Carrot cake advice please

[MorningMoaner]

I'm not a regular baker but thought I'd try my hand at a carrot cake today - never made one before. It's turned out quite tasty but slightly "greasy" (it had vegetable oil rather than butter in the recipe which I chose as my DS is dairy allergic). Also it was slightly wet in the middle but a bit overdone on top. I followed the recipe and cooking temp and time exactly but I'm thinking that if I do it again I should cook at a lower temperature for a bit longer and maybe reduce the amount of oil a bit? Does this sound reasonable? (Sorry for the really basic questions- as I say, I'm a bit of a newbie to cake baking and don't have anyone to ask for advice!)

I think a lot of carrot cakes use oil rather than butter, my favourite one does. If it's burnt on top and undercooked in the middle it sounds like the oven was too hot, reducing slightly and/or covering the top with foil to stop it colouring if it's becoming too dark should work. But worth bearing in mind that all ovens are different and cookware variables mean that the bake time is a suggestion, not exact. Also, oven temperature calibration can be off so one oven set to 180 could be running at 165, or 195.

When trying to 'fix' something with a bake I find it much more useful to change one thing at a time and I know the cause and effect. Changing multiple things can blur this.

If you link the recipe you used others might be able to use their experience to comment on whether they feel the oven temp, cook time, and oil quantity feel right.

I think all the carrot cake recipes I’ve used have always had oil in, not butter. So the texture is generally a bit different to a sponge with butter, but there’s always good and bad recipes which you don’t know until you’ve made them!

I’ve used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe (very old now) the most and I’ve always been happy with that. Yes, I think oven temperatures are always worth a bit of tweaking - also amazing how so many recipes out there don’t have a fan oven temp conversion (so just gives one temp in c - and you’ve no idea 🤣). Also your own oven can be easily be out.
Other than that, it could be the number of layers you made the cake in, and that’s another way to mess about with what you’re making. I generally make carrot cake in 3. That will help with the underdone middle bit.

I make a lot of cakes with an underdone middle 😁😁

https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/

I've made this and also the carrot cake cupcakes that's linked on the page

https://www.inspiredtaste.net/46269/carrot-cake-cupcakes/

Thanks all.i appreciate the advice.
I used this recipe.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/yummy-scrummy-carrot-cake-recipe
It's one quite thick piece so maybe that's part of the issue. I picked this one because of no butter and no nuts due to allergies in the family. The flavour is fine, it's just the texture not quite right. I wonder if I put it into 2 tins it would be better? Presumably the cooking time would need to be reduced quite a bit in that case too thiugh? I guess it's trial and error!

https://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/carrot-cake/2854

This is the one I use (I’ve left out the nuts before) which has similar proportions of the oil, sugar and flour to yours, but yours has 3 eggs and so does this recipe. I would have thought it wouldn’t need 3 if making half the amount of cake? - however, I’m not really a very technical baker, I’ve often been know to mix and match between recipes, so hopefully someone who knows better might be able to advise.

The best thing about any recipe from BBC good food website is the reviews - quite a few say they reduced the oil to 150ml. Bear in mind anyway, 175ml of oil does not equal 175g, Google says more like 166g.

So I would reduce the oil based on the reviews, and make sure it's on the middle shelf of the oven. If the top starts to overcook, cover with foil.

Yes as above, don't weigh oil on a scales, ml on a scales really only works for something like water/milk.

Secondly the carrots matter! The fresher the carrots the juicier they are and can contribute too much liquid, I always give mine a bit of a squeeze in kitchen paper to reduce liquid as it's very easy make it stodgy if there is too much. Using a food processor to grate them releases more juice than bog standard hand grater too.

Use a lot less oil. This recipe is fantastic but redeuce oil to 125ml and you'll be grand.
Also use more carrot than it calls for. I use about 4 medium carrots.

Delia Smith's Ultimate Carrot Cake <gavel>

Although you'd need to find substitutes for the topping if you need dairy free. Honestly, it's scrummy 😋

I love carrot cake.
I am going to be busy making and test is weekend!

I’ve been hankering for carrot cake for ages…