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
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 notes
1/2 cup (50g) coarsely chopped pecans, for topping cake
Directions
- Make the Batter
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.
- Bake Cake
1Divide the cake batter between the prepared cake pans.
2Bake 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.
3Cool 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.
- To Finish
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Recipe inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s cupcakes recipe.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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This is the best carrot cake I have had in my life. I baked a one layer cake and used the traditional cream cheese icing. Thank you so much.
I made this cake yesterday. AMAZING! Definitely my new carrot cake recipe
so. good. i only had one tin so put it all in there, so it took longer to bake. but if you check it every 15 mins or so after 35 min timer, its so good
My family loves carrot cake and this recipe has become our new family favorite! It is so easy and the instructions are not overly complicated. The cake is so moist and delicious. I did add crushed pineapple which is a personal preference. It is incredible with the most delicious creme cheese frosting! It’s light and not too sweet and a perfect compliment to this incredible cake! I now use the frosting recipe for any cake that pairs well with creme cheese frosting like red velvet or Italian creme cake. Thank you for sharing this recipe in your Instagram page we love it!😋
This is the best carrot cake I’ve had in my life! The only substitution I made was using brown butter instead of vegetable oil. I definitely had to trust the process because my batter looked off and it smelled eggy as it was baking, but it was amazing!
This was a roaring success. Even someone who normally doesn’t lie carrot cake, loved it! Along with the blueberry muffins this is joining my go-to list. Thanks!
Most excellent! Moist and flavorful with all the scrumptious tastes you want in a yummy carrot cake. Easy to make, too.
I cannot say enough about this carrot cake recipe…just make it! you wont regret it. It’s moist, delicious and heavenly. I like my frosting thicker so I will use a different cream chesse frosting recipe next time.
Went to London and tried this amazing carrot cake, which I wanted to try and recreate at home. This recipe did not disappoint! I did omit a bit of sugar just because of personal taste, still loved it! Thank you so much 🙂
What an amazing recipe!!!! The day the cake was made the texture was lighter and crumbly. The next day every ingredient settled and it was the perfect texture and the taste was deeper. I took the suggestion from a reviewer and added little bit of shredded coconut and 1 cup of freshly chopped pineapple. Instead of raisins chopped dates. You’ll be impressed how easy it is to make this cake and your family will love it. Thank You for sharing this 10/10 cake.
Made this carrot cake for my husband’s birthday and my entire family loved it! Made both the cake and frosting the day before put them in the refrigerator. The next day frosted the cake and it was delicious.
SUPER SUPER TASTY but if you’re making them as cupcakes, make sure you have 3 cupcake pans, too much batter for two pans, probably about 2 and half. I knew better but I filled up 24 and the batter spilled over and caramelized onto my pans and because of that, they fell apart when I took them out of the pans.
Just followed this recipe exactly and I can say it’s the best Carrot Cake I’ve ever had in my life sorry (Mom) lol have a good one and thanks for sharing
Got so many compliments!! This is now my go-to recipe for carrot cake!