This is hands down the best carrot cake recipe I’ve ever made. It’s easy, made from scratch, wonderfully moist in the middle, has the creamiest cream cheese frosting, and is absolutely delicious!
The moment I tried this carrot cake recipe, I was hooked! The ingredient list is simple, and they come together to make such a delicious, moist, perfectly spiced cake.
I bet you already have most of what you need to make this recipe in your kitchen. This really is one of my favorite cake recipes. For cupcakes, check out our recipe for carrot cake cupcakes. Or for another spring inspired cake, try our fresh strawberry cake.
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but this recipe works with spelt flour or your favorite gluten-free flour blend for a gluten-free carrot cake.
- Baking soda: Helps our cake rise. We don’t add baking powder (this cake recipe does not need it). Check that your baking soda has not been open for longer than 6 months (it loses its potency after that).
- Sugar: Makes carrot cake moist and delicious. I love a combination of white and brown sugar. If you only want to use one, choose brown sugar since it has the necessary acid to react with the baking soda.
- Oil: The secret to keeping our carrot cake so deliciously moist. I’ve used avocado oil, safflower oil, and vegetable oil with great results. Melted coconut oil works, too, but the baked cake will have a light coconut flavor.
- Salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract: Make our cake taste amazing, resulting in a lightly spiced cake.
- Eggs: This cake calls for 4 eggs, which add flavor, moisture, and give the cake structure.
- Carrots: Three cups of freshly grated carrots make this the best carrot cake! If you’re making the carrot cake and start to second-guess the number of carrots called for in our recipe, don’t. You need all three cups. It is a carrot cake, after all.
- Pecans and Raisins: These add texture, but they are optional. Reading through the comment section, it is clear that some people love nuts and raisins in carrot cake, while others cannot stand them. I love them, but add what you love!
How to Make Carrot Cake
If you have a couple of bowls and can stir ingredients together, you can make this easy cake! You’ll start by whisking the dry ingredients in one bowl, and do the same with the wet ingredients in another.
Making this cake batter reminds me of making pancakes or muffins. All you need to do is fold the dry ingredients into the wet, add your carrots, nuts, and raisins, and you are done. It’s that easy!
To bake the carrot cake, divide the batter between two baking pans, and slide them into a 350°F oven. Bake the layers until they rise in the pans and are a bit bouncy when you lightly touch them. (I use one or two fingers and lightly push. If you leave a dent in the cake, it needs more time.)
It’s important that you cool your cake layers, otherwise your frosting will slide right off! I like to cool them in the pans for 15 minutes and then turn the layers onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
My Favorite Cream Cheese Frosting
This cream cheese frosting reminds me of softly whipped cream. It’s light, creamy, and swoopy. I highly recommend it, but if you want a firmer, more American-style cream cheese frosting that you can pipe onto the cake, see the tips section of the recipe for my recommendations.
For my favorite frosting, you will need cream cheese, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and heavy cream. You’ll beat the cream cheese with the sugar and cornstarch until fluffy and then beat in the cream. Watch our video to see how light, swoopy, and creamy it becomes. We also use this frosting for our Guinness chocolate cake.
This cake is also delicious without frosting. You can try it plain or sift some powdered sugar on top. When Adam and I tested this carrot cake recipe, we skipped the frosting the first couple of times and fell in love with the cake completely plain.
Easy Carrot Cake Recipe
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is the best carrot cake recipe I’ve made. We prefer to use a hand grater when preparing the carrots since it creates delicate shreds that melt into the cake batter. We like using granulated and brown sugar in this recipe. If you only want to use one, choose brown sugar since it has the necessary acid to react with the baking soda.
Frosting: Our creamy frosting recipe shared below is not a traditional cream cheese frosting. Thanks to whipped cream, it’s creamier and has soft peaks (you can see it in our video). See the tips section below for a more traditional frosting.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For Carrot Cake2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
2 teaspoons baking soda, important to level the teaspoon, see tips
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups (295ml) vegetable oil
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 cup (190g) lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups (300g) grated peeled carrots, 5 to 6 medium carrots
1 cup (120g) coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 cup (70g) raisins
For Creamy Frosting8 ounces (225g) cream cheese, at room temperature
2 teaspoons cornstarch, optional
1 ¼ cups (140g) powdered sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) cold heavy cream, not plain whipping cream, see tips
1/2 cup (50g) coarsely chopped pecans, for topping cake
Directions
- Bake Cake
1Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C).
2Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottom with parchment paper, and then grease the top. Or grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.
3Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl until very well blended.
4In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.
5Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each one.
6Switch to a large rubber spatula. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the dry ingredients in three parts, gently stirring until they disappear and the batter is smooth.
7Stir in the carrots, nuts, and raisins.
8Divide the cake batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until the tops of the cake layers are springy when touched and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes.
9Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then carefully turn the cake layers out onto cooling racks. Remove the parchment paper and cool completely. If you find that a cake layer is sticking to the bottom of the pan, leave the cake pan upside down and allow gravity to do its thing.
- Frost Cake
1In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with a handheld mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
2Beat in the powdered sugar and cornstarch. I like sifting the powdered sugar and cornstarch over the cream cheese to remove lumps. If you do not have a fine mesh sieve, beat in the cornstarch and powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time until combined.
3Pour in the heavy cream. Beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until the frosting is whipped and creamy. This frosting resembles the texture of whipped cream. Chill covered until ready to frost the cake.
4When the cake layers are completely cool, frost the top of one cake layer and place the second cake layer on top.
5Add the remaining frosting to the top of the carrot cake and use a butter knife or small spatula to swirl the frosting around. Leave the sides of the cake unfrosted. Finish with a handful of nuts on top.
- Storing
1Frosted carrot cake lasts in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. I keep it covered with plastic wrap or use a cake keeper, or large bowl turned upside down to cover the cake. I do not recommend freezing frosted carrot cake (the frosting does not thaw well). You can refrigerate unfrosted cake layers for up 5 days or freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before adding your frosting.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Measuring the flour: Either weigh it or use the “spoon and level” method: Fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, then level off the top with a flat edge. See our video for a demonstration.
- Baking soda: When measuring, dip your spoon into the container, then level it off using the straight edge of one of your other spoons. For the best results, use fresh baking soda (it loses its potency after being opened for 6 months).
- Traditional cream cheese frosting: In a large bowl, beat 16 ounces of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of softened butter together for a minute or two until smooth. Add 4 ½ cups of powdered sugar, 1 ¼ teaspoons of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes until extra creamy. If it is too thick, add 1 tablespoon of cream or milk.
- How to make carrot cake cupcakes: This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. Bake them for 14 to 18 minutes and allow to cool in the cupcake pan before cooling completely on a wire rack. You may also like this recipe for carrot cake cupcakes.
- To make a large single-layer cake, add all the batter to a 9 x 13-inch rectangular pan and bake. The bake time may be slightly longer. A 10-cup or 12-cup bundt pan should also work, but expect the bake time to increase by 30%.
- Adding pineapple: I like fresh chopped pineapple or drained canned pineapple. Do not add more than 1 cup.
- Heavy cream (US bakers): Heavy cream has more milk fat (about 36%), while whipping cream has less (around 30%). Use “heavy cream” or “heavy whipping cream.” Plain “whipping cream” does not whip as well and can cause your frosting to be too soft. If you only have whipping cream or cream with less than 35% fat content: If you only have whipping cream or are unsure what you have in your kitchen, whisk it in a separate bowl until soft peaks. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the whipped cream to the beaten cream cheese mixture and combine to loosen. Then, fold in the remaining whipped cream.
- UK & Australia bakers: Use plain flour for the batter and “double cream” or “thickened cream” with at least 35% fat content for the creamy frosting.
- Recipe inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s cupcakes recipe.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Hello. Ive made this carrot cake a few times now. I wondered if anyone has tried making it using melted butter instead of oil?
I’m entirely un-gifted when it comes to baking. Helping the kids make basic cookies is about my level. My fiancé loves carrot cake, so I decided to have a go at making this for her birthday. Everyone absolutely loved it. Tasty, moist and cheap to make. What a winner
The cake is the best I have ever tasted. The icing not all that. Next time back to my traditional cream cheese icing.
Very easy to make. My family loved the taste. They already want me to make another one!
very easy my family loves it every time i make it but my thumbs get sore every time i hand shread the carrots very good with pecans sprinkeled on top of the vinila frosting
I really like this recipe, it’s a very delicious cake and has been the staple of many of my family reunions. However, I have been having a lot of issues with the consistency during and after baking, I’m not sure what it can be. I tried making the batter into cupcakes but they just overflowed and then sunk in. What can I do? I followed the recipe step by step.
Made this today and took it into work. Was a success. Everyone said it was yummy! I put a little less sugar and a dollop of Kefir in it and a thin maple cinnamon glaze.
Just so easy and absolutely delicious 😋😋😋
Great recipe. Cake turned out really well! Didn’t add the raisins as a personal preference.
This cake was delicious, best recipe so light and not too sweet, I halved the recipe for a smaller cake and it was perfect. Will definitely make again.
This is my husband’s birthday cake. We all love it. It is a wonderful recipe and very easy. I vary add ins ingredients from time to time depending on what I have on hand. My go to carrot cake. Super yum!!!!
Tried this recipe a couple of times now and what can I say…..DELICIOUS. I have served this carrot cake to friends and family and they can’t believe it’s home made. Hand on heart, this is the best carrot cake I’ve ever tasted. The frosting is the icing on the cake.
Absolutely enjoyed this recipes outcome. I used our food processor to mulch the carrots after having cleaned and peeled them (bit over 4 cups). Also used Splenda brown sugar blend for cake sweetener. Otherwise, followed recipe to a T and it came out perfectly.
Love the icing as well, better than any store bought. Had the cake without icing, while it was warm. Simply scrumptious. Once cake had cooled, tried it again with a little icing and both my lovely wife Pat and I thoroughly enjoyed it.