This is hands down the best carrot cake recipe I’ve ever made. It’s easy, made from scratch, wonderfully moist in the middle, has the creamiest cream cheese frosting, and is absolutely delicious!
The moment I tried this carrot cake recipe, I was hooked! The ingredient list is simple, and they come together to make such a delicious, moist, perfectly spiced cake. I bet you already have most of what you need to make this recipe in your kitchen.
Our readers love this recipe! They have said this carrot cake is “the best they’ve made,” “absolutely perfect,” and rave that it’s “always a hit!” It’s truly one of our favorite cake recipes. For more, see our carrot cake cupcakes, easy chocolate cake, or this banana cake!
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour, but this recipe works with spelt flour or your favorite gluten-free flour blend for a gluten-free carrot cake.
- Baking soda: This helps our cake rise. We don’t add baking powder (this cake recipe does not need it). Check that your baking soda has not been open for longer than 6 months (it loses its potency after that).
- Sugar: This makes our cake moist and delicious. I love a combination of white and brown sugar. If you only want to use one, choose brown sugar since it has the necessary acid to react with the baking soda.
- Oil: The secret to keeping our cake so deliciously moist. I’ve used avocado oil, safflower oil, and vegetable oil with great results. Melted coconut oil works, too, but the baked cake will have a light coconut flavor and may be slightly more oily once baked.
- Salt, Cinnamon, and Vanilla: These make our cake taste amazing, resulting in a lightly spiced cake.
- Eggs: This cake calls for 4 eggs, which add flavor, moisture, and give the cake structure. I do not recommend using an egg replacer for this recipe.
- Carrots: Three cups of freshly grated carrots make this the best carrot cake! If you’re making the recipe and start to second-guess the number of carrots, don’t. You need all three cups. It is a carrot cake, after all.
- Pecans and Raisins: These add texture, but they are optional. Reading through the comment section, it is clear that some people love the nuts and raisins, while others cannot stand them. I love them, but add what you love!
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make My Favorite Carrot Cake
The method for this cake reminds me of making our pancake recipe, banana bread, or favorite blueberry muffins. If you have a couple of bowls and can stir ingredients together, you can make this easy cake!
Tip 1: Whisk your dry ingredients really well. This is a really important step. We want our baking soda to be well mixed throughout the flour; otherwise, you might have little pockets of it in your baked cake, which don’t taste very good (they can also turn your carrots green). So, use a whisk to really mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon before adding any of the wet ingredients.
Tip 2: Add carrots, nuts, and raisins for texture. Watch our video to see the incredible texture that raisins and nuts add to this cake. I realize not everyone loves them, so if that’s you, feel free to leave them out. Otherwise, keep them in for the best texture.
Tip 3: How to tell when carrot cake is done. The recipe below makes enough batter for two cake layers. To bake your cake, divide the batter evenly between two baking pans and bake in a preheated 350°F oven. Then, to tell when they are ready to come out of the oven, the top should spring back when very lightly touched in the center. If you leave a dent in the cake, it needs more time in the oven to finish baking.
Tip 4: Cool completely before frosting. If you frost the cake before it is 100% cooled, you risk your cream cheese frosting melting and sliding off. I like to cool the layers in the pans for 15 minutes and then turn the layers onto a cooling rack to cool completely. To speed this up, let them cool on the counter for 30 minutes, then transfer to the fridge.
My Favorite Cream Cheese Frosting
The cream cheese frosting shared below reminds me of softly whipped cream. It’s light, creamy, and swoopy. I highly recommend it, but if you want a firmer, more American-style cream cheese frosting that you can pipe onto the cake, see the tips section of the recipe for my recommendations. Or, take a look at our banana cake recipe, which has more of a traditional frosting.
I love the soft whipped frosting. You will need cream cheese, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and heavy cream. Watch our video to see how light, swoopy, and creamy it becomes! I also use it for this Guinness chocolate cake.
More Cake Recipes
Easy Carrot Cake
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is the best carrot cake recipe I’ve made. We prefer to use a hand grater when preparing the carrots since it creates delicate shreds that melt into the cake batter. We like using granulated and brown sugar in this recipe. If you only want to use one, choose brown sugar since it has the necessary acid to react with the baking soda. For cupcakes, see our carrot cake cupcakes recipe.
Frosting: Our creamy frosting recipe shared below is not a traditional cream cheese frosting. Thanks to whipped cream, it’s creamier and has soft peaks (you can see it in our video). See the tips section below for a more traditional frosting.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For Carrot Cake2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled (260g)
2 teaspoons baking soda, important to level the teaspoon, see tips
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil (295ml)
1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar (190g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups grated peeled carrots, 5 to 6 medium carrots (300g)
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (120g)
½ cup raisins (70g)
For Creamy Frosting8 ounces block cream cheese, at room temperature (225g)
2 teaspoons cornstarch, optional
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar (140g)
⅓ cup cold heavy cream, not plain whipping cream, see tips (80ml)
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans, for topping cake (50g)
Directions
- Bake Cake
1Heat oven and prepare pans: Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottom with parchment paper, and then grease the top. Or grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.
2Prepare dry ingredients: Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl until very well blended.
3Prepare wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each one.
4Make the batter: Switch to a large rubber spatula. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the dry ingredients in three parts, gently stirring until they disappear and the batter is smooth. Stir in the carrots, nuts, and raisins.
5Bake cake layers: Divide the cake batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until the tops of the cake layers are springy when touched and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes.
6Cool them: Remove the cakes from the oven, and leave them in the pans for 15 minutes, then carefully turn the cake layers out onto cooling racks. Remove the parchment paper and cool completely before frosting. If you find that a cake layer is sticking to the bottom of the pan, leave the cake pan upside down and allow gravity to do its thing.
- Frost Cake
1Prep dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together the cornstarch and powdered sugar. Set this aside.
2Beat cream cheese: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with a handheld mixer on medium speed until very smooth, whipped, and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.
3Combine ingredients: With the mixer on low speed, add the cornstarch and powdered sugar to the cream cheese, a heaped spoonful at a time, until thoroughly combined.
4Add the cream: Pour in the cold heavy cream. Beat on medium to medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until the frosting is whipped and creamy. If it is not whipping, chill in the fridge for 15 minutes, and try again. This frosting resembles the texture of whipped cream. Chill covered until ready to frost the cake.
5Assemble the cake: When the cake layers are completely cool, frost the top of one cake layer and place the second cake layer on top. Add the remaining frosting to the top of the cake and use a butter knife or small spatula to swirl the frosting around. Leave the sides of the cake unfrosted. Finish with a handful of nuts on top.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Frosted carrot cake lasts in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. I keep it covered with plastic wrap, use a cake keeper, or place a large bowl upside down over the cake. I do not recommend freezing frosted carrot cake (the frosting does not thaw well). You can refrigerate unfrosted cake layers for up to 5 days or freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before adding your frosting.
- Measuring the flour: Either weigh it or use the “spoon and level” method: Fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, then level off the top with a flat edge. See our video for a demonstration.
- Baking soda: When measuring, dip your spoon into the container, then level it off using the straight edge of one of your other spoons. For the best results, use fresh baking soda (it loses its potency after being opened for 6 months).
- Traditional cream cheese frosting: In a large bowl, beat 16 ounces of cream cheese and ½ cup of softened butter together for a minute or two until smooth. Add 4 ½ cups of powdered sugar, 1 ¼ teaspoons of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes until extra creamy. If it is too thick, add 1 tablespoon of cream or milk.
- How to make carrot cake cupcakes: This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. Bake them for 14 to 18 minutes and allow to cool in the cupcake pan before cooling completely on a wire rack. You may also like this recipe for carrot cake cupcakes.
- To make a large single-layer cake, add all the batter to a 9×13-inch rectangular pan and bake. The bake time may be slightly longer. A 10-cup or 12-cup bundt pan should also work, but expect the bake time to increase by 30%.
- Adding pineapple: I like fresh chopped pineapple or drained canned pineapple. Do not add more than 1 cup.
- Heavy cream (US bakers): Heavy cream has more milk fat (about 36%), while whipping cream has less (around 30%). Use “heavy cream” or “heavy whipping cream.” Plain “whipping cream” does not whip as well and can cause your frosting to be too soft. If you only have whipping cream or cream with less than 35% fat content: If you only have whipping cream or are unsure what you have in your kitchen, whisk it in a separate bowl until soft peaks. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the whipped cream to the beaten cream cheese mixture and combine to loosen. Then, fold in the remaining whipped cream.
- UK & Australia bakers: Use plain flour for the batter and “double cream” or “thickened cream” with at least 35% fat content for the creamy frosting.
- Recipe inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s cupcakes recipe.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
I have been making this cake for my daughter’s birthday for years!!!! She’s got another one coming up and guess which cake she asked for?? ONLY this one!!!!!! I have a very worn out printed directions that I had to just reprint again today because it was so well loved! 😂❤️ You are a part of our family’s traditions!!! I need to leave the nuts out this year and hope it doesn’t mess up the recipe! ❤️
Awww…this is one of the sweetest comments we have ever received ❤️ Leaving the nuts out won’t ruin the recipe. Have a great time at your daughter’s birthday 🙂
Absolutely agree- it’s the best carrot cake we’ve ever had! I used our go-to Grapeseed Oil, and since we were out of raisins I used your suggestion with a can of pineapple chunks, chopped them and squeezed out some of the moisture and used 1/2 cup of that. Lovely added taste! The pecans are superior (rather than the usual walnuts) and we thought the cinnamon-only was perfect. I baked it in a 9×13 pan at 325F on convection setting and tested it at 30 minutes which was just right and it rose nicely. Your baking soda advice is important. Ours was purchased 2 months ago and still fresh, now stored in a vacuum sealed container. REGARDS TO THE FROSTING: At last a recipe that is not sickeningly sweet!! Compare the standard recipe of 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar to 1 1/2 cups in your recipe, and yet it’s still sweet enough. I made this and my spouse, a lifelong fan of traditional carrot cake, thought this was the best he’d ever had and surprisingly loved the lighter frosting. We cut our cake in half and froze it for some weeks later – worked well. We stored the frosting in the fridge with plastic wrap over the top and in a sealed container. It kept well for the 10 days we used it. I’m sharing your recipe with friends and family – MANY THANKS!
lovely recipe. the tips were helpful. thanks!
Can this recipe be used for a 3tier 6 inch cake? If so, how long should I bake for?
Hi Sara, I am sure that it can, but we have not done this ourselves. The baking time will be slightly less.
Really good cake but too much oil for me. Would for sure remake it but cut back at least half of the oil used.
Hi Peggy, We have had success reducing he oil by 25%.
I’ve been making this recipe for years and it’s still my go too. So easy and everyone loves it.
I made this for my husband tonight, and it was delicious. Very easy, very moist, and love that it is from scratch. He praised it to no end.
Yay! 🙂
Hi. Is it possible to substitute any of the oil with applesauce? I usually replace half but am making this for a special birthday and don’t want to risk ruining it. Thanks!
Hi Dianne, We have reduced the sugar before (by 25%) and had great results. I have not used applesauce, though. That said, many of our readers have (scroll through comments to see). I’ve seen them use up to 1 cup of applesauce. I might not be that generous and stay closer to 1/2 cup applesauce to replace 1/2 cup pf the oil, but you can experiment to see what works best for you.
can i substitute the oil with butter? if can, do i need to reduce or add the amount?
Hi Luna, I believe others have done this in the comments. I have only used oil for this cake.
absolutely amazing recipe.the cake came out incredibly moist I’d eat it whole in one sitting if i could
Best ever carrot cake recipe! My family absolutely love it! Need to make a 12in bottom tier one for my daughters wedding cake? Would you suggest doubling the recipe. Thanks
Hi Sarah, I’ve not tested this cake in such a large pan before, but I’d bet that one batch of the batter will work for that larger size pan. Since this is for a wedding, you might want to test it first before the big day.
Best carrot cake recipe ever! I make this recipe every year for my mom’s birthday and every year it is a hit (not to mention highly anticipated). This cake is, as the title suggests, super moist and the cream cheese frosting is perfectly sweet–not too sugary. I exclude the raisins and walnuts but either way, this cake is delicious and I highly recommend! One small note: I do have to bake the cake for longer than the quoted 35-45 minutes. This is probably just due to oven variability but just something to keep in mind.
Can this recipe be used for muffins or isn’t best as cupcakes.
Hi Marilynne, you can make the carrot cake cupcakes and simply leave off the frosting.
I love this recipe so much! The frosting is perfect and the cake is delicious. I’ve never seen a cake batter so thick so I was concerned at first, but when it came out of the oven it was so perfect.
Wow, made the carrot cake today for my daughters birthday, a total winner. It’s been great to find another good recipe to keep forever. I’m looking forward to many more birthdays to make many more CARROT CAKES.
2nd time bake. This has become favorite and way easier, and dare I say never fail recipe to the very involved and too much time in prep that I first learnt 100 yrs ago. Even my grandson wants to try it out, (he grates and measures just now) wants to bake solo. My neighbors luv it to. Cheers 🖖👍
My cakes looked flatter than the ones you show in the video. I measured everything very carefully. Even the pan in the video looks bigger than mine. They are standard 9 inch wilton pans. Also my stove is spot on and I added a few more minutes over minimum time but the edges of my cakes are a bit harder than I like. Suggestions? I enjoyed making it and will try again. My husband will eat it later. I’m on a diet.
Delicious. I made 3 layers, cut down on baking time and used the,original icing recipe (16 oz. Of cream cheese) however I cut back a little on the confectioners sugar.
One of the best I’ve had
This looks so straightforward and sounds absolutely delicious! I noticed avocado oil is mentioned as an appropriate oil to use. That sounds great as I’m trying to avoid seed oils. Just double checking that you’ve actually made it with avocado oil with no detrimental effects to the taste. Thanks SO much for such a great recipe and instructions!
Can i use this recipe to make cupcakes?
Hi Lisa, You can. We do here: carrot cake cupcakes.
This cake was definitely moist which I loved. I added 3/4 cup chopped pineapple in place of nuts. BUT it needs more spices! The flavor was flat. Needs GINGER, cardamom, nutmeg, maybe a dash of cloves. Just cinnamon doen’t cut it. I will add those next time for sure. Other than that cake was good.
Hi Sarah, We use more spices when making our carrot cake cupcakes. You might want to check that spice blend out for next time.
Wow, this cake is amazingly good. I picked the recipe because it said it was easy and it used 3 cups of carrots, which was great as I was trying to use up a big bag of carrot. What a pleasant surprise to find the cake was do moist and tasty! I made mine in a 9×13 pan and it turnedbout great, baked it for 40 min. I didn’t even make the frosting because the cake was so good without it ! This will be my go to recipe for carrot cake! Thanks for sharing it.
Hi! Does this recipe need to have raisins in it? Should I substitute it for something or can I just leave them out? Same goes for the pecans! Lovely recipe!!
You can leave the raisins and nuts out without any other changes.
This is by far the most delicious carrot cake I’ve ever made and eaten! Easy to make, the taste and texture is perfect. It has become a family favourite. I halve the ingredients, bake in a 9″ tin, then cut it in half vertically, plop one half on top of the other with frosting in the middle and on top. A little sprinkle of lemon rind tops it off beautifully. Yummy…
Great recipe! I did make some changes according to my preferences. I don’t like cake layers to be too thick so I made two 8 inch round cakes ( inch of batter) and a dozen muffins. I reduced baking time to 25 min and they turned out great. It’s just two of us living here so I had to choose the traditional icing so I could freeze portions to eat later. Thanks for the heads up that the other frosting would not freeze/ thaw well. I cut the ingredients in half for traditional icing and there was plenty of icing for between cake layers, top and sides of cake plus enough to icing all 12 muffins. I will make this again. Thanks!
Haven’t made this carrot cake yet but just wondering I have a gas oven. What temperature do you cook it in the gas oven? Because it always seems too hot for my cakes when I put it on temperatures that it says thank you.
Hi Melody, The oven temp should not change for a gas oven unless yours is convection (fan-forced). In that case, consider reducing the temp by 25 degrees F.
Ingredients show using 8 oz of cream cheese and the directions show 16 oz. Which one?
Hi Lisa, It depends on whether you are making the creamy frosting (shown in our photos or video) or the alternate frosting offered in the tips section, which is more of a traditional American-style frosting. The ingredients and directions in the recipe are referring to the creamy frosting.
I’ve been making this for the past 2 years and just realized I have yet to make a review. This was the first cake from scratch I’ve ever made, and its been a hit every time. I usually lower the sugar content by 50-80g and find that it doesn’t make much difference in cake texture. It’s really easy to make and both the cake and cream cheese icing are, respectively, moist and creamy and so good!
Thanks for the tip about the sugar and we are so happy you enjoy the recipe enough to make it repeatedly!
I make this with gluten free 1 to 1 and it turns out great. Thank you
Can I replace the vegetable oil with sunflower oil?
Yes.
What abt butter?
Some of our readers have used butter, but I have only used oil in this recipe.
The best carrot cake ever brang it to a party and gone within 30 minutes!
This cake was great. Made it for my birthday/ Easter and got a request to make it for sister birthday this weekend
Best recipe ever, however, id like to ask how many mls are your measurement cups? Because my measuring cup is 300ml per one cup.
Hi Manny, I double checked and the ml amounts provided are correct.
The worst carrot cake recipe. Too much olive oil! It turned out so bad.
Hi there, we do not call for olive oil in this cake. Olive oil has a distinct flavor, which will come through. Instead our recipe suggests a neutral-flavored oil (like vegetable or safflower oil).
This is the best cake I’ve ever baked.I baked it on my son’s birthday and my family loved it.