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.
OMGGGG!!! I hit a Home Run !! This is absolutely delicious and SOOOO moist and easy to make. I follow exactly per your recipe. I’m not a fan of frosting, but your frosting was very smooth, fluffly and just the right touch of sweetness. This will be my go to dessert to show off. A definite kepper. Thanks so much Nagi, my Food Goodness for all your bulletproof recipes–my family will starved without you! xoxo
Could you use olive oil instead of canola oil?
Hi Julie, I prefer a neutral flavoured oil so it doesn’t overpower the cake. N x
Can I use a Bundt pan for the cake? Love your recipes Nagi!
Hi Suzanne, this is a really moist cake – not sure it would hold up in a bundt pan however! N x
Hi Nagi, I’d love to try this recipe but I’m not sure we can get block cream cheese in the uk? Would the tub type not work at all?
Dear Nagi, Am planning to make this next week. Can I use macadamia oil instead of vegetable or canola?
Many thanks. Maureen
Hi Maureen, yes! It will have a beautiful flavour too! N x
Wonderful. I did half a cup of raisins and it made the cup even more moist. Best recipe ever. Made it for my mother‘s 93rd birthday and everybody lapped it up
Dear Nagi, since discovering your website this year I have printed dozens of your recipes and tested many, all of which we have loved. Your instructions are so detailed and helpful, it impossible to go wrong. Love reading about Dozer having been owners of a golden retriever who was the spitting image of Dozer. Many thanks! Maureen
As promised this is an ultra moist carrot cake, and well balanced with a not too sickly sweet frosting. This recipe is defo a keeper!
Has anyone made this cake by halving the recipe? I don’t have many cake eaters in my house.
Hi there! Is there a way I can tweak this to make a loaf instead? 🙂
Hi Nagi, can this be pre made a day before? Planning to bake this for a birthday. Thanks.
Yes 100% Lyn!! N x
Oh my word……. was this recipe a hit or what! Super delicious it was…I made the tray bake tin as lots of mouths to feed…
Hi Nagi,
I Have 2 tiers wedding carrot cake to make for this weekend( 8″ x 3 layers & 6″ x 3 layers).
Do you think this recipe would have enough support for 2 tiers or it is too soft as it is a super moist cake.
Thank you for your help!
Hi Juwi Juwi, this cake is super moist and won’t hold up to that amount of weight sorry! N x
Hi Nagi! I love all your recipes! I’m planning to make this cake for my son’s 4th birthday in 4days but I only have two 6″ round pans. Will it work if I halve the recipe or make 2 batches (4 pieces)with two 6″ pans? If it works should I shorten the baking time? Many thanks!
My first double layer cake and carrot cake. Easy recipe and it turned out great. Cakes used to look scary but when it’s mixing wet with dry there’s no excuse 🙂
Fantastic recipe esp loved by those who dont like sweet cakes. The cake is moist and the pineapple blends in very well
Nagi thank you so much for your amazing recipes for carrot cake. If I could I would give 10 star for you!
I love this carrot cake and my husband said this is the best cake ever he ate – delicious and moist!
The best carrot cake recipe I have come across. Easy, moist ( like you said) with a punch Of flavour. Not over sweet ( the cake) and great remarks from my friends who helped eat it. I appreciate the effort you have put in to writing the blog to all your recipes. It really helps
Carrot cake is my favourite and I am quite picky about it. I tried this today for the first time and it is delicious. Thank you for sharing this, it is saved for the future.
I Made 2 of these cakes yesterday, and they came out fabulous, nice and moist, full of flavour. The frosting is great too. Very easy to make. absolutely brilliant recipe. I will definitely be making this again.
I had an abundance of carrots so a carrot cake was definitely on the menu and instead of my usual “go to” recipe I decided to try yours. I love your sliding scale on recipes it’s brilliant when cooking for a crowd or just the family. Your carrot cake turned out perfectly and the frosting delicious, despite my cake being sampled by a hungry hubby who couldn’t wait for it to cool enough to get iced. Thanks for the tip to soften the butter to almost melted, it made a big difference and no lumps and I halved the quantity of frosting for one rectangular cake and had plenty to spare! I am so pleased to have recently discovered your website!
Wow i going to try these carrots cake it looks delicious.
I hope you do, you’ll love them!! N x
One of the nicest cakes I’ve made. I baked it in a ring tin & cooked an extra 10 minutes. Came out perfect. Thank you.
I’m so glad you loved it Jillian – it’s one of my favourites! N x