Seven-day carrot cake

with the finalized recipe

May 15, 2025

Last year, I posted about how to incorporate time management skills into baking a cake, making it a more manageable task. As someone who works in the accounting field, April is always a very busy work month (and sometimes requires me to work extra hours). That said, I hardly have time to bake a whole cake from start to finish, so I came up with a schedule to spread the carrot cake over the course of a few days. In turn, by Easter, I had a carrot cake ready to roll - you can find the original post here. At the end of this post, I will share how I edited the schedule to work for me this go ‘round (I will also be sharing a few pics from Italy! Currently training from Venice>Lake Como).

When I posted last year, I actually had lost my original carrot cake recipe (all I could hear in my head was my mom telling me I need to be better about organizing my recipes, which she was right - as moms often are). I free handed the recipe and wasn’t happy enough to share. However, never underestimate the power of the internet. I have been making cakes for a long time now and would share my recipes when people asked. I posted to my IG story and asked if I shared my carrot cake recipe with any of my followers in the past, to please reshare with me. Around Easter week, I opened up my email and to my surprise, someone I had previously shared the recipe with had sent it back to me. This recipe is essentially the same, but with a few tweaks. So happy to have this recipe back in my arsenal (and posting recipes to Substack is partially part of how I organize my recipes).

7-day carrot cake

The below recipe is for a 2-layer 8in cake. You can easily add a third layer by multiplying the measurements by x1.5. You could also change the pan you use - just know this will likely affect baking time.

1c (200g) granulated sugar

1c (200g) brown sugar

1 1/3c (320g) veggie oil

3 eggs

tbsp. vanilla

1 1/2c (187g) AP flour

1c (117g) whole wheat flour

2tsp cinnamon

2tsp ground ginger

2tsp baking soda

1.5tsp. Kosher salt

1lb grated carrots (grated yourself, trust)

Start by prepping your ingredients - grate your carrots (I use a food processor with the grating attachment, but you can also use a normal grater). In a large bowl, measure and add in both sugars, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt and oil. Stir with a wooden spoon or baking spatula until the mixture is homogenous.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease 2 8in cake pans and line them with parchment.

Next, add in your eggs one-by-one. Stirring until each egg is fully incorporated in the batter. Add in vanilla extract and stir until combined.

Add in your flour, and fold it into the batter until mostly combined - a few streaks are ok. Lastly, fold in your carrots. The batter will be quite thick (the carrots will shrink during baking and add tons of moisture to the cake, so don’t fret). The flour should be fully incorporated at this point.

Distribute your batter evenly into both cake pans. Bake in the preheated oven for about 50-60min, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Allow cakes to cool completely on a rack. If icing the next day, wrap in plastic wrap tightly and leave on counter at room temp. If frosting a few days later, wrap tightly in plastic and freeze on a flat surface.

Cream cheese frosting

1 8oz block of cream cheese, room temp

2 sticks of butter, room temp

Splash of vanilla

6c (720g) confectioners sugar

Splash of heavy cream (I used 2 tbsp)

2 1/4tsp diamond kosher salt

Combine the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer, mix on low until homogenous. Add in remaining ingredients ( I usually add in 2-3 rounds of conf sugar as it goes everywhere). Mix on medium low until fully combined - should be nice and fluffy. Frost your cooled cakes.

If you’re making ahead of time, keep cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator until a few hours before you’re ready to use. Rewhip in the mixer if necessary, until nice and fluffy and frost the cake layers.

7-day carrot cake plan

Sunday: plan out and purchase groceries

Monday: prep your ingredients: in a large bowl add both your sugars, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt. In a separate container, measure your flours, and in a third container, measure your oil. Cover these with lids and set aside until you’re ready to bake.

Tuesday: grate your carrots and place in Tupperware, lined with a paper towel.

Wednesday: take a break

Thursday: make your cream cheese frosting

Friday: Bake off the cakes and cool to room temp.

Saturday: Frost your cake: rewhip your frosting if needed and ice your cake. I like to do a milk wash in btwn layers (literally just milk brush in)