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.
I made this carrot cake for my younger sibling’s birthday, and I have nothing but positive things to say about it. Not only did it taste tremendous when baked, but the batter alone was the same. This cake was incredibly easy to bake despite my young age and the fact that this was my first cake. My whole family said that this cake was the best carrot cake yet—comparing it to large food companies and even small businesses! This cake was moist, sweet, FULL of spice AND texture! The mix of walnuts and cashews I put was absurdly appetizing, I could not imagine how much better it would’ve tasted with raisins. Thank you, Joanne, for this recipe. I have subscribed to this website from just the site of the recipes. I’m extremely excited to make more cakes from you!
Favourite recipe ! made this together with my 14 yr old grandson for the past 3 birthdays..(at his request) and everyone LOVES it!
I tried this recipe for a family member’s birthday cake and I wasn’t a huge fan. The cake was moist and had a strong carrot flavor, but it wasn’t spiced enough for my taste or my family’s. In the future I’ll add more cinnamon, some nutmeg, allspice, and a bit of ginger. I also think I’ll use equal parts butter and oil instead of just oil, as in my opinion the flavor of the cake was a little lacking in richness as well as spice. It wasn’t quite bland, but I found myself wishing that I would have gone with a different recipe this year.
Hi Sarah, Thanks for your feedback! One thing to check is our carrot cake cupcakes, which are based on this recipe, but has more spices added to the batter. For our readers that love more spice, that recipe seems to fit better. You can just use the spices called for in the cupcakes in this recipe instead of only using cinnamon.
Easy to follow instructions and delicious! First time I ever made a carrot cake and everyone loved it!
That’s wonderful, Barbara. Thank you for coming back and letting us know!
This is the best carrot cake i have ever made! I substituted 1 cup of applesauce for 1 cup of the oil, so I only ended up using 1/4 cup oil total. I probably threw in a few more pecans, too.. This is my favorite go to also carrot cake, & i promise you you will not be disappointed..
I am so happy your substitutions worked so well for you, Vivian. Thank you for sharing.
This is such a delicious cake and the second time that I made it..
I froze large slices of it in parchment paper, and it was frosted too.. I didn’t read that.You couldn’t freeze it until afterwards..lol.. When we defrosted the cake slices, they all seemed to be fine.. It’s just the two of us eating a whole cake, so freezing slices worked out really well!
Thank you for the tips!
Hey! Nice recipe. I was just wondering if I can make the cake without the raisins?
Absolutely! No changes are necessary.
well, I jaust made your recipe and I can say WOW !!!!! It has nothing to do with our (greek) recipes for carrot cake!!! Not even close…!!!! I used to hate carrot cake… and my family but our school teacher tald the kids that a good suggestion for dessert.. healthy is carrot cake so my kid asked every day for carrot cake. I was sad because I knew that noone will eat it… so I was looking for something else than greek recipes… and on a you tube video the girl was making your carrot cake…so here I am. thank you… !!!! one question though… may I use instead of white sugar… coconut sugar or any other suggestion would be lovely!!! (sorry my english is a bit rusty..)
Took over an hour to cook and make with two professional cooks it was rubbish took too long but tastes good
That’s such a shame, I am sorry it did not work well for you. This is a family favorite (as well as a favorite of many of our readers). I hope you find better success with our other recipes.
I made this recipe for the first time for our Super Bowl party. My 91 year old dad requested carrot cake. It was such a hit with my entire family that people were going back for seconds and thirds! My dad, who is a bit on the picky side, loved this cake and the frosting. The frosting wasn’t overly sweet and had a wonderful, light consistency. I’ve already had this cake requested for upcoming family birthdays.
I’m using this recipe to bake carrot cake from last 4 years. It has become one of everyone favorite cake and my signature cake for bdays. Thanks for inspiring me with this delicious recipe specially the raisins and nuts. 1 tip for everyone: I did cover the top with foil paper or baking tray after first 30mins to avoid getting top super Brown or burnt after that I bake more for 20 to 30mins
Hi, I was wondering if this would still be good without the raisins and walnuts as the person Im making the cake for doesn’t like raisins and doesn’t like nuts in anything! Smh
Yep! You can leave them out.
Best carrot cake recipe! I have been making your recipe for years now and it’s a well-known cake in my circle! Thanks so much!
Quick question, for the nutritional values you indicated, would you happen to have the weight of the slice by any chance?
Hi Ana, Unfortunately, I do not have the weight of the slice. Sorry!
Absolutely PERFECT! Can’t believe so few ingredients would make the best carrot cake we’ve eaten. Made it for Valentine’s Day & it was a big hit with my husband!