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!
I love it so much, in fact, that I’ve also just published a cupcake version too!
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!
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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.
Hi Nagi, I’m making this cake for my brothers wedding in three weeks, it’s going to be a three tiered cake, do you have any helpful hints?
I need to cook in two different batches as my oven is too small, can I make all the batter at once and let it sit while the first lot is cooking? Or do I have to make two separate batches?
Hi Shanae – with cake batter it is always safer to make two batches so you don’t run the risk of it starting to rise before you get it in the oven. N x
Is it possible to make this cake gluten-free? If so, what substitute would you recommend? I am definitely making this for Thanksgiving. It looks so yummy!
Just replace with gluten free flour!
My grandson is 13. He followed the recipe to make this carrot cake very successfully. I was wondering if I don’t like cheese what can I change to for the topping. Would you please let me know. Thanks
Cream cheese is traditional with carrot cake but vanilla would work too – try this one: https://discountspot.info/fluffy-vanilla-frosting/%3C/a%3E N x
Was skeptical about the pineapple but thought Nagi has never let me down…. Incredible cake!❤️
Hi Nagi, I would like to make more cup cakes than the 12 in the cup cake recipe. Could I just use this recipe?
Hi Marea, if you click the servings in the cupcake recipe you can scale up to the number you require and all the ingredients will adjust for you. N x
Hi Nagi! I adore all your recipes so much. I’m just wondering what it will be like if I leave out the pineapple, and cook the cake in smaller loaf type tins (about six of them) – thinking to reduce cooking time and maybe add something else for moisture but not sure what.
Would love any advice, thanks so much!
Pineapple keeps this cake deliciously moist Coco – a definitely must for this one! N x
Hi Nagi, I made this cake two days ago. It was divine and moist. I have an issue though with the bake (in fact, I have this issue with most bakes using fruits). The centre is slightly under done and I don’t know how to get it completely baked without sacrificing overbaking the edges. Any tips? I’ve tried covering it with foil but the sides still get cooked a little further than the centre. TIA.
Very late reply Su ! Have you tried baking strips ? Damp paper towel or similar around outside of tin. Plenty of info online.
Thanks Kate Stokes for the tip using baking strips. Googled and found them! Great idea. Thanks again.
Make it in two ring pans. I did this, maybe cooked it then a little too long.
Brilliant! Made this for my son’s birthday after he requested carrot cake. It was a winner!
Thanks so much Kylie, I hope he had a great day! 🎂 N x
Hi Nagi, wondering if I can make this cake with honey instead of brown sugar? If so, how much should I put and when?
Thanks x
Hi Priscilla, not this one as written sorry – it will change the texture entirely. N x
Great hit for daughter‘s birthday cake. I looked at many recipes and decided on this one because of pineapple and coconut add ins. Added some freshly grated nutmeg just because. Toasted the pecans – big hit.
Great recipe! I reduced sugar in the cake and the icing and still found it delicious
I’ll be doing the same! Thanks for the heads up
Hi Nagi.
I am a totally amateur baker and tried your carrot cake. It was absolutely amazing and will definitely make this cake again and the instructions were so easy to follow.
I actually find that you are my “go to” for any recipes.
I love Dozer by the way.
That’s amazing, thanks so much Sabrina, I love hearing this!! N x
First time I baked a cake ever!!!! My partner says it’s the best carrot cake he’s ever eaten! The cake was moist, delicious and instructions were super easy to follow! Thank you so much!! I love all your recipes!
Hi Nagi,
I would like to serve this carrot cake on Sat but I want to cook it on Friday. Will it dry out by Sat?
Never ever would I have put pineapple in my carrot cake until seeing this recipe. One word – genius!!!! This carrot cake is very moist and absolutely delicious, can recommend!
Hi Nagi,
I love your website and the recipes. But most of all I love to read what’s Dozer been up to. Just adore him.
Thank you for sharing Dozer. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Hi Nagi.. we get only one type of icing sugar where I live.. can I use castor sugar in place of icing sugar?
To make your own icing sugar just grind your castor sugar until it resembles the texture of icing sugar I grind mine in the coffee grinder
This cake was perfect. Moist and very tasty and of course the cream cheese frosting was delicious. It would make a great birthday cake. The only change I made was to use fresh pineapple, I crushed it in my food processor. I will definitely be making this again. Shame I can only share it with my husband due to lockdown but he will enjoy it. Thank you for the recipe.
The cake had great texture and flavour, but tasted less like a traditional carrot cake which I think may be from the amount of pineapple in the recipe. I also found the frosting too sweet but that is personal preference. I would definitely make this again but might try using more carrot and less pineapple, it really was a lovely cake.
Hi if I was to do this cake in a loaf tin what size would you suggest and how long to cook?