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.
Can i use sweet coconut?
I can’t find unsweetened coconut in store. I want to make it tomorrow.
Thank you
I made a couple of months ago and froze one(without icing)… i’ve just defrosted it and its come up fantastic.. thanks Nagi!
That’s awesome Jacqui! N x
The rectangle cake is HUGE! Gave a huge chunk to hubby to take to work and he’s requested I make more for them! Shame…I’ll just have to make more for me…errr…I mean them hehe
I love this Naomi – you can’t go wrong with carrot cake! N x
Hi Nagi,
I want to make this for my husband. He loves raisins in his carrot cake. Could I add raisins to this recipe and if so, how much should I add?
Thanks!
HI Katy, yes 100%! Add 1/3 of a cup in if you like 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi,
We had this for Christmas dessert with the added raisins and I have to say it was the best carrot cake I’ve ever had/made. It was really moist, not overly sweet, and the frosting was perfect. I will definitely make this again! Thank you for another amazing recipe.
Another great recipe Nagi. I made this as a rectangle and, as I didn’t want to heat my kitchen up on a hot day, I cooked it in my Weber FamilyQ and it worked perfectly! I took it to social tennis and everyone raved- a couple of people said it’s the best carrot cake they’ve ever eaten…no hint of pork chops either!
I made this last night and it was delicious! I made it in a rectangle pan. After it was cooled and frosted-I suddently realized that I FORGOT THE OIL! It didn’t matter! It was still super moist. The only thing, I think is that it wasn’t as tall as it might have been with oil. It was dense and moist and decadent. I will make this again, and I will remember the oil. I will let you know the difference!
I love carrot cake but have always struggled to find a recipe that yielded a moist, not-too-bland cake. Well I can officially stop looking because this one is a winner! And looks amazing when iced 😍 Thankyou Nagi!
Hi Nagi
This carrot cake was the best that I have tasted. Easy to make as well. Love love all the recipes I have tried from your website. Can’t wait to try more.
Hi Ms. Nagi, I always love your recipe, I would like to make a carrot cake for Xmas. Can I use fresh pineapple? Here in Bali, we have lots of honey pineapple. Will i use the same measurement? Thank you
Hi Delima, you could blitz fresh pineapple yes – you’ll need the same quantities as well as the juice as if using a tin though. N x
This was delicious!! The pineapple and pecans took it to the next level. I halved the icing sugar in the frosting as I thought it would be too sweet for our tastes, and it was just perfect. Very sweet still, but without being cloying
Hi,
In the UK can’t seem to find block cream cheese only the cheese in tubs, also unable to find crushed pineaple. Would this work if I crushed pineapple rings and use tub cream cheese for frosting?
Wish we could buy block cream cheese in UK.
Can use ordinary Philly cream cheese but make sure to mix it with the icing sugar and butter very slowly and carefully by hand. That gives best chance of it holding its shape and not turning into a sauce!
I made this today for our wedding anniversary and it was perfect! I’ve always wanted to make carrot cake- my husband’s favorite- and I was so happy with this one. Another winner Nagi!
I’m so happy you loved it Bee! N x
Hello Nagi,
How can I make dark in Color like fruit cake, super moist carrot cake?
Any trick or suggestions?
Hi Nagi,
I’m loving this carrot cake! So yummmmmyyy & now hubby want me to make it for his birthday. More work Nooooo🤣🤣🤣
This is the most perfect carrot cake recipe. You have pineapple, nuts, and coconut add ins. Perfection when those 3 are in the cake.
Just love how Dozer almost always has his big doggy smile on…when he’s not eating, snoozing or jumping in the air of course😊
I’m so glad you loved it Macy!! N x
Hi Nagi! Always love your recipies – always my go to! Looking forward to try this tomorrow! Do you think this will work as muffins ?
Hi Diane, yes you can make muffins from this batter – scale the servings to 8 (use 2 eggs) and you’ll get 12 cupcakes 🙂 N x
Thanks so much Nagi ❤️❤️
Hi Nagi! I love all of your recipes and look forward to trying this one! Problem is, I only have frozen baby carrots. Will this work?
Hi Pamela, as long as you thaw, pat them dry and then shred it should work fine! N x
Having never made a carrot cake in my life, l have suddenly made this recipe 4 times. It is so easy, so yummy, so moist, so good. Do yourself, your family and friends a favour… start baking this winner. Thank you for your wonderful easy to follow recipes. I have a massive collected cook book to go through.
I’m so glad you loved it Debbie!! N x
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