Cardamom Spiced Carrot Sheet Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Cardamom Spiced Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting on parchment paper on a sheet pan with a silver cake server. cardamom pods sprinkled in the background

5 from 3 votes

Cardamom Spiced Carrot Sheet Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Moist cardamom, cinnamon and ginger spiced carrot cake, topped with decadent brown butter cream cheese frosting. This carrot cake sheet cake is the easiest, most delicious cake that you can make in about an hour! It's insanely good.

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 605kcal

Author: Jessica

Ingredients

For Cardamom Spiced Carrot Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground ginger
¾ cup avocado coconut or other neutral oil
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
4 large eggs room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
¼ cup buttermilk room temperature
3 cups shredded carrots

For Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

½ cup butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Instructions

To make the Cardamom Spiced Carrot Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15x10 half sheet cake pan and line with parchment paper (*see note about pan size)
In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat together oil and sugars until thoroughly combined. Add in eggs one at a time. Add in buttermilk and vanilla and mix until everything is well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Add in the dry ingredients and mix until everything is just combined. Do not over mix.
Using a rubber spatula, stir the shredded carrots into the batter.
Pour cake batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let the cake cool completely before frosting or removing from the pan.

Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

In a light colored, heavy bottom saucepan or pot, melt butter over medium high heat. Once the butter is melted it will start to foam. Whisk continually while cooking the butter for about five minutes or until it smells nutty and has a deep caramel color. Be careful not to burn. Remove from heat immediately and transfer to heat safe dish. Let the brown butter cool completely and re-solidify before making the frosting.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat browned butter until smooth. Add in softened cream cheese and beat on high until well incorporated. Add in vanilla and salt. Add powdered sugar a little bit at a time and beat on high until completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Frost cooled cake and serve!

Notes

If you do not have a 15x10 half sheet cake pan, add 12 cups of batter to a 13x9 and use the rest of the batter to make a few cupcakes or a small round on the side for sampling!
You can omit the cardamom in this recipe and replace with an additional teaspoon of cinnamon for a traditional carrot cake recipe.
You can skip the browned butter and make regular cream cheese frosting by following the same steps with softened butter instead.

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