Favorite Carrot Cake
This carrot cake recipe will become your new favorite! This moist and delicious carrot cake is so easy to make from scratch. It's the best!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Finally! Meet my tested and perfected carrot cake recipe. I’ve been working on this carrot cake for a long time, and I’m so happy to report that I’ve finally nailed it.
I was hoping to publish the recipe in time for Valentine’s Day, then Mother’s Day. Here we are, just in time for Father’s Day and your summer birthdays! I hope you have a carrot cake lover in your life, because this cake will make him or her very happy.
This homemade carrot cake would be perfect for any celebratory occasion. It’s exactly what I want my carrot cake to be: delicious and moist, gently spiced with cinnamon and ginger, infused with flecks of fresh carrots, and covered in luscious cream cheese frosting. It’s the best.
This cake is also simple to make from scratch with wholesome ingredients. You can easily make it in an afternoon, with plenty of time to kill while the cake cools.
I’m often intimidated by layer cakes, so if I can make this cake, I know you can, too. Ready?!
Why You’ll Love This Carrot Cake
This carrot cake recipe is my favorite for several reasons:
1) This cake is incredibly delicious and moist.
The cake is nice and tender inside. The carrots are the star of the show, so you won’t find raisins, pineapple or applesauce here. Freshly toasted, chopped pecans are optional, but I love them. Sweet-and-tangy cream cheese frosting makes this cake utterly irresistible.
2) This cake is sweet, but not too sweet.
Some carrot cakes are overwhelmingly sweet with giant layers of frosting, and I can only stomach a bite or two. On the other hand, some “healthy” cakes are dry and disappointing, with a meager spread of frosting. This cake is just right—it’s sweet and tastes like a true treat.
3) This carrot cake is simple and easy to make.
No stand mixer required! You’ll just whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another, and stir to combine. It doesn’t get easier than that.
4) This cake is made with wholesome ingredients, but no one will know it.
The recipe calls for whole wheat flour rather than all-purpose (although, you can use all-purpose if that’s what you have). Instead of refined vegetable oil, it calls for mild extra-virgin olive oil, which yields a wonderfully moist cake without any funny flavors. Lastly, it calls for maple syrup or honey instead of cups of granulated sugar.
5) This recipe is versatile.
You can leave out the nuts if you don’t like them. You can make this cake dairy free or gluten free. You can turn it into cupcakes. See the recipe notes for all the details!
Watch How to Make Carrot Cake
Carrot Cake Tips
For the best carrot flavor, choose skinny to medium-sized carrots and peel them before grating. Large carrots don’t taste as nice, and sometimes the outer carrot skin can taste bitter.
The easiest way to grate your carrots is a the food processor. Use the grating attachment, and your carrots will be grated in no time! Otherwise, you can grate the carrots by hand. Don’t buy carrot matchsticks from the store; they’re too thick and will yield crunchy cake.
Don’t overmix. This cake is easy to make by stirring the ingredients together by hand. If you overmix the batter, you risk ending up with dense, tough cake. Make it as directed and you will be rewarded with gloriously tender cake!
Don’t forget to grease your pans. Otherwise, your cake might stick! For extra insurance, use my favorite round baking pans (affiliate link), which have a non-toxic, non-stick silicone lining.
Let the cake cool completely before frosting. I know, it’s tempting to frost this cake when it’s warm, but don’t do it. If you do, your cake won’t be structurally sound, and the frosting might melt off.
Looking for more naturally sweetened treats? Here are a few of my favorites:
- Healthy Carrot Muffins
- Gluten-Free Apple Crisp
- Naturally Sweetened Pecan Pie
- Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Favorite Banana Cake
Please let me know how your cake turns out in the comments! I hope it becomes your new favorite carrot cake.
Favorite Carrot Cake
This carrot cake recipe will become your new favorite! This moist and delicious carrot cake is easy to make with basic, wholesome ingredients. It’s the best! Recipe yields one double-layer 9″ cake.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ pounds peeled and grated carrots* (about 4 cups)
- 1 cup raw pecan or walnut halves
- ¾ cup mild extra-virgin olive oil** or melted coconut oil
- 1 ¼ cups maple syrup or honey
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 4 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Double batch classic cream cheese frosting or naturally sweetened cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease two 9″ round cake pans. If you’re making classic cream cheese frosting, don’t forget to pull the cream cheese and butter out of the fridge so they can warm to room temperature.
- Toast the pecans on a rimmed baking sheet in the preheated oven until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Once they’re cool enough to handle, transfer them to a cutting board and chop them into small pieces. Reserve a couple tablespoons chopped pecans for garnishing the cake, if desired. We’ll stir the rest into the dry mixture in the following step.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine both flours, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Stir until blended. Add the grated carrots and chopped pecans, and stir to combine.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil, maple syrup, milk, eggs and vanilla extract. Whisk until fully blended.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix with a big spoon, just until combined (a few lumps are ok). Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans and spread the batter in an even layer on top.
- Bake the cakes on the middle rack for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the center of the cakes is springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place the baked cakes on a cooling rack and let them cool completely before frosting.
- When you’re ready to assemble, prepare the frosting as directed. Carefully invert the cakes to release them from their pans. Frost the top of one cake with about one-third of the frosting. Place the second cake on top, and frost the top with another one-third of the frosting. Finish by frosting around the side of the cake with the remaining frosting. If desired, sprinkle the reserved chopped pecans on top.
- When you’re ready to serve, use a sharp chef’s knife to carefully cut the cake into slices. The cake will keep at room temperature for the rest of the day, and for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Notes
Recipe adapted from the easy carrot cake in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 208).
*Carrot tips: Skinny-to-medium carrots (not large) offer the best carrot flavor. The easiest way to grate your carrots is in a food processor with the grating attachment. You can also grate them by hand, on the medium holes of a box grater. Don’t use store-bought matchstick carrots; they’re way too thick and will make your cake crunchy.
**Olive oil note: I recommend California Olive Ranch Everyday for this recipe. It’s an affordable, high quality olive oil that you can find at most grocery stores, and the flavor is so mild that you will not detect it in the finished product.
Flour substitutions: If desired, you can make this cake with a total of 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour.
Make it gluten free: Substitute your favorite all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
Make it nut free: Simply omit the pecans.
Make it dairy free: Use a non-dairy milk (I’ve confirmed that almond milk and oat milk work in this recipe). Use a dairy-free cream cheese frosting (I haven’t come up with one yet).
Make it naturally sweetened: The cake itself is naturally sweetened with maple syrup or honey. Top the cake with my date-sweetened cream cheese frosting for a cake free of refined sugar.
Egg note: I’m sorry to report that this is not a candidate for egg-free baking. I’ve tried this recipe with flax eggs in place of the real eggs, and they did not provide enough lift to counteract the weight of the carrots.
Pan size notes: You could make these cakes in 9″ square baking pans, no adjustments needed. You can also cut the recipe in half to make one 9″ round or square cake. For other pan sizes, keep the baking temperature constant and bake until the center of the cake is springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean (timing will depend on the pans used).
Make cupcakes: Divide the batter between 2 dozen muffin cups and bake at 350 for 18 to 24 minutes, or until the cupcakes are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
Recommended equipment: (Affiliate links) I love my 11-cup food processor and these round cake pans, which have a non-toxic silicone coating.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
One of my favorite cakes, and will be trying this. Like the fact it has olive oil and no sugar. Going to rate it now even before I try making it,
Thank you, Lynette!
My cake looks fantastic but it tastes supper salty even though I added the exact amount of salt. Dont know what was wrong :(
I love carrot cake! It’s definitely one of my top favorites. Looks so delicious and perfect for hosting.
Thank you, Natalie for your review!
This is my man’s favorite cake so I was hoping you’d post this by Father’s Day! Thanks for delivering! I’m making a single layer version with the date frosting right now. How long do you recommend baking it if it’s just one pan? (I’m using your favorite square baker.) Thanks!
I’m so glad you love it, Eve! I really recommend this as two pans, but how did it turn out for you?
This is my husband’s favorite cake. I made it for Father’s Day. I am not a good baker and typically I do not like carrot cake.
Even though I accidentally left out the milk, the cake and icing turned out great!
I used coconut oil.
In addition to the dry ginger, I added a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger with the carrots.
I used maple syrup.
Also, usually don’t eat icing but your recipe turned out very light and fluffy (used Kerry Gold butter and 1 cup homemade powder sugar cause I ran out of boxed.) Decorated top with pecans.
Thank you-cake was a huge success!
I’m happy to hear it all ended up great, Barbara! Thanks for your review.
Hi Kate! I made this Cake and it was a little bit dense, any suggestions for the future? I live in Denver, so not sure if altitude has a factor in this – I used all purpose and high altitude whole wheat flour. Flavor was delicious!
It could be your altitude. Here is a great resource that may help!
Hello there, is this suitable for freezing please? Thank you.
I used spelt flour and raw honey. It was delicious :-)
Jackie
Hi Jackie! I haven’t tried freezing this, but it should work fine. Let me know how it goes for you!
This is a great recipe! Next time, I would double the cream cheese frosting! Ha! Also, mine turned out a little dense, any suggestions?
Cream cheese frosting is a must! I’m sorry it was a little too dense for you. What blends of flour did you use?
I used all all-purpose flour! I think that may have been my mistake. I also used coconut oil and when I mixed it with the other liquid ingredients, it seized up. Next time, I will make sure everything is room temp. Other than that, the cake was delicious and the flavors were great! Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Kate! Was just wondering if you had a good egg substitute in this recipe?
Thanks so much!
I made the carrot cake in her cookbook using bob’s red mill egg replacer and it turned out well!
Thank you Hayley!
You’re welcome, Vith!
Do I have to change the recipe to use Gluten free flour?
Nope! I believe a reader used Bob’s Red Mill GF 1-1 flour and it worked really well.
It’s true! I made this recently for a gluten-free friend’s birthday, substituting all 3.5c flour with Bob’s Red Mill 1-1, and it was fantastic.
This cake turned out super moist and so delicious without being overly sweet. The spices were just right. I used Bob’s 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour which made it turn out light and fluffy. Also the naturally sweetened cream cheese frosting is super tasty on it, but the cake itself can stand on its own without it. This is a keeper that we will be making for special occasions. Thanks for the fantastic recipes Kate! My family loves everything I make from you. :)
I’m happy to hear you were able to make this work so well gluten free! Thanks for sharing, Hillary!
How long do I cook it in a convection oven?
I MADE IT!!!
I really really love how it turned out, the consistency is amazing, it tastes fantastic.I also followed your cream cheese frosting recipe. Only thing is that it’s a little bit too sweet for me but I think that’s fixable by less sugar in the frosting.
Thank you sooooo much for your amazing recipes.
Sending love all the way from Egypt.
Hooray, Gamila! Thank you for your review.
This turned out great. I was a little skeptical with the sweetener being only maple syrup or honey but it was plenty sweet.
Hooray! I’m happy you loved it.
Hello! Could I substitute the flour with Buckwheat flour? Also, because I don’t have pastry flour, in the end I’ll need 3 1/2 cups of the flour I’ll use?
Sorry if it’s unclear… :)
Hi Flo, usually buckwheat doesn’t work the same. I haven’t tried it with this one so not sure if it would give you the result you want. I also find its flavor to be overpowering. A gluten free flour blend would work well here, if needing to be gluten free.
Have you tried this with an egg replacement such as Flax or Chia gel?
You could try a flax egg, but I didn’t try it for this one. Let me know how it works for you!
This carrot cake came out beautifully for my husband’s birthday dinner. I even used your cream cheese frosting recipe and everyone’s only feedback was to please layer more frosting into it! I only made half and had a single layer 9″ round cake but I did end up with a domed cake and slightly browner sides than middle. Do you have any tips on getting a flat cake?
Hooray! Make sure you evenly spread the batter across the pan. I didn’t have any issues when I began to layer mine. You can always shave a little off the top if you are having difficulties when layering.
I love carrot cakes especially homemade. This recipe is simple and easy to make. Loved the pics.
Thank you, Winni!
Your cooking is great. This look delicious and easy to make. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Sergio!
The taste of the cake was great, but my cake turned out really dense. I’m not sure what I did wrong.
I’m sorry to hear that, Melody! How did you measure your flour? My assumption is you either packed your flour or over mixed the cake.
I used a dry ingredients measuring cup. I feel it may have been when I added my carrots to the dry ingredients. The carrots were very moist and it made my dry ingredients clumpy.
Hi Melody, sometimes if you just scoop the flour it packs it in and you get too much. Spoon in and then level it off next time. If that makes sense?
I had the same issue. I always scoop my flour and then scrape it off but this cake turned out very dense! The flavour is excellent but The cake weighs a ton and wasn’t quite cooked in the middle as a result.
I love carrot cake and your recipe looks delicious. I especially like the look of your frosting : )
Thank you! Let me know what you try, Lyndsey!
Halved the recipe and substituted brown sugar instead of honey to make it cheaper and it was delicious. Your classic cream cheese frosting was also amazing. Another great recipe, as usual, Thank you Kate!
Thank you for sharing, Maya!
loved the recipe. can you please post few desert recipe made without eggs.
Hi Mira! I try to post a variety.
Looks so delicious and perfect for parties!
Thank you for your review, Sergio!
This is the best carrot cake I’ve ever tasted. Thank you for this amazing recipe better than any bakery. I love that the sweetness isn’t overpowering and is not from traditional sugar. Hands-down absolute heaven!
Thank you for sharing, Kacee! I appreciate your review.
First of all, I would like to thank you for share this amazing recipe, I had tried this recipe and the results are really unbelievable for me because I had never made any cake before this, a great experience.
I love your recipes Kate. Every one of them has been phenomenal. This one was an absolute keeper—with modifications (which is rare). My son has a nut allergy, so though he loves spicy cakes, he can’t really sample carrot cakes unless I make them, and I never have, because they can be complicated. The only thing I did not love about this recipe—and I thought it was completely out of character for you to call for 1.25 CUPS!!!—is the cream cheese frosting. I’ve discovered you barely need any sugar to make a good stiff one if you blend a block of cream cheese (straight out of the fridge) with a cup of cold heavy whipping cream and a splash of vanilla (using an immersion blender), until you get stiff peaks. I add three TBS of icing sugar for frosting cakes; sometimes, when eating it with your pancakes, I’ll do only a TBS of maple syrup.
Thank you, Sonal! You can always adjust the amount of frosting, if you like :)
Great Recipe and this is my Girlfriend favorite cake. Many times we order online now this time made by my girlfriend. Thanks for sharing this recipe and now this time we save the money.
When do you combine wet and dry? Do you add the eggs to the wet first? Or carrots? Looks so good … I wanna get it right.
Hi! See steps 4 & 5. I hope this helps!
Wow… The pictures are really mouth-watering. I never had this type of cake. Will definitely try this.
Thank you for sharing such thoughtful post.
Great recipe. I enjoyed reading tour recipe. Great job!
Would this recipe be alright if made the day before? We have a morning baby birthday party and I can’t imagine baking in the morning :)
Yes! It should still be find the next day. You could wait to frost it that morning so it looks fresher. The frosting may need to set at room temperature for a little to be easier to spread!
Very disappointed – but it was all my fault! Forgot it was in oven and it got cooked for at least twice the recommended time. Edible, but very dry.
Will do it properly next time. Sorry Kate.
I love your recipes and tried most of them. they are flawless and always end up looking so professional and awesome. thank you
I made half the recipe and baked in a 6 inch pan, one layer after the other. Baking time for each was 30-35 min. While the carrot-to-flour ratio struck me as insane ;-), the cake turned out very well. Super moist and flavorful. I baked the layers the evening before, and assembled on the day of. I used the naturally sweetened frosting with it, and it was a very, very good carrot cake! Both adults and kids liked it. Thanks, Kate!
It know, it seems like a lot, but it’s worth it! Thanks for sharing, Heidi.
Thank you so much for the best carrort cake recipe. My mother’s favorite carrort cake & I will make this one definitely on my mom’s birthday.
You’re welcome and I hope she just loves it, Ankit!
I am looking forward to trying this recipe over the weekend substituting in spelt flour. Will let you guys know how it turns out!
Yes, please do!
I did make this recipe (halved) with spelt flour and it was delicious! Thanks again!
This recipe is really only barely sweet (made with maple syrup) — a nice contrast for a sweet and tangy cream cheese icing. Like other commenters, I was stunned at the amount of carrots. It isn’t clear in the recipe if you want 1.5# of carrots before or after peeling and grating — perhaps you can add a note on that? I interpreted it as weight after grating. I made this recipe 1.5x and could not bring myself to add the entire 2.25# of grated carrots. I stopped at 6 cups, which was only 1.75#. I couldn’t fathom putting any more carrots in than that — 2.25# would have been about 8 cups of carrots and there wouldn’t have been any cake left! Other than that discrepancy, the cake looks, smells, and tastes great (I’ve only sampled the scraps so far). I’m letting it chill overnight with a crumb coat on it and finishing it tomorrow before taking it to my sister-in-law’s birthday this weekend!
Thanks for your feedback, Hope! It’s prior to grating for the weight measured.
Hi Kate, could I use just all-purpose white flour? The whole gran sounds great, but the white is all I have right now. Just want to make sure the consistency will still be good. Thanks!
Hi M! I’m hesitant to say yes, without trying it. This one took a bit to get just right.
I like the recipe but I think that the baking time of 45 minutes was too long. I did this in 2 layer cake pans and a bunt cake, and the bunt cake was done in 48 minutes so the layer cake pans at 45 minutes were a bit dry.
I also substituted fresh ginger for the powdered!
Hi Jessica! Thank you for the feedback. That time was a sweet spot for me and I haven’t had any issues. However, I do know ovens can vary some so adjust as you need. I’m sorry you had a dry version! It might be since you split the batter in 2 layer cake pans, too. Did you double the recipe to do this per the notes?
Your cake looks wonderful! Can you, please, write the approximate weight of it? At about 1.5 kilos?
Hi! Sorry, I don’t have the weight for you.
Can you please tell me what is all-purpose flour. Thank you inadvance.
Beautiful cake, We love this carrot cake, looking colorful and healthy.
I made this for my husband’s birthday. It’s his favorite. Unfortunately, while it had a good flavor, it was very dry. I will make it again but will add raisins and/or pineapple chunks. On the other hand, the cream cheese icing was to die for.
The cake was the first recipe I haven’t loved from your site but I think it’s an easy fix. :-)
I’m sorry to hear that! How long did you bake it for?
If I remember correctly (its been a month) I cooked it for the allotted time-50 min. But I do remember testing it and it wasn’t done even though it looked done so I cooked it about 5-8 minutes longer. That may be the problem. Also, it’s a new oven and may not be calibrated correctly, I don’t know, but that could also be the problem. My husband didn’t say but I asked him if it seemed dry and he said he didn’t want to say anything, but it did and that he missed the raisins, so for that reason I will add them next time and Ill let you know how it went. :-)
Hi Kate, I made the cake gluten free, used walnuts and added golden raisins. It was not sweet but after making the cream cheese frosting with dates and adding a bit of confectionery sugar to that recipe to make it sweeter the frosted cake was very good. I really like the no sugar recipe but it just wasn’t sweet on its own.
Thanks for sharing! I’m happy to hear you made it work for your tastes.
I’ve just put mine in the oven: the batter looked very sloppy so I’m slightly worried. I halved the recipe and it was a real nightmare trying to anglicise the measurements. I threw in a couple oz of flour at the end to try and stiffen the mix up – we shall see! So I put in: 8 oz flour (mixed ww/white), 1tsp ginger, 2tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp bicarb soda, 12oz grated carrots, 180mil olive oil/coconut oil mixed, 148ml honey/datesyrup mix (as I didn’t have enough honey), 1/4pint milk and 2 eggs. Oh and 1 tsp vanilla. Then I threw in the extra flour as I said at the beginning. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that, Terri. How did it end up turning out?
The comments look like they arrived in your inbox on different dates – even though they were posted the same evening – the follow up reply is beneath this one – the cake turned out wonderfully well, wlthough it was more bread puddingy than light cake – and got the seal of approval from my neighbour too. (Improved even more with the cream cheese topping).
UPDATE: The cake was FINE! hubby and I have quality tested and it tastes a little like bread pudding but definitely sweet enough and a nice texture. I’ll put frosting on it tomorrow – so thanks and the cake recipe worked swell!
Thanks for leaving a review!
Hi Kate,
I haven’t tried the carrot cake yet, but I wanted to thank you for all your AMAZING and delicious recipes. I recently became flexitarian with my fiance and I feel confident eating vegetarian meals each week knowing that I have your website at hand.
Needless to say, I’m a bit of a food-snob and will only cook recipes that I know will turn out well…thankfully, that’s your website in its entirety.
Easily the best vegetarian website and I LOVE the search function. Makes it very easy to search for a recipe even when I’m at the store and have no plan. Hope to use your recipes more as I try to convert my partner to becoming vegetarian with me…
Tracy
You’re so sweet, I love it! Thank you for your feedback on my recipe quality and blog set-up, Tracy.
I just tried this recipe and it’s absolutely delicious like all your recipes Kate!! Tjank you!
You’re welcome, Pearl!
Soo good I can’t stop eating it! Great flavour but I must have done something wrong as it is too dense and the inside is like molten lava cake. It was cooking for 2 hours at the recommended setting. I ended up cutting up them up into bars and baking them again for another hour. So delicious!
Thank you for your comment and review, Carla! I’m happy you enjoyed it.
I don’t normally comment on recipes, but I made this today as cupcakes and they are delicious! I substituted most of the honey for rice malt syrup to make them almost sugar free. The texture is soft and fluffy yet moist.
We had a birthday party today and I took these so my toddler could join in the celebrations and have cake (he is dairy intolerant). He loved them and thought it was hilarious that I put carrots in a cake haha. Most kids barely ate a small piece of the regular birthday cake, but our kid ate 3 full muffins of this! At least it was pretty healthy. Thank you so much Kate for helping me keep my Toddler sugar free, healthy and still loving life/joining the party.
Just wondering Kate what size eggs do you use? Looks like a yummy Cake.
Thanks for your beaut recipes Just finished baking your healthy banana bread.
I will also make your cauli soup later today. It does look lovely and I have a cauli in fridge luckily We will get some cooler weather this week as Melbourne sometimes has 4 seasons in a day. Soup comes in very handy as we all love it. Thanks.
Hi Chris! I always use large eggs. Hope that helps!
Hello Kate, I don’t have an oven, can I bake this carrot cake on the stove?
I’m so sorry, I’m afraid that the stovetop won’t provide the even heat needed to produce a proper cake.
Hi Kate,
Thanks for the recipe! I am hoping to make this as cupcakes for my daughter’s 1st Birthday party.I’m wondering if it can be baked in advance and frozen? It would save me some stress if I could bake the cakes in advance, freeze them then thaw and frost them the day before the party..
Hi Jen, I don’t know for sure, but you could see what others have tried. I believe my banana bread has, so I would assume this should too
Love your recipes and actually have your book but the easy carrot cake recipe isn’t yet done in the oven even at 45 mins. Input it in a Bundt pan. Wish I had tried this recipe instead.