Is Oil Or Butter Better To Use In Carrot Cake?

Fat is a very important part of baking as it can serve several roles in your recipe. The big one, which is especially important for soft and moist carrot cakes, is that the fat will prevent the flour in the cake from taking up too much water, which results in a more tender crumb structure. Fat plays a part in making your cake super bouncy and soft, giving it a sublime mouthfeel and helping it support a hefty layer of cream cheese frosting on top. 

The two primary fat options you have are butter and oil, and there's one you should choose every time when making vegetable-infused cakes in general and definitely for carrot cake: oil. You should use oil instead of butter in baking because it has a greater proportion of fat in it. Butter, depending on the type that you buy, will only contain around 80% butterfat; the other 20% will be water. When your buttery cake hits the oven, the water in the melted butter can mix in with the gluten in the flour, potentially causing it to get stodgy. Otherwise, the water will evaporate. While this release of moisture (in the form of steam) is helpful for getting the perfect puff on a pastry, it's conducive to creating a wet, dense carrot cake. 

There are other indirect perks of using oil for your carrot cake instead of butter, too. When you add oil to a cake, you may find that dessert has a longer shelf life than one made with butter. However, we can't give all the credit to the oil on this one; the grated carrots will also help keep the sponge moist and fresh several days after you bake it. Likewise, since butter is made of saturated fats that are solid at room temperature, you'll find that you have to pull your cake out of the fridge and leave it to warm up before you can slice into it. But, since oil is unsaturated, you can leave oil-based cake in the fridge and grab a slice whenever the mood strikes. This is especially helpful for a cream cheese-frosted cake, which can get weepy and wet if it's left out at room temperature for too long.

"Oil" is a broad category, and there are some types of oils that work better for your carrot cake recipe than others. Vegetable oil (a mixture of several different types), canola oil, and sunflower oil are some of the cheapest and most easily accessible varieties to use for baked goods. Their flavors are rather neutral, and you'll reap all the benefits of a tender cake from them. Plus, if you miss the buttery flavor, you can always add a few drops of butter extract to replicate it.