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!
Watch the Video
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. For cupcakes, check out our recipe for carrot cake cupcakes.
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).
- Sugar: Makes carrot cake moist and delicious. I love a combination of white and brown sugar, but if you only have one or the other, use it, the cake will still turn out well.
- 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.
Storing Carrot Cake
Frosted 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).
Unfrosted carrot cake layers last in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. To freeze them, wrap them with plastic wrap and then a layer of foil. Freeze for up to 3 months, then thaw overnight in the fridge before frosting.
More Easy Cake Recipes
Easy Carrot Cake
- 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.
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
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.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- 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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I was searching for a simple carrot cake recipe. I saw yours and I tried it yesterday…Absolutely Amazing. It was super moist. I was shocked. The only tweeks i made was used a ratio of 1/2 cup melted butter to 3/4 cup vegetable oil, I used chopped dates cuz I had no raisins and I only used the 1 cup of brown sugar to watch the sweetness. The quality of this is really, really very good. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
Thank you for the recipe. It’s a perfect carrot cake. So yummy and so easy to make. Pecan nuts are very expensive here in Sweden. I save them for a pecan pie and used walnuts in my carrot cake. They are a bit cheaper and tasted very good.
wow! I have baked this carrot cake twice and it will be a permanment place in my baking rotation. The 3 cups of carrots make a difference. I made the creamy cream cheese icing the first time and traditional cream cheese icing the second time. I prefer the traditional, but my family likes the creamy. Right now I am eating a square for breakfast not iced. It also keeps so good! I am so glad I found your site. Keep up the good work !!
Hi Lynne, I’m so happy you enjoy the recipe so much! Carrot cake for breakfast sounds amazing!
Thanks for letting me have the recipe. God bless you
Great cake! But at 175C non-fan forced, it needs 55-60 minutes. I originally did 37 mins and it was still runny inside. I followed the recipe exactly.
Absolute BEST carrot cake recipe ever!
The only modification I made was to grind the nuts … just fabulous. My guests were clambering for the recipe. Thank you.
Amazing flavour and moisture I was a bit worried at the start as they weren’t rising in the oven. Mine took about 55 minutes even after that they turned out amazing so moist and flavourful
Hi Tayla, We are so happy the cake turned out well in the end. I love this recipe, and am so happy it worked well for you.
Best carrot cake I have ever had! And yes, very easy to make! One thing I do is soak the raisins for 5-10 minutes in warm water, Makes them plump and juicy.
SO happy you enjoyed the recipe!
I made this and used dark brown sugar, fresh eggs just layed. I tried to follow to entire recipe as written. The middle sunk. The whipped icing was fantastic. I still pulled it together although the cake was sunken in the middle. Iced it, said to myself, hmmm, was going to give to my neighbor, husband says, “Oh my goodness this is the best carrot cake ever.” My neighbor said the same. Feeling excited about that, I brought my Aunt a peice for having Easter, she said, it was devine, the best she had ever had. So in conclusion, just becasue my cake fell and was very dense and wonky, the recipe, ROCKS!!
I have made this at least a dozen times and everyone loves it! Some tweaks I make are plump the raisins by soaking in rum overnight. You could also try hot water to plump them. I also double the raisins. I substitute 1/2 to 3/4 of the oil for melted butter. Use freshly grated carrots overbuying preshredded for best results. I have made this with regular flour and 1 for 1 GF flour with amazing results.
Hi Tess, Thank you for all your extra tips! So happy this recipe works so well for you.
Thank you for sharing … Made this for Easter and it was absolutely delicious! Cake was moist and the frosting was light and fluffy. Think I’ll use this as a zucchini bread base when zucchini are in season.
Let us know how the zucchini version turns out! You might want to squeeze a little of the liquid from the shredded zucchini before add it to the batter.
So good! Mine was done at the 31 minute mark, so I would check around 30 minutes. I omitted the raisins. Next time i make it I will half the nuts in the batter and 1.5x the icing. To add, I had enough icing to lightly coat the entire cake, rather than leaving the sides bare. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the tips, Abbie!
Man, this recipe surprised me! I made it (and accidentally added 1/4 tsp more salt than necessary), tasted the crumbs from the pan, was not impressed at all. Frosted, served, and it was phenomenal! I kept getting compliments all dang day. And I had two slices myself. Apart from the little booboo with the salt, the only thing I changed was not adding walnuts (didn’t have any) and raisins (not popular with family). This recipe is a keeper!
I was asked to bring a carrot cake to an Easter dinner today and I chose this recipe. I actually bought a back up cake from the store, but I came home with an empty cake dish. It was such a hit! I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for making me look good!