Carrot Cake! With a hint of cinnamon, soft crunch from nuts, ultra moist crumb and piled high with the fluffiest ever cream cheese frosting, this has the perfect texture and flavour. Easy and foolproof, absolutely to-die for!
Carrot Cake
This Carrot Cake is from a reader, the lovely Dorothy of Tennessee in the States, a long-time reader of RecipeTin Eats. She promised it was dead easy, foolproof, ultra moist with a heavenly flavour.
One bite was all it took for me to ditch the recipe I’d been using all my life up until that moment. This was The One. Hands down the best Carrot Cake I have ever had in my life!
Why you’ll love this Carrot Cake recipe
- The cake itself is not too sweet, with less sugar than most recipes;
- The cake is moist, but not doughy or “mud-cake” like;
- The subtle crunch from pecans and coconut in the cake. The textural contrast with the crumb is really terrific; and
- There is plenty of frosting!!
What you need for Carrot Cake
Here’s what you need for this Carrot Cake. The “secret ingredients” in this are:
- Crushed pineapple (canned) – this adds to the moistness of the crumb, as well as sweetness and flavour. We’re going to use all of the pineapple and some of the juice; and
- Coconut and walnuts (or pecans) – they add a subtle soft crunch which provides great textural contrast in this cake that has a very soft crumb.
No butter! Did you know – oil makes cakes moist and butter adds flavour. In this recipe, we don’t need butter because there’s all sorts of flavour from the other ingredients so we just use oil.
How to make Carrot Cake
Just use a standard box grater to grate the carrot. Then it’s as simple as mixing the Dry ingredients, mixing the Wet, then mixing them together.
I’ve made a 2 layer cake here but you could also make one rectangle single layer cake.
Cream Cheese Frosting for Carrot Cake
There’s just no question – fluffy cream cheese frosting is the BEST frosting for Carrot Cake! Here’s what you need:
- Cream cheese – use BLOCK, not the spreadable cream cheese in tubs (too soft);
- Softened butter – softened but not super soft / borderline melting;
- Icing sugar aka powdered sugar – 🇦🇺use soft icing sugar, NOT pure icing sugar (which is used for things like royal icing ie sets hard); and
- Vanilla.
How to make cream cheese frosting
There’s no secret trick to making fluffy cream cheese frosting. Just beat, beat, beat until fluffy! It will take a good 3 to 5 minutes to make the frosting super fluffy.
TIP for even layers (without trimming)
No cake comes out of the oven with a perfectly level surface.
But rather than bothering to cut the top to make it level, just flip the cake upside down before frosting.
You’ll still get a slight dome in the middle with this cake but it’s less pronounced than if you frosted it without turning it upside down.
And so I present to you, Dorothy’s Carrot Cake, with 2 layers, though it’s marvellous as a single layer sheet pan rectangle cake – goes further and there’s a thicker layer of frosting on the surface.
Thank you Dorothy, for sharing your wonderful recipe with us!!! I’m so honoured! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Carrot Cake (Easy and ultra moist!)
Ingredients
- 440g / 20 oz can crushed pineapple , drained but RESERVE juice (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup (65 ml) reserved canned pineapple juice (from canned pineapple above)
Wet Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (185 ml) milk , at room temperature (full or low fat)
- 1 tsp white vinegar (or lemon juice or other clear vinegar, (Note 2)
- 3 eggs (55g/2oz each)
- 1 1/2 cups (265g) brown sugar (loosely packed)
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil (or canola)
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups (300g) flour , plain / all purpose
- 2 tsp baking soda (aka bi carb soda, Note 3) (NOT BAKING POWDER)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder
Stir Ins
- 2 cups grated carrot , about 2 carrots, peeled (Note 4)
- 1/4 cup coconut , shredded or desiccated (plain / unsweetened)
- 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans , roughly chopped
Frosting
- 180g / 6oz cream cheese , at room temperature (Note 5)
- 225g / 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups (480g) icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted if clumpy (Note 6)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types). Grease and line two 20-22.5 cm/8 - 9" round pans OR a 9 x 13" / 22 x 33cm pan with baking/parchment paper. (Note 7)
- Drain crushed pineapple well, reserving the juice. Measure out 1/4 cup of pineapple juice.
- Whisk Dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vinegar, eggs, sugar, oil and the 1/4 cup pinepple juice from Step 2.
- Stir in carrot, crushed pineapple, coconut and pecans into the Wet ingredients bowl.
- Pour Wet into Dry ingredients, stir until flour is incorporated.
- Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake round cakes for 35 minutes, rectangle cake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean and the cake is golden on top.
- Rest for 10 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack. Frost once completely cool.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Then beat in the icing sugar in 2 batches until it is well incorporated and the frosting is fluffy - about 3 minutes on speed 7 stand mixer.
- Flip one cake upside down on serving platter (for flat surface). Spread with 1/3 frosting. Place 2nd cake upside down on frosting. Frost top and sides with remaining frosting.
Storage
- If cooler than 25°C/77°C and not humid, ok to keep cake in airtight container not in fridge. If very humid OR warmer than 25°C/77°C, store in fridge (Note 8).
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published April 2016. Updated with new photos, and new recipe video added!
Life of Dozer
Project Manager Dozer on duty for the video shoot! Quality Assurance is his speciality 😂
And here he is from when I originally published this Carrot Cake – no surprises, Dozer lurking under the shoot table! I’m not going to lie to you. He scored a big hunk of carrot cake. His bottom can afford it. Mine can’t.
Very very good. I substituted 1 tsp of cinnamon for 1/2 tsp ground ginger as its used in the Hummingbird Bakery’s carrot cake. I was very suspicious of the pineapple but you can’t taste it. It made 24 muffins exactly and iced 24 muffins exactly. I baked for 22 minutes then let rest for 10.
Perfect Rachel!! N x
Can you use any other nuts my h is allergic to pecans, walnuts and peanuts. Many thanks Sue
Hi Sue – sure can or just leave them out all together! N x
Can I make cupcakes instead?
Hi Hanushia – yes you can! N x
Same temperature etc? Can’t wait!
Hi Nagi
I want to try and make a gluten free cake for some guests, any suggestions of the best substitute in this recipe?
Ps I have tried so many of your recipes, they are so easy to follow and reliable! Thank you!!!!
Hi Kylie, unfortunately I haven’t tried with a gluten free alternative here! N x
Hi Nagi! So in love with your carrot cake recipe! I made 2 today and I’m just wondering if I can freeze this? Thanks!
Rosemarie xx
Hi Rosemarie, Yes you can! N x
Hi – Carrot Cake- I have two 22cm round cake tins but they don’t fit on the same oven rack any suggestions re cooking times- alternating shelves thanks Karen
This recipe was so easy but as there is only my husband and I in the house, and this is a big cake, I decided to make it in a rectangle pan and once cooled I cut it in 3 and froze 2 sections, I quartered the icing measurements which was plenty to cover a 3rd. It is so moist and lush.
If I omitted the coconut will it cause a problem?
Hi Sandy, just leave it our if you prefer 🙂 N x
I will never make another carrot cake recipe ever again. It’s perfect.
Wahoo, thanks so much Chivonne! N x
Hi I’m in love with all your recipes they have never failed to amaze me every time I made them. can I substitute the pineapple or exclude it because I’m very allergic and I really want to make the carrot cake help. Thank you
Devine cake absolutely loved it !!
What can you use instead of the block of cream cheese, not available in uk
Love, love this cake! I have made it round, as a slab and as muffins! Best carrot cake recipe ever! Thankyou Nagi!
I’m so glad you love it Nada! N x
Hi Nagi, if I was to halve this recipe to make just one cake (i.e 6 servings) should I use 2 eggs or 1? When I change the serving size to 6, the recipe calls for 1.5 eggs which is quite difficult. Thank you! 🙂
Hi Dee, just add two eggs here – it ill work fine 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, if I wanted to just make a one layer cake what should I adjust the serving size to? Thank you!
Hi Nagi, this recipe is a hit! Do you think the recipe will work in cupcakes?
Hi Diandra, I haven’t tried but a reader has mentioned in the older comments that they have had success making it into cupcakes. N x
Tried this a lot of times and super delicious! Thinking of using the recipe to sell loaf cakes. What is the loaf pan size that will fit in this recipe please? Excited for this!
Hi Andrea, I haven’t tried in a loaf pan sorry, this one needs to be done in two pans though it is too dense in the one pan. N x
Recipe is not good for loaf pan. Iv’e used a square 8×8 comes our perfect for people wanting a smaller single layer cake. Use half of all recipe items except eggs use
Everyone loved this cake and at first didn’t believe l had made it, thanks Nagi
Hi Nagi! Would it be alright to make this cake a day ahead?
Yes most definitely! N x
Hi Nagi,
This recipe is amazing I’ve cooked it for friends and they say it’s better than in a cafe. I want to make it again but unfortunately my beaters have stopped working. Is it possible to make the frosting by hand?
Hi Ally, I’m so glad you love it!! I find you really need a beater for this one! N x
Hi, I made this cake last night, it’s the best carott cake recipe I’ve used, see easy and moist. I used pineapple pieces instead as I like the big chunks through it. Is this cake able to be frozen and defrosted to serve?