There is just something about carrot cake that makes us love it so much. It is one of my favorite cakes! It has such a unique taste and texture that I’ve not seen in any other dessert. Of course, the perfect carrot cake has to be moist, sweet, tender, and soft. Follow this recipe to achieve that! Carrot cake will make a great birthday cake, as well as a regular dessert. You can eat it for breakfast with your coffee or serve it after a meal. You can also make it in the form of cupcakes and it’ll still be delicious.
How to make Carrot Cake?
Preheat the oven.
Whisk your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a mixing bowl.
Use an electric mixer to blend your sugar with your eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
Add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix.
Add in your carrots and mix.
Pour the resulting batter in two different pans.
Bake until cooked.
While the batter is baking, you can make the frosting by combining butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.
Once the batter is out of the oven, let it cool completely before frosting it.
Can I add nuts to carrot cake?
You can and you should! Unless, of course, you have a nut allergy. If nuts are safe for you to eat, I recommend adding some pecans to the batter or outside of the cake. You can use them as a decoration if you don’t want to have nuts in every bite.
How do you store carrot cake?
You can store carrot cake in the fridge, as you would any other cake. If you have a cake carrier, that’s perfect! This way the cake won’t dry out. Let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving. If you like your cake cold, you can eat it straight out of the fridge.
How long can I keep carrot cake in the fridge?
Your carrot cake will last for up to 5 days in the fridge. I wouldn’t recommend eating it after 5 days, as the frosting can start to go bad. If you haven’t frosted the cake yet, the layers will last a little longer.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (283g) all-purpose flour (scoop and level to measure)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup (175ml) vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (130g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar (break up any clumps)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups (348g) finely grated carrots**
- 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
- 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting HERE (use amounts listed in notes there for a 2 layer cake)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Butter two 9" round cake pans, line with parchment paper, butter parchment paper, dust parchment paper with flour, shake out excess.* Line pans with water soaked cake strips if you have them.
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In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
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In a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer blend together vegetable oil, applesauce, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.
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Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Mix in grated carrots just to evenly distribute. Divide mixture evenly into 2 prepared cake pans.
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Bake in preheat oven for 33 - 38 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
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Remove from oven and allow to cool 10 minutes in cake pan, then run a knife around edges of cakes and invert into a wire rack to cool completely.
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Frost cakes then finish with chopped pecans if using. Store cake in airtight container in refrigerator.
Nutrition
*This cake can also be made in a 9x13 dish just increase baking time to 40 - 50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, or recipe can be halved and baked in an 8x8 dish or just 1 (9-inch) round pan (bake time should be the same). **I grate on the small holes of a box grater. Nutrition estimate does not include pecans as they are optional, cream cheese frosting is included.