Everyone should have an easy, moist, and delicious simple carrot cake recipe you can make when the urge strikes. This classic carrot cake is just that and it is perfect for all occasions.
This is my absolute favorite recipe for carrot cake and one that I have been making for years! It is one of those passed down family recipes and it always comes out amazing.
This recipe is an old-fashioned recipe with no pineapples, raisins, or nuts and it has a delicious cream cheese frosting and a wonderful moist crumb. If you grew up eating carrot cake, you know how amazing it tastes, and we can all agree that cream cheese frosting makes it.
This cake is moist and fluffy with the perfect texture and it is 100 percent kid-approved and reader-approved. In fact, it has been made for weddings, kid's birthdays, and holiday events.
It is also quick to make and the flavor is like a sugar cake of heavenly goodness with the carrots blending right into the batter.
I will walk you through all the steps to make the best carrot cake that everyone will love!
What You Will Need
Carrot Cake
- Whole carrots (not pre-shredded). Shredding your own carrots is so important. Don't buy pre-shredded.
- Eggs. I always use large eggs for baking.
- Oil. There is no butter in this cake recipe, just oil and it makes the cake amazing and moist. I like to use lightly flavored vegetable oil.
- Sugar. Granulated sugar is fine here. If you want a little extra richness, you can add a little brown sugar in place of the regular sugar.
- All-purpose flour. Try to find unbleached flour if you can.
- Walnuts (optional) for the topping only. Depending on how classic you want, you can add these or leave them out.
- Vanilla Extract. Look for a high-quality extract. Pure vanilla extract works best.
- Cinnamon. Ground cinnamon and carrots are a favorite pairing.
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
Pro-Tip:
Make sure your baking soda and baking powder are fresh. If it has been sitting in the pantry for a while it may not be good anymore and you should invest in new ones.
Cream cheese frosting
- Room temperature cream cheese. You can bring the cream cheese to room temperature by placing it on the counter about 1 hour before you use it.
- Room temperature unsalted butter. Same as the cream cheese above, place it on the counter about 1 hour before you are ready to use it.
- Powdered sugar. When making the frosting, I like to sift the powdered sugar to make sure there are no lumps. This is totally up to you.
- Vanilla extract.
How To Make Carrot Cake
You only need one bowl. Just follow all of the steps below and you will be rewarded with an amazing cake.
- Prepare 3 - 8 inch cake pans (or 2- 9 inch cake pans). For this three-layer carrot cake, you want to make sure to oil and prep those cake pans! The better your cake pans are prepared, the easier the carrot cake will be to remove from the cake pans after baking.
- Whisk dry ingredients: into a large bowl. This is the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. This allows the dry ingredients in the carrot cake to be well incorporated before adding in the other ingredients.
- Add wet ingredients: and stir it all together. I like to use large eggs when making this recipe. I use a handheld mixer for this part but you could use a whisk or stand mixer.
- Shred your carrots: on the fine side of a grater and then add that right into your batter. You want to shred your own carrots since it will add more moisture to the cake. I like to shred my carrots with a box grater and use the fine shred side. I find that the coarse shred side is just too thick and it leaves large shreds in the batter.
- Combine shredded carrots with the batter: and mix until just incorporated.
- Pour: Pour the batter into the cake pans making sure there is an even amount in all of them.
- Bake: Place the cake into a pre-heated 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes.
- Cool: Allow the cake to cool for about 15 minutes before adding the cream cheese frosting.
- Frost: I used the naked cake frosting method for this cake. Lots of my cakes like my Moist Chocolate Cake, Basil Cake, or Vanilla Almond Cake, I have lots of workarounds to compensate for my lack of decorating skills 🙂
As you can see it all works out even with limited decorating. The beautiful part of this cake is when you slice through it and see those beautiful layers!
Look at the closeup (below) of one of the slices of carrot cake! Those layers are why I love using three 8-inch cake pans instead of 2 9-inch pans.
Variations
- Add Nuts: If you love pecans or walnuts, you can certainly add them right into the batter if you prefer.
- Add raisins: The same as the nuts, just add them right into the batter.
- Make it into cupcakes: You can easily make this into cupcakes. You can also make this into mini carrot cake cupcakes.
FAQS
Carrot cake is fine left out for the first day it is made but after that, it is best to store it in the fridge since it is made with dairy.
Oil is always preferred when making carrot cake because it helps to keep the cake moist.
You will know when the cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (without any crumbs on it).
A neutral flavored oil like vegetable oil is best for baking carrot cake.
Storing
I like to make this cake ahead of time and store it with parchment paper between the layers until I am ready to frost it.
Once the cake is frosted, it will store well on the counter loosely covered or under a cake dome for one day. After that, I like to refrigerate it to keep it fresh for up to one week. Make sure the cake is covered when you refrigerate it to prevent it from drying out.
What to serve with this
I love serving this classic carrot cake during the holidays. Here are some ideas:
More Delicious Cake Recipes
If you love this recipe, you may also love these:
Easy Carrot Cake Recipe
Equipment
- 3 8 inch round cake pans or 2 (9 inch round pans)
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 cups finely grated carrots About 1 pound. Make sure to use the fine side of a box grater (see post for picture).
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ⅓ cup vegetable oil (that is one cup plus ⅓ cup)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt if using regular salt, just use half the amount
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 ounces softened cream cheese room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Topping
- 1 cup toasted walnut halves
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to to 350 degrees
- Add all your dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix well2 cups unbleached all purpose flour, 2 cups granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- Now add your vegetable oil and vanilla to your dry ingredients and mix it all in.1 ⅓ cup vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Next beat in your eggs one at a time into the mixture.4 large eggs
- Grate your carrots. See post for how to finely grate the carrots. I like to grate a bunch of carrots (usually about 4 large ones) and then scoop that into a measuring cup to measure out the 3 cups. You do not press the shredded carrots into the measuring cup when measuring.3 cups finely grated carrots
- Now add your 3 cups freshly grated carrots to the batter and gently mix it in until incorporated.
- Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 8" round cake pans - try to make each pan have the same amount of batter.
- Bake for approximately 30- 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cakes. If you are using 9 inch cake pans then add a few more minutes. It will be ready when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Take pans out of oven and let the cakes sit in pans on cooling racks to cool for approx. 5 minutes.
- Then turn out cakes carefully & let cool completely on the racks.
- Once cooled you can frost your cakes right way or store them with parchment paper in between the layers if you are making the cake a day ahead of time.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a medium bowl add your softened cream cheese, room temperature butter, powdered sugar and vanilla16 ounces softened cream cheese, ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Mix on medium speed for about 2-3 minutes until it is all light and fluffy
Frosting the cake
- Take ¼ of the frosting and place on one layer of the cake. Spread evenly over the cake with an offset spatula or knife.
- Place the second layer of your carrot cake evenly on top of the frosting.
- Repeat the step above with ¼ of the frosting and spreading it evenly over the cake.
- Now add your third layer of cake on top.
- Add the remaining frosting to the top of the cake.
- Gently spread the frosting over the top of cake working from the middle out to the edges.
- Gently push the extra frosting from the top of the cake over on to the sides.
- Frost the sides of the cake until all the sides are covered in frosting, being careful not to drag the cake itself into the frosting.
- Once the sides are all frosted, gently scrape away a little of the frosting from sides until you can start to see the carrot cake.
- Touch up any imperfect frosting areas on your cake.
- Now add your toasted walnuts to the center of your cake.1 cup toasted walnut halves
- Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
See full nutrition disclaimer hereTried the Recipe? We Would Love To Hear From You In The Comments Below!
Alma Sorokes says
I making this for Easter ! I have a recipe I’ve used for years , but I think it too dense , so moist and fluffy caught my eye ! Could I bake this in the traditional 9x13 cake pan ?
Melissa says
Hi Alma. You can use that style cake pan but you will need to adjust the cooking time. I would add time and check doneness with a toothpick in the center. One of my readers on pinterest did this and she baked it for 40 minutes with great results.
Alma Sorokes says
Hi Melissa ,
Thanks so much for getting back to me!
Melissa says
you're welcome! hope you enjoy the cake