Carrot Cake - Instant Pot (or Oven)

Carrot cake has always been a favorite of ours. And I usually make one (in the oven) from a recipe my mother and I developed together when I was a teenager and we first had carrot cake but couldn’t find a recipe for it.

Last week I told Mr Delightful I wanted to try a cake in my new Instant Pot and he requested carrot cake. So I cut down my usual Carrot Cake recipe to fit in a 7-inch round pan perfect for the Instant Pot.

We really liked it, but one might ask, Why make it in the Instant Pot when it isn’t any quicker than baking it in the oven? And if you need to feed a crowd, you need to bake the larger carrot cake or exactly two dozen Carrot Cupcakes.

But if you only need a small cake and don’t want to heat up your house by running the oven on a hot day, or you're using your oven for other things, making a cake in the Instant Pot makes sense.

Of course, you can also bake this cake in the oven at 350F/180C/Gas4. Have you made any cakes in the Instant Pot? What is your favorite cake flavor?

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Carrot Cake – Instant Pot 

(Makes one 7-inch/18 cm cake, 8 servings) 

The Cake

1 dip-and-sweep cup (5 ounces/142 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup (1.25 ounces/35 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted and cooled

1/3 cup (1.67 ounces/47 grams) dried currants

2/3 cup (4.67 ounces/132 grams) sugar

2/3 cup (5.33 fluid ounces/158 ml) organic expeller pressed canola oil*
2 large eggs, room temperature

1 packed cup (6 ounces/170 grams) peeled and shredded carrots

* I want to try this with organic extra virgin olive oil. 

The Frosting

1 3-ounce (85 grams) package cream cheese, room temperature
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces/43 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/16 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 packed cups (6 ounces/170 grams) unsifted powdered sugar

1 After you’ve chopped and toasted the nuts and shredded the carrots, butter well and lightly flour a 2-inch deep 7-inch round cake tin. In small bowl, whisk together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt. 

2 In a small bowl, stir together the toasted and cooled nuts and dried currants with about a teaspoon of the flour mixture, making sure all the currants are separated and coated. 

3 In medium bowl, beat the sugar and oil together well, and then beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour mixture followed by the nuts and currents and then the shredded carrots. Scrape into prepared tin and cover tightly with foil. 

4 Place rack (with its handles down) in bottom of the Instant Pot cooking pot, and add 1 cup of water to the pot. Carefully set the cake, centered on its foil sling, on the rack.

5 Put the lid in place and turn the steam valve to Sealing. Plug in the Instant Pot. Press the Pressure Cook key. Leave the indicator on High Pressure and change the cooking time to 45 minutes.

Note: It took just a few minutes to reach working pressure. This varies with the amount and temperature of the ingredients in the pot. 

6 When the beep sounds, turn it off by pressing Cancel. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes,* then do a quick release by turning the steam valve to Venting.

* I set my kitchen timer (my favorite timer of all time!) so I don't get distracted.

7 When the float valve drops down, carefully remove the lid. With a paper towel, gently blot any moisture that collected on top of the foil. Using the foil sling, carefully lift out the cake. Remove the foil. The cake should be pulling away from the edges of the pan.

8 Carefully run a knife around the edge of the cake. Turn it out onto a wire rack. Let cool completely, about 1 hour, before frosting.

9 In 1.5-quart mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and butter with electric hand mixer until smooth. Add vanilla extract, salt, and about a third of the powdered sugar; then beat in the remaining sugar. 

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Jean