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.
Wonderful carrot cake. Made it last night and had it for breakfast. Convinced myself it was healthier than pancakes.
Loved your fluffy blueberry pancakes also.
I like the way you think Dennis! We should all have cake for breakfast!!
Hi, Nagi! This cake was delicious but came out really wet for us. I packed the grated carrots rather than leaving it loose in the measuring cup. Do you think this could have been the problem?
Thanks for continued great recipes!
Hi Naim, sorry you had issues here – did you squeeze out the pineapple? – N x
I didn’t have any tinned pineapple and dragging 3 small kids to the shops just for that was too hard! Instead I used 1/2 cup soaked then drained sultanas and 1/4 of apple puree. The cake was delicious! Thank Nagi.
A great substitution Kate, I’m so glad it worked out!
Ok, hands down best!! I’m totally stalking your page. All. The. Time. I do intermittent fasting and i like to torture myself by looking at recipes when fasting. Made this (scaled it down to 6 servings) and just had the first slice. Ah-mazing!
Wahoo, I’m so glad you loved it Corrine! You’re braver than I am, I can never look at recipes when I’m hungry!
The BEST carrot cake I have ever tasted! Thank you Dorothy for sharing with Nagi!
Wahoo! I’m so glad you loved it!
I wanted to ask if the taste of pineapple and coconut is strong or does it mostly taste of carrot??
Hi Alisia, no it doesn’t overpower the cake at all – N x
Hi,
I tried your red velvet cake recipe and it was amazing! I was wondering for this cake buttermilk would work instead of the milk and vinegar?
Thank you
Hi Alisia, I would think so yes! I hope you love this one as well – N x
Excellent easy recipe with a fantastic tasting cake in the end. Will never buy carrot cake again, especially since the last slice I had at a cafe was hard & dry! Thanks Nagi & Dorothy! x
Thanks so much Jessica!
Hi Nagi, I am unfortunately allergic to pineapple. Is there something I could substitute for it or would it affect the moistness to just leave it out?
Hi Allison, yes it will affect the cake unfortunately if left out. I haven’t tried with any substitutes sorry!
Was wondering if 4 cups of icing sugar listed for the frosting is a typo? I used half the amount and ot was still too sweet.
Hi Spike, that’s not a typo, I find that it matches the cake as the cake isn’t overly sweet ☺️
Cake turned out exactly like in the photos. A very easy recipe. Nagi is right that the cake itself is not too sweet, which is perfect given the generous amount of frosting! Definitely whip the frosting up for ultimate volume and lightness – yum! Whilst this is a good,
reliable, perfectly dense and moist carrot cake, I think the cake itself could be more flavoursome (more spices perhaps?). But still – another great recipe, thanks Nagi and Dorothy!
I’m so glad you liked it Caroline. You could definitely up the spice factor if you preferred ❤️
Made this for dinner tonight. My husband thought he’d died and gone to heaven!! I had to pull the cake away from him or he would have kept eating! This is now his favourite cake.
It’s got carrots so it’s healthy right?! 😉
My daughter has requested a carrot cake for her birthday, but she doesn’t want icing (yeah, I know, what?). You mention that the cake isn’t very sweet because the icing is sweet enough. Would it work without, with maybe a dusting of icing sugar?
Hi Rachel, what kind of monster doesn’t want cream cheese icing!!!?? 😂 It would be great with a dusting of icing sugar – I hope she loves it!
Yeah, I’m not sure where I went wrong in my parenting there 😂
Hello Nagi, Could I offer a correction – a “palette” is what an artist puts paint on; a “palate” is to do with taste (and is also a part of our anatomy!). Cheers, Sarah
Oops – I’ll have this fixed, thanks for picking it up!
I wasn’t sure my comment got sent through so sorry for repeating.
Does this need to be refrigerated?
You can keep it in the fridge, I like to bring it up to room temp prior to serving – N x
Hi Nagi,
I was wondering if this needs to be refrigerated?
I just love the new look of your website. Nagi and of course even though I’m now in PNG as a volunteer (home is Adelaide) I am still cooking your lovely recipes
Thanks so much Jane!
Greetings from Norman, Oklahoma! Today marked my first day of making this cake, and let me tell you- it will go down in history! I followed the recipe word for word, and it came out a masterpiece. My family and I were in awe! Truly the most stupendous flavor combinations and textures. My birthday is in a couple weeks, so you can bet that I’ll use that as an excuse to make it again! Thank you so much for this life-changing recipe, Nagi!
I’m so glad you loved it Ellie!!! And don’t be silly, no one needs an excuse for carrot cake!
Hi Nagi
Can I use this recipe to make a carrot cupcake instead? Do I need to omit some ingredients or can I use all of the same ingredients listed in here?
Absolutely! Same recipe just put in cupcake tins!
Thank you so much! I have always used your recipes and the results are always nice. So I can’t wait to try this out today.
Hi Nagi! I’m a huge fan of your recipes and would love to try this one but unfortunately, I am allergic to pineapple. Is there anything that I can substitute it with? and in what quantities? Thank you!
Hi Christina! Just leave it out 🙂 It will still be fabulously delicious! N xx