Best Carrot Cake – Christmas 2023 Preparations
Carrot cake is a sweet and moist. Consist of cut carrots and toasted nuts and covered in cream cheese icing. Make sure to try our other recipes for Christmas season as well here.
This is my favorite recipe for carrot cake! It is 100% made from scratch, easy to make, versatile, and utterly delicious. One of our most popular recipes!
To make carrot cake, all the wet ingredients, such as the typical eggs, crushed pineapple and vegetable oil, are mixed together. Then, all the dry ingredients, such as flour, grated carrots, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar, brown sugar are typically then mixed together, and the wet are then added to the dry.
Carrot Cake Ingredients
The ingredients you need for this cake are simple. I bet you have quite a few of them already in your kitchen! The full recipe is below, but here is a quick overview:
I like using all-purpose flour, but you can substitute some of the all-purpose flour for a gluten-free carrot cake. Swap the flour for your favorite gluten-free flour blend.
Baking soda & Baking powder helps the cake to rise.
Salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract make the cake taste amazing.
Oil keeps the cake nice and moist — any neutral-flavored oil will work. (Melted coconut oil works, too, but there will be a light coconut flavor in the baked cake.)
Sugar makes the cake moist, light, and delicious. I love a combination of white and brown sugar, but you can use one or the other. Since posting the recipe, some of our readers have asked whether or not we can reduce the sugar called for in the recipe. You can, just keep in mind that the amount we specify will produce the moistest cake.
Eggs give the cake structure.
Lots of carrots make this the best carrot cake. I like to hand grate my carrots since I prefer the texture. But you can use your food processor or buy pre-grated carrots from the store. You need all three cups. It is a carrot cake, after all.
Pecans and raisins are optional! I know that some people love nuts in carrot cake, while others cannot stand to add them. These are completely optional, so go with what you love.
Making the Cake Batter
The method for this carrot cake recipe could not be simpler! If you have a couple of bowls and can stir ingredients together then you can absolutely make this cake! As you can see from our recipe video, all you need to do is combine all the ingredients. Here’s how I like to do it:
- Dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another: I like to whisk my dry ingredients together until they are well blended. Then I whisk all the wet ingredients together in another bowl.
- Fold the dry and wet ingredients together: I change my whisk to the batter beater to mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Then I switch to a rubber spatula or large spoon and fold the two — wet and dry ingredients — together until I don’t see any large streaks of flour.
- Add carrots and nuts: When I’ve got the batter ready, I fold in the carrots, and if I’m using them, the nuts.
- Baking the Carrot Cake:
- When it comes to baking the carrot cake, divide the batter between two buttered bake until done. The cake layers bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes (they smell fantastic). After baking, let the layers cool then frost with your favorite frosting.
Frosting the carrot cake
We love our extra creamy cream cheese frosting. It’s soft and creamy and doesn’t firm up like some cake frostings.
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
- Heavy cream
If you’re not into frostings or if you don’t have the ingredients on hand, try the cake as-is without any frosting at all. Or sift a little bit of powdered sugar on top.
Can I make one large single-layer cake?
Yes, but the baking time will change. For a bundt cake, a 10-cup or 12-cup Bundt pan should be fine. You will likely need to increase the baking time by about 30% in the 10-cup pan, somewhat less in the 12-cup. The batter will also fit into a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, but you might need to leave out a bit of the batter, so it does not overflow. (I’d also bake the cake on a sheet pan, just in case some batter comes over the sides.)
How do you store the carrot cake? Technically, because there is a cream cheese frosting on the cake, it should be kept in the fridge, but most bakers (even professional ones) are okay with leaving a frosted cake on the counter for a day or two (as long as your kitchen isn’t hot). If you prefer to refrigerate the cake, it will last for 5 to 6 days.
CARROT CAKE
Ingredients
- 2 cups Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 3 ml Vanilla
- 375 ml Vegetable Oil
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 2 tsp Baking soda
- 2 tsp Cinnemon
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Salt
- 750 ml Grated Carrots Finely Grated
- 1 cup Coconut
- 1 cup Pecannuts Finely Chopped
- 1 can Crushed Pineapple
- FROSTING:
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter 125gr
- 2 cups Powered Sugar 500gr
- 1 cup Cream Cheese 250gr
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 ̊F (180 ̊C). Grease 3 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pans and line with parchment paper.
- Grate carrots on the small holes of a box grater and set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnemon, nutmeg, salt. Whisk together.
- In a separate large bowl, beat the sugar, vanilla and eggs together with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until light yellow colour.
- With the mixer running, gradually pour in the vegetable oil.
- With the mixer on medium-low speed, add ⅓ of the flour mixture at a time to the wet ingredients. Beat just to incorporate. Stop mixing when there is just a small amount of flour visible.
- Add the grated carrots, nuts, coconut and pineapple to the batter and fold to incorporate with a rubber spatula.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the prepared pans and smooth the tops
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a fork inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean.
- Cool the cakes on a wire rack until the pans are cool to the touch. Remove the cakes from the pans and let cool completely on the rack.
ICING:
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla with an electric hand mixer on medium-low speed. Once combined, mix on medium-high speed for 30 seconds, until light and fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar, ½ cup (60 G) at a time, beating on medium-low speed to incorporate each addition.
- Place 1 cake layer on a serving platter or cake stand. Spoon ¼ of the icing on top and spread in an even layer. Add another layer of cake and spread with another ¼ of the icing. Set the last cake layer on top with the bottom up to ensure a very flat surface. Spread the rest of the icing over the top and sides.
- Gently press the walnuts into the icing around the sides of the cake.
- Chill for 30-60 minutes to let the icing set, then slice and serve.