This is our favorite carrot cake recipe with a classic cream cheese frosting. The carrot cake itself is super moist, not too sweet, flavorful, and incredibly easy to make. It's almost a one bowl recipe! Our recipe can make either a 3 layer 6 inch cake or a 2 layer 8 inch cake, which is perfect for all occasions, including Easter! For an even smaller version, try our lunch box carrot cake, which are super cute and is lighter in texture and also paired with a lighter cream cheese frosting.
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Ingredients needed
Please scroll down to the recipe card for the ingredient quantities!
- All-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon - These three make up the dry ingredients for the carrot cakes. Baking soda is the only leavener we will be using for this recipe. So no baking powder is needed.
- Oil - To make our carrot cake super moist, we are using all oil instead of butter. Any neutral oil is fine. We recommend avocado oil, canola oil, and vegetable oil.
- Eggs - They enrich the cake, making it taste more moist and flavorful.
- Vanilla and salt - These are additional flavorings to give our carrot cake another layer of flavor.
- Carrot - We recommend grating your carrots using the the coarse side of your box grater. You can also grate it using your food process if it comes with a grater attachment.
- Pecan - These are optional if you like nuts in your carrot cake. Some will also be used for garnish. Walnuts are a good substitute if you prefer.
- Cream cheese, unsalted butter, powdered sugar and vanilla - These ingredients are for making the cream cheese frosting. Make sure to use unsalted butter so that the icing doesn't become salty!
How to make carrot cake
Please scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe and instructions!
For the cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly grease the cake pans and line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.
📝 Note: This recipe is perfect for making either three 6 inch cakes or two 8 inch cakes.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.
3. Mix wet ingredients. In a mixing bowl, add both the brown and white sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until everything is well combined and emulsified.
4. Finish the batter. Then add the prepared flour mixture gently whisk until just combined and no more dry flour is visible. Next, add the grated carrot and the chopped pecans (if using) and fold everything together with a spatula until just combined.
5. Bake. Divide the batter evenly amongst the prepared cake pans. and give the pans a gentle shake to level out the batter. Bake the carrots cakes for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean or with only a few crumbs.
6. Cool. Remove the carrot cakes from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Then flip the cakes out of the cake pan. If needed, run a knife around the edge of the pan to help release the cake.
🌟 Pro tip: If you have time, we highly recommend making the carrot cakes the day before, wrap it in cling wrap once they're cooled, and let the cakes refrigerate overnight, or up to 5 to 7 days. This allows the cake to reabsorb all the moisture and ensures the cake is ultra moist.
For the cream cheese icing:
1. Cream the butter and cream cheese. In a mixing bowl, add the softened cream cheese and butter. Using a hand mixer, mix on medium speed for a few minutes until the mixture is fluffy and pale.
2. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and mix on low speed until most of the sugar is incorporated, then increase the speed to medium high and mix for a couple of minutes until well mixed and kind of fluffy again. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
📝 Note: If your kitchen is hot, the frosting may be too soft to use immediately. You can cover and refrigerate it for a couple of hours to stiffen the icing or you can make the icing the day before and just remove it from the fridge about 1 hour before you plan to ice to cake.
3. Optional - Make colored icing. If you wish to pipe carrots on the cake, you'll need to reserve about 1 tablespoon of icing and mix it with green food color for the carrot tops and reserve about 2 to 3 tablespoons of icing and mix with orange or red with yellow coloring for the carrots. Place the colored icings into piping bags fitted with or without piping tips (see the next topic to see the tips we used and no tip alternative). Refrigerate the icings until needed.
How to pipe carrots without piping tips
If you're want to use pipping tips to help pipe your carrots, we recommend a small round tip for the carrot (orange icing). We used Wilton round tip # 6. For the carrot tops (green icing) we used a leaf tip - Wilton leaf tip #352.
If you don't have piping tips or prefer not using tips, don't fret! You can easily DIY it with a pair of scissors. For the round tip (orange icing), simply cut a straight line at the tip of the pipping bag. This will make a circle. The closer the cut to the tip of the bag, the smaller the hole will be, which is what we recommend. You can always cut away more of the bag if you want the hole to be bigger.
For the leaf tip (green icing), cut an upside down "V" as close to the tip of the bag as possible. Same as the round tip, cut as small of a "V" as possible and if you want the hole larger, you can always trim away more of the bag.
How to assemble your cake
1. Optional - Level the cakes. It's much easier to ice a cake if the cakes are flat to start with. So if your carrot cakes are domed you can flatten it by slicing off the top of the cake using a serrated knife or a cake leveler.
🌟 Pro tip: A lot of the time, you can flatten the dome on cakes without cutting simply by letting the cake cool upside down. It's even more effective if the cakes gets chilled in the fridge overnight. Sometimes I even stack cakes on top of each other (and alternate them occasionally) to help flatten the domes.
2. Ice the cake. Place a carrot cake on a turntable, a plate, or a cake stand, with or without a cake board underneath the cake. The cake board gives the cake support, which makes transferring the cake easier.
Place a generous dollop of cream cheese icing on top of of the cake and spread out the icing until even and flat using a straight cake spatula, the back of a butterknife, or even the back of a spoon.
Place another cake on top and repeat this process. Spread the remaining icing on around the side of the cake.
3. Pipe the carrots. Pipe the carrots onto to the cake by squeezing with the bag with a constant force then relaxing right before you pull the bag away. Repeat this process here and there all over the cake. To finish the carrot, pipe the carrot tops. Hold the green icing bag with the "V" sideways. So it'll look like a Pac-Man's mouth. Make sure the tip of the bag is practically touching the top of the carrot, give a light squeeze and immediately release and pull away. Repeat this with all the carrots.
4. Optional - Finish the garnish. Sprinkle chopped pecans around the bottom edge of the cake. This is also perfect to hide any imperfection at the bottom! Optionally, sprinkle some pecan pieces on top and on the sides of the cake.
Storage
The carrot cake can be refrigerated for up to 5 to 7 days if stored in an airtight container.
If you have leftover carrot cake, you can also freeze the carrot cake for up to 2 months. We recommend cutting the cake into your your preferred portion size, place a sheet of parchment between each slice and store in an airtight container for easy removal later. To thaw, simply take out how many slices you want and thaw in the fridge overnight or on the countertop for about 30 minutes.
📖 Recipe
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the carrot cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour fluffed, spooned, and leveled *see notes
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup dark brown sugar packed (light brown sugar is okay too *see notes)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup oil any neutral oil like avocado, canola, and vegetable oil
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoons salt
- 8 ounces carrot peeled and grated with the coarse side of the box grater (8 oz is about 3 cups)
- 1 cup pecan chopped (optional, plus more for garnish if desired)
For the cream cheese icing:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Green and orange food colorings optional
Instructions
Make the carrot cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly grease the cake pans and line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. You can either use three 6 inch round cake pans or two 8 inch round cake pans.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside until needed.
- In a mixing bowl, add both the brown and white sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until everything is well combined and emulsified. Then add the prepared flour mixture gently whisk until just combined and no more dry flour is visible. Next, add the grated carrot and the chopped pecans (if using) and fold everything together with a spatula until just combined.
- Divide the batter evenly amongst the prepared cake pans. and give the pans a gentle shake to level out the batter. Bake the carrots cakes for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean or with only a few crumbs.
- Remove the carrot cakes from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 to 10 minutes on a cooling rack before removing from the cake pans. Use a pairing knife to release the sides of the cake from the pan if needed and flip them out of the pan to cool completely. Once cooled, the cake can be used immediately or wrapped with cling film and refrigerated for up to 5-7 days.
For the cream cheese frosting:
- In a mixing bowl, add the softened cream cheese and butter. Using a hand mixer, mix on medium speed for a few minutes until the mixture is fluffy and pale.
- Add the vanilla extra and powdered sugar and mix on low speed until most of the sugar is incorporated, then increase the speed to medium high and mix for a couple of minutes until well mixed and kind of fluffy again. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.*If your kitchen is hot, the frosting may be too soft to use immediately. You can cover and refrigerate it for a couple of hours to stiffen the icing or you can make the icing the day before and just remove it from the fridge about 1 hour before you plan to ice to cake.*
- Optional for carrot decor:If you wish to pipe carrot icing decorations on the cake, reserve about 1 tablespoon of icing and add enjoy green food color for the carrot tops and about 2 to 3 tablespoons of icing mixed with orange or a mix of yellow and red food color for the carrots. Transfer each colored icing into a piping bag. Optionally, you can fit the piping bags with piping tips. Refrigerated until needed.See the post above for the tips we used and alternative for no tip pipping!
To assemble:
- Peel away the parchment paper on the bottoms of the carrot cakes. If your carrot is domed, and you'd liked a very even and flat cake, level off the cakes by slicing off the dome using a serrated knife or cake leveler.
- Place a cake on a cake stand, plate, or turntable, with or without a cake board. You can use just a sheet of parchment too. Add a generous dollop of icing on top of the cake and spread it out with a cake spatula, the back of a butterknife, or even the back of a spoon until it's even and flat. Stack the next cake on top of the icing and repeat the icing process. Using the remaining icing, cover the sides of the cake. Using the colored icings, pipe tiny carrots all over the cakes. Optional, to finish, sprinkle chopped pecans around the bottom of the cake and some on the cake.
- We recommend refrigerating the cake for a couple of hours so that the icing firms up so that the cake is more stable and easier to cut. The cake can be covered and stored in the fridge for up to 5 to 7 days.
Notes
- 1 recipe of the cream cheese icing is perfect for 1 whole carrot cake. If you like a generous amount of icing on your cake, you can double the icing recipe.
- Fluff, spoon, and level - Using a scale is the most preferred measuring method, especially for baking recipes. This flour measuring technique is the next best alternative. To use this method:
- Fluff up the flour in the bag or the flour canister.
- Spoon the fluffed flour into the measuring cup, without shaking or tapping, until the flour overflows.
- Use a straight-edge, like a the back of a butter knife, to scrape off the excess flour.
- Brown sugar - We recommend using dark brown sugar to give the carrot cake the deepest flavor, but light brown sugar works too.
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