These adorable mini olive oil carrot cakes with goat cheese frosting are rich, decadent and full of flavour!

Carrot cake should be rich, decadent and moist. One bite should make you forget that carrots are a vegetable and considered healthy. Cake even carrot cake is meant to be an indulgence not just some coverup for eating your vegetables. This carrot cake delivers on that promise. It is decadent and full of flavour.

Olive Oil Carrot Cake

To be perfectly honest I was a bit nervous using olive oil in this cake. I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I have never experimented with olive oil in a cake before always thinking its flavour would be too strong and over powering. Using olive oil in the batter rather than a canola or vegetable oil creates a delicious depth of flavour. I love the unique flavours that it brought to this carrot cake and I cannot wait to experiment more with olive oil in sweet desserts.

Goat Cheese Frosting

Since I was already playing with typically savoury flavours of carrot and olive oil I decided to take it one step further and not just use a typical cream cheese frosting. This goat cheese frosting is deliciously tart and silky smooth! I encourage you to try it even it feels a little bit outside of your comfort zone. If you are in a pinch you can always use this cream cheese frosting. The combination of the goat cheese frosting with the olive oil carrot cake takes this carrot cake up a notch from your typical carrot cake.

Olive Oil Carrot Cake

Makes: One 6 inch layered cake or 8-10 mini cakes

Ingredients

2 c AP flour

2 c carrots, shredded

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1.5 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 c olive oil

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350F. For 6 inch cakes - grease and flour two 6 inch cake pans. For mini cakes - line a sheet pan with parchment paper and grease

In a medium size bowl, combine flour, carrots, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, white sugar, and olive oil. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Whisk in vanilla. Fold your dry ingredients into your wet until just combined.

For 6 inch cake, split batter evenly between the two pans. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. For mini cakes - spread the batter out evenly on the sheet pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean

All cakes to cool completely on wire rack before frosting. For the mini cakes use a 3 inch round cookie cutter to cut out cake layers