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!
“Let them eat cake!” 10 classic cake recipes
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.
I would love to make this in “large” muffin/cupcake tins…do you think it would work? If so, what would the adjusted bake time be? Think the cake would be too crumbly as a cupcake?
Hi Nagi. i am Melisa from Malaysia. I have a few questions.
1) can i use the canned cube pineapple? Do i blitz them without the juice so it will have the crushed effect?
2) i do not have 2 same size round pan, but i do have 2 6” square pans. How long should i bake if i use the pans?
Planning to make this cake for this coming Eid… 😀
I used 9inch round pan the first time I tried baking it. Will the recipe still work on an 8inch round pan? No adjustments on anything?
Hi Andrea, yes it will as long as you’re using 2 🙂 N x
Hi! Tried this recipe and it’s a hit! A question though, i just manually crushed the pineapples i had. For next time’s baking, shall i weigh them first to 440g before i crush them? I noticed that after crushing them, there’s still juice dripping. Shall i drain the juice again?
Needed a gluten free carrot cake for my husband’s 50th but really liked the way this recipe read. Substituted gluten free flour and so far has turned out fabulously. Still waiting for the taste test.
Hi Andrea, were you using fresh pineapple or tinned?
I used tinned pineapples.
Hey Nagi,
Hope you are well
Thank you for another superb recipe!
Absolutely delicious 😋
I made it with pineapple instead of tin and turned out beautifully. I wasn’t super successful with the frosting. I guess it was due to the fact that I couldn’t find block of cream cheese here in the UK. Could you please advise how could I make it thicker?Should I be adding more icing sugar?
I add some double cream. If my cream cheese frosting dont thicken. Seen some people say cornflour aswell
Thanks a lot Sarah!
hey nagi, i am not sure if the recipe has changed but i used to make the one from the older post in the rectangle tin. i made this new one today and its come out really flat not has thick as it was before – am i missing something? are the ingredients the same ratios?
Hi Andrea, the ingredients are the same – did you make any changes to the recipe by any chance? N x
Ps: love ur food blog, ive made so many of ur recipes and they are always just amazing! Thank you
Ahhh just realised I used baking powder instead of Bicarb soda! Urgh! Xx
Nagi,
Do you think this cake would be ok if I made it the day before I needed it and just stored it in an air tight container?
Hi Nagi, I’ve been craving carrot cake and came upon your recipe. I’m very excited to try it. Do you think coconut oil could be used in place of the vegetable oil? I only ever have olive oil and coconut oil in the house.
Thank you
Emma
Yes that works great here too Emma! N x
Hello. I tried to make this in a silicone Bundt mold. But the skewer kept coming out with a bit of dough. I ended up baking for a lot longer. Any tips for baking this in a Bundt?
Hi C, did you make as one cake or two? If you’ve baked it as one – then it’s not suitable (I talk about this in the recipe notes) N x
Hi! Thanks for the reply. I halved the recipe and baked it as one.
Hello, 40 years ago I had a similar recipe that used carrot baby food. It was delicious too! Any recommendations using baby food? I’m older and find it difficult to grate carrots.
Thank you!
Hi Suzanne, sorry it wouldn’t work for this recipe as it would be too soft – N x
I was sceptical of the pineapple but the cake was delicious. Very rich! My partner loved it too.
It’s what keeps this cake super moist! N x
I made this cake today and it is absolutely yummy. I used a 398 mL can of crushed pineapple because that’s what we have here in Canada.
Perfect Cristina!! N x
Hi Nagi.
I only have salted butter is this ok or does it have to be unsalted?
Hi Karen, you can use salted, just omit the salt from the recipe 🙂
Thank for your reply. I will try that😊😊
Hi Nagi
I really want to make this cake, but only have one tin. Can I bake half the mixture and then after bake the other half? Will it affect the second one if the uncooked mixture sits? Thanks
Hi Alice, you can’t unfortunately as once you activate the raising agent it needs to be cooked. You’d need to do it in two separate batches – N x
this carrot cake is delicious! Made in 9×13 and a half recipe of frosting. Will definitely make again! Thank you
Hi! Are the crushed pineapple and pineapple juice important to this recipe ? My kids do not like pineapple, will they taste it in the cake? Thank you!
Hi Dana, yes it’s what keeps this cake incredibly moist. Your kids wont even taste it 😉 (and if they do then there’s more care for you!) N x
Hello Nagi, thanks for this lovely recipe. My cake came out very well and was really tasty. However, the frosting just slid off. Kindly advise where I missed the mark in the process. Thanks in advance.
Hi Miranda, sorry you had issues here – was the cake completely cool when you iced it? If it’s even the slightest bit warm, it will melt the frosting and it will slide off. N x
I am so keen to make this, but my kids are GF. Do you think it could it work with GF flour? thank you.
I haven’t tried – would love to know Mel!! N x
Would it be the same taste if coconut and nuts will not be added?
Hi Remi, just leave them out if you prefer – the cake will be slightly different but still delicious! N x
Hi Nagi , could I leave out the coconut? It’s out of stock in my local supermarket.
Also is it possible to freeze extra frosting ? Thanks ! Can’t wait to try it !
Hi Preetha, just leave the coconut out and I’m unsure about the frosting – I feel it may not thaw successfully – N x