I couldn’t be more excited to share our Carrot Cake Recipe! I love a soft, fluffy and moist carrot cake with super rich and creamy cream cheese frosting and our version is SOLID, I promise! There are also so many great occasions that perfectly call for carrot cake like Easter, Mother’s Day, birthdays, Thanksgiving, and during the holidays. It’s truly a great year-round cake!
What Does Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Taste Like?
Carrot Cake
This Carrot Cake is nicely dense, but still super soft and perfectly moist. It has a bright, spiced flavor from the carrots, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla.
The carrots in our cake are finely grated instead of coarsely grated (which is more common) because I like how the finely shredded carrots melt into the layers of cake. Our carrot cake recipe also incorporates currants, instead of raisins, to the cake because we love the tart flavor they add. We also omit the nuts in the actual cake and reserve those for sprinkling over the frosting as more of a garnish.
Cream Cheese Frosting
This is favorite cream cheese frosting EVERRRR and probably frosting in general for that matter! It’s so easy to make and has a ridiculously rich and creamy flavor, with a hint of vanilla.
Most cream cheese frosting recipes you’ll find add a lot more powdered sugar than our recipe calls for. Since I prefer a really rich and decadent frosting we cut the amount of sugar, so you’re really tasting the tangy cream cheese flavor. Since we add less sugar this frosting isn’t the best for piping larger things like big rosettes nor is it great for thick swoops of frosting around the sides of the cake (as the frosting will sag a little), but it’ll work just fine for piping tiny carrots.
How to Make Our Carrot Cake Recipe
Process
CARROT CAKE
- Preheat oven. Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg into a large bowl.
- Whisk together until evenly combined and no lumps remain.
- In another mixing bowl combine butter, sugars, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla.
- Whisk together until evenly combined.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, in thirds, stirring together after each addition.
- Once all dry mixture has been added, stir batter until smooth.
- Fold carrots and currants into the batter until evenly incorporated.
- Lightly grease bottom and sides of 4, 9-inch round cake pans, then line bottoms with parchment paper. Fill each prepared cake pan with equal amounts of batter.
- Bake cake rounds until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs on it, when inserted into the center of each round.
- Cool cake rounds for 15 minutes. Then remove each cake from cake pans, peel away parchment and transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely. Refrigerate cake layers for at least 2 hours.
CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- With a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula.
- Add powdered sugar, a little at a time and continue to beat together.
- Add vanilla and salt and scrape down sides of the bowl.
- Continue to beat together until light and fluffy. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of frosting for piping decorative carrots.
ASSEMBLY
- Slice off rounded cake tops to level them. (Discard rounded scraps or keep for snacking)
- Spread a thin layer of frosting onto the top of one cake round and top with another cake round. Repeat until all cake rounds are stacked into 4 layers with frosting between each layer.
- Frost the sides and top with a very thin layer of frosting and refrigerate cake for an hour.
- While crumb coated cake chills, divide remaining cup frosting in into two bowls and get your gel food coloring colors ready. In one bowl add 2 drops violet food coloring, 3 drops lemon yellow, and 1 to 2 drops leaf green. In the other bowl of frosting add 3 drops of sunset orange food coloring and 1 to 2 drops buckeye brown.
- Stir together until completely combined and you produce a moss green color and a slightly pale orange color.
- Fill orange frosting in piping bag with round tip and fill green frosting in piping bag with star tip.
- Remove chilled cake from the refrigerator and add another layer of frosting. Sprinkle crushed walnuts bits over the sides and top of cake. Refrigerate cake again for 30 minutes.
- Using the orange frosting, pipe small (3/4 inch) carrots all over cake. Using the green frosting, pipe stems on top of each carrot.
Carrot Cake Variations
- Although we use currants in our recipe, you can totally swap them out for raisins or even dried cranberries.
- We use walnuts to decorate out cake, but pecans or even pistachios can also be used.
- While we add the walnuts to the outside of the cake, you can definitely fold some into the cake batter along with the carrots and currants, if that’s your preference.
- If you prefer a more intense spice flavor in your carrot cake you can reduce the amount of cinnamon used to 2 teaspoons and add anywhere from 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of a combination of ground ginger, ground cloves, and ground allspice.
- You can use an equal amount of crushed pineapple instead of applesauce for our cake.
Tips and Tricks for Success
- A lot of carrot cake recipes use vegetable oil instead of butter, which helps to keep the cake moist, but we love using butter in our recipe for the flavor and the tender crumb the fat in the butter provides. We also use plenty of applesauce and finely grated carrot to ensure that even without the oil, the cake is still fluffy and moist.
- When measuring the dry ingredients, we use the scoop and level method. Using this method will give you the most accurate results for our cake!
- If you would like to be able to pipe large designs onto the cake with our cream cheese frosting, add an additional 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups of powdered to the frosting, 1/2 cup at a time, until your desired stiffness has been reached. The frosting will still be delicious, just not as creamy or decadent and it will be sweeter in flavor.
- The applesauce is an important ingredient in our carrot cake recipe because it adds moisture to the cake, so you’re guaranteed to have a soft and moist cake.
- It’s important to shred your own carrots! Pre-shredded ones are too thick and dry and won’t add the best flavor or provide the needed moisture for this cake.
- Unlike a lot of other baking recipes, our carrot cake recipe can be cut in half to make 1 (8″x 8″) cake, with an increased bake time of 36 to 38 minutes.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions
Make Ahead Carrot Cake
Our carrot cake recipe can be made up to 3 days ahead of time. Bake cakes and cool completely. Once cooled, wrap each round tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.
Alternatively, the cake can be fully assembled, decorated and refrigerated up to 1 day ahead of time. Set cake out at room temperature for an hour before serving. It’s important to note that the frosted cake can absorb odors from the refrigerator, so you don’t want to let it sit decorated and uncovered for more than 1 day, so the cake tastes as fresh as possible.
Freezing Cake
The cake rounds can be made and frozen for up to 3 months. Bake cakes and cool completely. Once cooled, wrap each round tightly in plastic wrap, then foil (label the foil with the freezing date) and store in an airtight container or a large ziploc bag.
When ready to use, transfer wrapped cake rounds in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.
Make Ahead Cream Cheese Frosting
Our cream cheese frosting can be made up to 2 days ahead of time. Store frosting in an airtight container and refrigerate.
When ready to use, set frosting out at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Transfer frosting to a large mixing bowl and whip with a hand mixer until rich, creamy and smooth.
Freezing Frosting
I don’t really recommend freezing frosting, unless it’s already on the cake. It’s too easy to make, isn’t time consuming and really tastes best when made fresh.
More Delicious Cake Recipes You Will Love
Carrot Cake Recipe
EQUIPMENT
- Ateco Round Tip #4
- Ateco Star Tip #15
- piping bags
- violet gel food coloring
- lemon yellow gel food coloring
- leaf green gel food coloring
- sunset orange gel food coloring
- buckeye brown gel food coloring
INGREDIENTS
carrot cake
- 4 1/2 cups cake flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups finely grated carrots
- 1 cup dried currants (raisins are fine)
cream cheese frosting
- 16 ounces softened cream cheese
- 1 cup softened unsalted butter
- 5 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch salt
garnish
- 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
INSTRUCTIONS
carrot cake
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease bottom and sides of 4 (9 inch) cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
- In another mixing bowl combine butter, sugars, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla and whisk together.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, in thirds, stirring together after each addition.
- Continue to stir batter until completely combined and no dry spots remain. Fold in carrots and currants.
- Fill each prepared cake pan evenly with batter.
- Bake cake rounds in center rack of oven for 24 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs on it, when inserted into the center of each round.
- Cool cake rounds for 15 minutes. Then remove each cake from cake pans, peel away parchment and transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely. Refrigerate cake layers for at least 2 hours.
cream cheese frosting
- With a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides of the bowl.
- Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time and continue to beat together.
- Add vanilla and salt and scrape down sides of the bowl and continue to beat together until light and fluffy. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of frosting.
assembly
- Slice off rounded cake tops to level them. (Discard cake scraps or keep for snacking)
- Spread a thin layer of frosting onto the top of one cake round and top with another cake round. Repeat until all cake rounds are stacked into 4 layers with frosting between each layer.
- Frost the sides and top with a very thin layer of frosting and refrigerate cake for an hour.
- While crumb coated cake chills, divide remaining cup frosting in 1/2. In one bowl add 2 drops violet food coloring, 3 drops lemon yellow, and 1 to 2 drops leaf green. Stir together until completely combined and you produce a moss green color.
- In the other bowl of frosting add 3 drops of sunset orange food coloring and 1 to 2 drops buckeye brown. Stir together until completely combined and you produce a moss green color.
- Fill orange frosting in piping bag with round tip and fill green frosting in piping bag with star tip.
- Remove chilled cake from the refrigerator and add another layer of frosting. Sprinkle crushed walnuts bits over the sides and top of cake. Refrigerate cake again for 30 minutes.
- Using the orange frosting, pipe small (3/4 inch) carrots all over cake. Using the green frosting, pipe stems on top of each carrot.
NOTES
- A lot of carrot cake recipes use oil instead of butter, which helps to keep the cake moist, but we love using butter in our recipe for the flavor and the tender crumb the fat in the butter provides. We also use plenty of applesauce and finely grated carrot to ensure that even without the oil, the cake is still fluffy and moist.
- When measuring the dry ingredients, we use the scoop and level method. Using this method will give you the most accurate results for our cake!
- If you would like to be able to pipe large designs onto the cake with our cream cheese frosting, add an additional 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups of powdered to the frosting, 1/2 cup at a time, until your desired stiffness has been reached. The frosting will still be delicious, just not as creamy or decadent and it will be sweeter in flavor.
- The applesauce is an important ingredient in our carrot cake recipe because it adds moisture to the cake, so you’re guaranteed to have a soft and moist cake.
- It’s important to shred your own carrots! Pre-shredded ones are too thick and dry and won’t add the best flavor or provide the needed moisture for this cake.
- The recipe can be halved to make 1 (8″x 8″) cake, with an increased bake time of 36 to 38 minutes.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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laura
Hi! If i cant find apple sauce what can i use instead o how can i make it?
Jenny Park
Equal amounts of crushed pineapple would work (sour cream is also a great sub…and will only add a VERY subtle tart flavor)
Devon
I made this for a school competition. The judgement was on outward appearance, but if it had been on taste, this would have totally won. Thank you for making such a delicious recipe.
kellianys
yummy yummy yummy
Marie
This carrot cake is super delicious. Wish I would have read the recipe first though. My mind can’t handle this recipe format and a mid-cooking attempt to print the recipe was just 30+ pages of website gobbledygook. :(
Teri Lyn Fisher
Hi! That is bummer. It sounds like you didn’t use our “print recipe” button – which prints the recipe and some selected notes.
Tai Rosa
This is now printed and safe alongside my family heirloom recipes in my go-to recipe box at home. I LOVE this recipe. It is however very large.
Cake: In order to share the love I baked two 9 inch rounds AND 2 dozen cupcakes from this one recipe. My cake turned out wonderful but I will just say that having melted & cooled butter was a step I missed and wished I would have paid attention to. Next time I will :)
Frosting: SO EASY. DONT SKIP IT. I played with flavoring by scraping out one bourbon soaked vanilla bean + 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1/2 tsp almond extract.
Decor: For coloring I used turmeric (actually I highly recommend this as the flavor compliments the baking spices in the cake) and lastly, walnuts were great but I also played with pistachios for a pop of green.
Wine Pairing: Cava or Champagne
Tea pairing: Rishi Turmeric Ginger
Cece
Cake looks delicious. I’ll take a stab at it this weekend.
I love the color of the cake stand. Is it a Pottery Barn cake stand?
Jenny Park
Hi! It’s actually from a company called Mud Australia
Deeksha
This looks so creamy. I love it. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Barbara
This cake is amazing. It is a new family favorite. I used golden raisins and chopped walnuts in cake and it was delicious. I did not frost sides; just top and between layers and it was a nice icing to cake ratio.
Jenny Park
so glad you enjoyed this recipe!! I love this one too!
Destiny
Any tips on making this in a bundt pan?
Lisa
Hi! Looks beautiful!!
Is there a substitute for cake flour?
Jenny Park
all purpose flour works just fine here…no need to adjust amounts for this recipe!
Dorothea
Quick question – There’s a note at the bottom of the recipe stating that the recipe makes four (8″ round cake layers), but the recipe calls for using four (10″ cake pans)?
Jenny Park
Hi! Thanks for catching that! The 10” cake pan is correct! The 8” ones will work too and just make thicker layers! (It will also need a couple extra minutes added to the bake time!)
Julie S
You are a goddess. My son has requested Carrot Cake for his birthday…tomorrow. The recipe I’ve always made is fine, but this sound delish. Thank you!
Jenny Park
Yes! Hope you enjoy it!
Nicole
Happy Birthday!!!
Katie
Happy birthday! That’s exactly what I did on my 32nd! Harry Potter World with my husband, a wand, and copious butterbeer. I hope you have a blast!
Susie
First off….HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! As long as your alive, any age is a good age!
Now the cake, what did you use to make the cool finish for the frosting ? Love the look.
Denisse | Le Petit Eats
Happy Birthday!!! I’m so jealous of your celebration plans, acting like a kid sounds like the perfect way to spend an adult birthday!
This cake looks incredible,I love how you decorated it with all the ridges along the side, was that hard to do? It looks like it might be simple but you never know when it comes to cake decorating!
Jenny Park
Thank you! I actually used a fork to decorate the sides of the cake, lol! I couldn’t find my tooth scraper, which was originally intended to decorate this cake…and a fork was the only alternative I had :)