Carrot Cake
Carrot cake is one of my absolute favorite cakes and that’s why I’ve spend a long time trying to get this recipe just right! I always get so many compliments of how moist and flavorful this cake it.
Freshly grated carrots is the main ingredient of the cake and it give the cake its soft, almost spongy texture. I also like to use a using of oil instead of butter and a combination of brown sugar and white granulated sugar, all these things contribute to extra moisture.
You will also love the fact that you don’t need to take out a mixer! The batter is super easy to whip up in a mixing bowl just using a whisk.
This is a great cake to make year-round. Carrots are always in season and widely available at grocery stores. And while I make it any time of the year, I do change the flavor pallet of the cake a little bit for different seasons.
Featured Comment
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What a beautiful carrot cake!! Absolutely beautiful taste and look”
Tips For The Best Carrot Cake
- 3 cups of finely grated carrots packed in a cup is about 1 pound of unpeeled carrots. Use a fine grater side of the box grater to finely grate carrots.
- Nuts can be an optional ingredient depending on personal taste. If you wish, add a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter and use some more nuts to decorate outside of the cake. I like to add some nuts to the frosting in the middle of the cake as well.
- It’s always best to use a scale when dividing the batter among baking pans. Making sure that the batter is divided evenly among the baking pans will ensure that both layers are cooked the same.
- Do a toothpick test to check if the cake is baked through: insert a dry toothpick into the very center of the cake and pull it out. It the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If the toothpick comes out with some unbaked batter on the end, it needs more bake time.
- Make the frosting fresh, right before frosting the cake. Cold frosting will be too hard to spread on the cake. Make sure the cake is completely cooled before frosting!
- When cutting off the raised dome of the cake layer to make it even, make sure to SAVE the pieces that you cut off. Crumble those pieces and use it to decorate the outside of the frosted cake.
Recipe Variations
- For Easter, I sometimes add a cup of sweetened coconut flakes to the cake batter. I also use some coconut flakes to decorate the cake on top. Coconut adds somewhat of a warm, summery feel to the cake.
- Try adding a little orange zest during spring and summer months too.
- Cinnamon and carrots give great flavor to this cake but in the fall, I like to add some more spices like allspice and nutmeg. The additional spices almost give the cake a feel of fall holidays.
- You can incorporate caramel, like in my caramel apple cake.
- To make this carrot cake into cupcakes, you can bake them in a muffin pan for about 18-20 minutes and use the same frosting on the cupcakes. Check out my caramel carrot cake cupcakes for more ideas.
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
- Make ahead: you can bake the cake layers the day before and frost it the next day. Wrap each cooled cake pan with plastic wrap until ready to frost. You can store them in the refrigerator or leave them wrapped on the counter.
- Make the whole cake ahead: Another option is to make the cake completely and store it in the refrigerator, in an air-tight cake storage container. Take the cake out of the refrigerator about 45 minutes before serving to let it warm up.
- Storing: Since this cake is made with cream cheese frosting, you should store it in the refrigerator, either covered with plastic wrap or in an air-tight cake storing container.
- Warm up: If you like to have your carrot cake at room temperature, cut off a slice 30-45 minutes before you want to eat it and let it warm up on the counter.
- Freeze With Frosting: Prepare the cake completely, frost, and decorate it. Refrigerate the cake for about 6 hours to cool it completely and let the frosting solidify. Then, wrap the whole cake with a few layers of plastic wrap, air-tight. For extra protection, place it inside a freezer container, large zip-top bag, or give it another layer of foil wrap. Label and freeze for up to 4 months.
- Freeze Without Frosting: You can also bake just the cake layers and freeze those. Cool the cake layers completely and wrap each one in 2-3 layers of plastic wrap. Wrap them all together with a layer of aluminum foil, label, and freeze.
- To thaw: make sure to do it slowly, in the refrigerator. It might take 24+ hours for the whole cake to completely thaw.
Recipe FAQs
Baking powder and baking soda have their own, distinct job to do. They are not interchangeable or a similar substance. Baking powder is a leavening agent, which is responsible for rising of the cake and crumble texture. Baking soda does some of the leavening but mainly it neutralizes the acids and affects tenderness and flavor.
Oil adds a lot more moisture to the cake than creamed butter. Cakes made with oil instead of butter will be more moist what the ones made with creamed butter base but sometimes can be more dense at the same time.
No, not really! Even though it is full of carrots, which are a heathy vegetable, it is also full of sugar, flour, and oil. Depending on the size, a slice of carrot cake can be between 500-800 calories.
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Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups finely grated carrots (about 1 lb. unpeeled carrots) gently pack each cup
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 3/4 cup vegetable or avocado oil
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) *optional
Frosting:
- 12 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) toppings
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans with some cooking spray. Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of flour in each greased pan. Shake the pan gently to spread flour around evenly on the bottom and the sides. Turn the pans over and pat the excess flour out of the pan.
- Grate carrots on a fine grater and add it to the large mixing bowl.
- Add eggs, sugars, and oil. Whisk very well until completely combined.
- Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk together well.
- If using nuts, fold in the chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Split the batter between two cake pans evenly. If available, use a kitchen scale to make sure batter amount is even in each pan.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, check with a toothpick to make sure it's done. Be careful not to overcook or the cake will be dry.
- Let cakes cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Run a butter knife along the edge of the cake layer to help separate it from the pan. Gently tap the corners of the cake pan to loosen the cake a bit. Turn the pan over to take the cake layers out of the pans.
- Cool cake layers for 45-60 minutes on the wire rack before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Combine softened butter and cream cheese in the bowl of the electric mixer. Beat for 3-4 minutes on medium-high speed.
- Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and add powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Starting on low speed and then gradually bringing it up to medium-high, beat for another 3-4 minutes.
- Use a long serrated knife to even the bottom of top layer and the top of the bottom layer by off a very thin layer. KEEP the dome that you sliced off and crumble it to use for decorating the cake.
- Frost the bottom cake layer on top and stack the second layer on top. Add about 1/2 cup of chopped nuts over the frosting if you wish. Then, frost the second layer and the sides of the cake.
- Use the cake crumbs to decorate the cake and add some more nuts of top. (You can also use the crumbled cake pieces to make cake pops.)
Video
Notes
- Make sure your cake batter is divided evenly: use a kitchen scale to measure each baking pan with batter in it to make sure that the batter is divided equally among the pans.
- Toothpick test: Do a toothpick test to check if the cake is baked through: insert a dry toothpick into the very center of the cake and pull it out. It the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If the toothpick comes out with some unbaked batter on the end, it needs more bake time.
- Make sure to make the frosting fresh, right before frosting the cake. Cold frosting will be too hard to spread on the cake. Make sure the cake is completely cooled before frosting.
- Storing the cake: Since this cake is made with cream cheese frosting, I do not recommend storing it at room temperature for more than a coupe of hours. It’s best to store the cake in the refrigerator, either covered with plastic wrap or in an air-tight cake storing container. If you like to have your carrot cake at room temperature, cut off a slice 30-45 minutes before you want to eat it and let it warm up on the counter.
Nutrition
More Cake Recipes To Make In The Spring:
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles on November 4th, 2011.
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
What a beautiful carrot cake!! Absolutely beautiful taste and look
Thank you, Brenda 🙂
Carrot cake is a family fave around our house! What a lucky mil you have!!! Thanks for sharing your yummy recipe at the Tuesday To Do Party!
Smiles!
Jami
The color looks amazing! I love when food looks very delicious, without even taking a bite. 🙂 I am so glad you shared this @ Show & Share! Thank you!
I NEED to try this! I love carrot cake.
Oh, this looks so yummy. Carrot cake is one of my all time favorites.
I’d love if you would consider sharing this at my Thingamajig Thursday party
Alida
Hi, just found your blog on “What’s Cooking Wednesday” and am now a new follower!
I also have a blog with my recipes and would love for you to check it out and follow back 🙂
Krista
Yummy! This is one of my favorite cakes :). Thanks for sharing.
~Mrs. Delightful
ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.com
One of my favorites and I haven’t had any in so long!
Featuring on Thursday at Bacon Time 🙂
very yummy. Maggie
AAAHHH – my most favorite cake. Yours looks divine. I love love love your header too. Very lovely blog – keep on a’sharing those yummy recipes!
Thank you so much 🙂
The cake was a wonderful and tasty surprise! Truly yummy!Love ya Lyuba!
Thank you! 🙂