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carrot cake loaf with brown butter cream cheese frosting

5 from 20 votes
carrot cake loaf
[category] Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
[published] February 2, 2022
[PREP] 25 minutes
[COOK] 45 minutes
[TOTAL] 1 hour 10 minutes
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Ingredients

carrot cake loaf

  • 1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups carrots finely shredded

brown butter cream cheese frosting

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 4 oz cream cheese at room temp
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • splash of milk

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, add the olive oil, brown sugar, eggs, greek yogurt, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined.
  3. Grate the carrots onto a paper towel and squeeze some of the juice out.
  4. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl. Gently stir the dry ingredients in until they are almost combined. Add the shredded carrots and gently fold in until no large streaks of dry ingredients remain and carrots are well distributed.
  5. Grease an 8"x4" loaf pan (If you only have a larger loaf pan, this should work, just decrease the cook time a bit). Line the loaf pan with parchment paper (this step is optional, but makes it even easier to remove the loaf after cooking).
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Transfer to the oven and cook for a total of 45-50 minutes. Check the loaf around 35 minutes. If it is starting to brown really quickly on top, add a loose layer of tin foil over the loaf for the remaining cook time. Cook until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack after 10 minutes.
  7. While the loaf cools, make the frosting. Add the butter to a pan over medium heat. Stir while the butter starts to melt. The butter will start to bubble, then after a couple minutes it will start to foam up -- keep stirring. After the foam subsides, you'll have brown, nutty smelling butter! Take the pan off the heat and pour the butter into a bowl or cup. Transfer the butter to the freezer for 10 minutes to set up.
  8. Transfer the cooled butter to a bowl or stand mixer. Add cream cheese and mix for 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and mix another two minutes. Add a splash of milk and mix until smooth.
  9. When loaf is completely cooled, spread the frosting on top. If you'd like, top with a few crushed pecans. Enjoy!
  10. Keep any leftover loaf in a sealed container in the fridge. The loaf will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge.