 250g. Not sure whether he's trying to use 100g of ground almonds in place of some of the flour.

The amount of carrot seems ok in his recipe compared to the BBC one, did you use bog-standard supermarket carrots, which don't have a huge amount of taste anyway, or from a market / farm shop as they may taste a bit more carrot-y iyswim.

Just bog standard carrots! The overwhelming taste is sugar. Can't get the mixed spice coming through. Was a very last minute baking decision so no time to shop! I might try it again with your suggestions, thank you.

Could anything in my technique have caused the issue?

Your OP doesn't mention anything about your technique but did you use a tin liner / parchment paper to line the tin? If I make a cake in a paper tin liner, I find that it's more greasy than if I just grease the tin with butter.

Yes I did use a liner! I made it in a loaf tin too.

I wondered if I hadn't creamed butter/sugar enough or added eggs incorrectly?

Adding the eggs incorrectly or not creaming sugar and butter enough wouldn't make the cake greasy. I suspect it's a mixture of not enough flour and the liner. Try making the BBC cake, as it's only got to keep until tomorrow, without using a liner.

This is another BBC recipe which is made as a loaf, so would fit into your exisiting tin. Hope it works well 2nd time.

Thank you so much for your help! Didn't get a chance this morning but if baby sleeps will attempt tonight when making my lemon polenta cake.

Was so upset last night as got my kitchen aid out and baked for the first time since Christmas only for the cake to be awful!

This makes an absolutely stunning carrot cake, that rivals even shop bought. My friends rave about it all the time

Plain flour 440g
Soft brown sugar 300g
Caster sugar 300g
Sunflower oil 300ml
Sour cream 100ml
Vanilla 3 teaspoons
Desiccated coconut 130g
Bicarbonate of Soda 1 1/2 teaspoons
Cinnamon 3 teaspoons
Mixed Spice 1 1/2 teaspoons
Salt 3/4 teaspoon
Grated carrot 525g
Orange zest 3
Eggs 5
Sultanas 200g (soaked in 55ml of Brandy or Rum - OPTIONAL)
Baking time 2 hrs

1. Preheat oven to 160C
2. Line the cake tin, sides and base
3. Mix the sunflower oil, sour cream, vanilla, eggs and orange zest. Then add the two types of sugar.
4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, spices, bicarb of soda and salt together.
5. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet mixture.
6. Add the grated carrot to the mixture along with the coconut and sultanas.
7. Bake for the guide time listed in the recipe or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

It does make a very deep 8 inch, believe me, its HUGE! I actually bake it in a 10 inch tin and it still gives a decent slice. Top with cream cheese frosting and roll in almonds if you fancy it, and tada, all done

I made the bbc carrot loaf recipe and it is lovely, really easy and I very rarely bake.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/532636/carrot-cake-with-cinnamon-frosting

That's actually my one in the pic!

I would never use oil in a carrot cake, always use butter. Just use the same weight of butter as the number of ml of oil it says in the recipe. (I checked once, a 250g block of butter displaces 250ml of water). If the recipe seems to need the eat to be stirred in, just melt the butter first in a pan/microwave.

Used to hate carrot cake before I realised this. Now I just make my own, yummy!

Whoops that should say 'fat' not 'eat'. Stupid phone.

slimjim , I tried your carrot cake to numb the pain of in laws' visit. Was FANTASTIC! Thank you!

Practically health food- half a kilo of carrots..(Says the bfing nutritional therapist- may have let cravings overtake knowledge..).
I also made a v v disappointing polenta and ground almond syrup berry cake, so am not completely unduscriminating!
I think possibly a bit less sugar would work and I threw in a packet of pecan nuts too.

Ooh slimJim I am awfully tempted to try making that...

from delias website

recipe says muffins but it works well in a tin. just bake at a little lowe temperature for longer.

I always make the first BBC one linked here, never fails!

thank you. It isn't my recipe, but it is my go to. I do a lot of spring/summer fairs selling my cakes, and that is always the first to go! It is divine

I always make this cake and everyone that tries it always comments on how light it is. I won a gold medal for it at the village fete last year too.

FWIW I often make carrot cake muffins with oil and they don't come out greasy. For me a carrot cake is the perfect cake to sub in oil for butter!

Dn't be put off keeping your Kitchen Aid out - try something else and you'll feel so much better when it works out :)

Just to feed back I did slim jim's recipe and it was lovely!

I am thinking of doing it again in cupcake form for one of my baby groups. :-)

Imnotaslimjim - made your cake for big birthday lunch yesterday and it was a triumph, out of all the recipes I found for carrot cake this one looked the most sensible and it was magnificent! the Jamie one seemed particularly odd and this comment stream came up to confirm that - though I did try his idea for the frosting (using lines) which worked well. Thanks!