This is my favorite carrot cake recipe. This carrot cake is 100% from scratch, easy to make, versatile and utterly delicious. One of our most popular recipes! Just read all the rave reviews! Jump to the Easy Carrot Cake Recipe or watch our quick recipe video below to see how we make it.
Watch How We Make The Best Carrot Cake
How To Make the Best Carrot Cake
It wasn’t until recently that we realized just how much we love carrot cake. It wasn’t something either of us grew up eating. Thanks to this easy recipe, we fell in love. This carrot cake is 100% from scratch, easy to make, versatile and utterly delicious.
Not only is this the best tasting carrot cake we’ve made, but it’s a cinch to make. You can make this carrot cake quickly and easily without lots of fancy equipment.
Carrot Cake Ingredients
The ingredients needed for this cake are simple and I bet you have quite a few of them already in your kitchen!
Making Carrot Cake
The method for this carrot cake recipe could not be simpler! If you have a couple of bowls and can stir ingredients together then you can absolutely make this cake!
As you can see from our recipe video, all you need to do is combine all the ingredients. I like to whisk my dry ingredients together in one bowl, and then combine the wet ingredients in another. Then I switch to a rubber spatula or large spoon and fold the two — wet and dry ingredients — together until I don’t see any large streaks of flour. (We use the same method when making this easy pineapple upside down cake and this buttery blueberry cake. Both recipes are so good!)
When I’ve got the batter ready, I fold in the carrots and if I’m using them, the nuts and raisins.
By the way, this carrot cake has lots of carrots. We add three cups of carrots to the carrot cake. When we first tested it, we scaled that back to two cups since three cups just sounded a bit extreme. After baking and letting it cool, we were a little disappointed. So if you’re making the cake and start to second-guess the number of carrots called for in our recipe below, don’t. You need all three cups. It is a carrot cake, after all.
When it comes to baking the cake, divide the batter between two buttered and floured cake pans and bake until done. The cake layers bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes (they smell fantastic). After baking, let the layers cool then frost with your favorite frosting.
We love our extra creamy cream cheese frosting. It’s soft and creamy and doesn’t firm up like some cake frostings. (If this is what you are looking for, check the notes section of the recipe, we provide alternatives).
The frosting is actually the same one we used to top our Guinness Chocolate Cake. It’s made with only three ingredients:
If you’re not into frostings or if you don’t have the ingredients on hand, try the cake as-is without any frosting at all. Or, sift a little bit of powdered sugar on top. When Adam and I were testing this recipe, we skipped the frosting the first couple of times and fell in love with the cake completely plain.
What Our Readers Are Saying
If you don’t believe that our recipe helps you bake the best homemade carrot cake, take a look at what our readers are saying about the recipe! More reviews are in the comments section below.
“Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, very easy to follow, came out perfect first attempt great hit with the family, now a regular demand from my kids.” – A
“This carrot cake was amazing!!! I made it for my husband’s birthday and he said it would win a Paul Hollywood handshake (from The Great British Bake-off)” – Yuna
“This is an absolutely divine carrot cake recipe!!!! It is so hard to find one that is not dry – this one is moist and works perfectly every single time and we make it often as it is definitely our favorite!!!” – Jodi
Since posting this recipe, we’ve had some frequently asked questions. Here are the most common:
Frequently Asked Questions
Recipe updated, originally posted April 2014. Since posting this in 2014, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick recipe video. – Adam and Joanne
Incredibly Moist and Easy Carrot Cake Recipe
- PREP
This is the best carrot cake recipe I’ve ever used. For the carrots, we prefer to hand grate for the finest carrot pieces that melt into the cake batter, but you can also use a food processor. It makes quick work of grating carrots, but the pieces will be slightly larger. Some grocery stores sell bags of grated carrots, as well.
This recipe is forgiving. You can make this with or without the nuts and raisins. We like using both granulated and brown sugar in this, but using one or the other is an option
**The creamy frosting recipe shared below is a soft frosting and is not ideal for frosting the entire cake. It is more the consistency of stabilized whipped cream, rather than traditional cream cheese frosting.
You Will Need
2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups (295 ml) canola or other vegetable oil
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1 cup (200 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups (300 grams) grated peeled carrots (5 to 6 medium carrots)
1 cup (100 grams) coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 cup (65 grams) raisins
8 ounces (225 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups (140 grams) powdered sugar
1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup (50 grams) coarsely chopped pecans, for topping cake
Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper then grease the top of the paper. Or, grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and the cinnamon until well blended.
In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, sugars, and vanilla. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until combined.
Switch to a large rubber spatula. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, gently stirring until they disappear and the batter is smooth. Stir in the carrots, nuts, and raisins.
Divide the 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.
Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks, peel off parchment paper and cool completely.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with a handheld mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute.
Beat in the powdered sugar, a 1/4 cup at a time until fluffy. Pour in cream and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Chill covered until ready to frost cake.
When the cake layers are completely cool, frost the top of one cake layer, place the other cake layer on top. Decoratively swirl the top of the cake with remaining frosting, leaving the sides unfrosted. Scatter nuts on top.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
This content was originally published here.