Carrot Cake Recipe

Today, we are sharing our favorite Carrot Cake Recipe with you! This amazing scratch recipe has wonderful flavor from carrots, spices, pecans, coconut, and crushed pineapple.

This is one of our most popular classic cakes, right up there with Hummingbird Cake, Italian Cream Cake, and German Chocolate Cake!

Table of Contents

Why We Love It

Well, we're a little biased, but this is the best carrot cake ever. Here are just a few reasons why:

Tons of flavor from fresh ingredients.
Amazing combination of carrots, pecans, coconut, crushed pineapple, and cinnamon. Not every carrot recipe has these add-ins, but they are what make this carrot cake recipe the BEST!
Always a crowd pleaser! Carrot cake is a go-to favorite for special occasions and holidays, no matter what time of year!
Fantastic when paired with cream cheese frosting.

How to Make a Carrot Cake

You can find the full, printable carrot cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!

First, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Next, line the bottoms of 3 (8 inch) or 2 (9 inch) round pans with wax or parchment paper, grease with shortening and flour the paper and pans for easy release when turning out.

Dry Ingredients: Combine and whisk the all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set Aside.

Next, in the bowl of your mixer, add sugar , eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Mix 2 to 3 minutes at medium speed until well blended and light colored.

Then, with a spoon stir in the flour until moistened. Then add the grated carrots, chopped pecans, crushed pineapple and sweetened coconut.

Next, Divide the carrot cake batter between the three prepared cake pans.

Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees F or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool cake layers in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack then turn out. Cool completely before adding the cream cheese filling and frosting.

What Frostings Pair Well with Carrot Cake?

For us, you just cannot be the combination of cream cheese frosting and carrot cake layers!

The slight tang from the Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect complement to the cinnamon in the recipe and the sweetness from the carrots, coconut, and pineapple.

We used our classic cream cheese frosting which is a simple combination of cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

We also love cream cheese frosting with Italian Cream Cake, Red Velvet Cake and Spice Cake!

Another Option: If you cannot use cream cheese frosting or just don't care for it (gasp!), I would go with a Classic Vanilla Buttercream or add a little cinnamon to the vanilla buttercream for a delicious Cinnamon Buttercream.

The BEST Carrot Cake from Scratch Recipe! MyCakeSchool.com

Assembling the Carrot Cake

Once the carrot cake layers have completely cooled, it is time to assemble!

Place the first carrot cake layer on your cake base or pedestal. Spread with a layer of cream cheese frosting.

Spreading cream cheese frosting onto carrot cake layer.

Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Top with the third cake layer and frost the top and around the sides of the cake with a thin layer of frosting (this is the crumb coat!)

At this point, we like to chill the cake for 15 minutes in the freezer (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up before applying the final coat of cream cheese frosting.

Then, apply the next layer of frosting to the chilled carrot cake and decorate however you like! You could smooth the frosting with a bench scraper, comb the cake, apply an easy ridged effect to the frosting with an offset spatula, and more!

Cream Cheese Frosting Consistency

Cream cheese frostings are a softer consistency than other frostings, and can be more heat sensitive.

For this reason, keep in mind that you may need to pop your piping bag, bowl of frosting, or even the cake in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes here and there to return it to a better consistency for decorating.

FAQs

Carrot cakes do not always contain coconut or pineapple. However, we love the flavor that these ingredients bring to this recipe! In addition, some carrot cake recipes call for ginger (like our Carrot Bundt Cake). Feel free to add a bit if you'd like!

We don't recommend using pre-shredded carrots in your carrot cake recipe. Their texture is much more dry and coarse.

Sweetened coconut is much softer and more moist. Unsweetened has a dry, chewy texture.

Yes! Carrot cake layers can be frozen for up to three months as long as they are tightly wrapped. When baking in advance, allow the carrot cake layers to cool. (We often wrap while they are still a bit warm.)

Wrap each cake layer tightly with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. (For extra support, you can place each layer on a foil-wrapped cake cardboard). If you are only freezing for a few days, it is fine to double wrap in plastic wrap only.

To thaw, remove the carrot cake layers from the freezer, still wrapped and place on the kitchen counter. Allow to sit for 30-45 minutes before unwrapping and continuing to thaw.

Assemble and decorate as usual! Some decorators prefer to assemble their carrot cakes while the layers are partially frozen, as they are easier to handle.

Yes, this scratch carrot cake should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese filling and frosting. We recommend using an airtight cake container or cake dome.

However, for best taste and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will give the cake plenty of time to warm and soften.

More Cakes to Try

In addition today's Carrot Cake Recipe, we have several more classic cake recipes that you must try! These old fashioned favorites are recipes that you will return to again and again.

Some of our most popular are Pineapple Cake, Black Forest Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and Strawberry Shortcake with Pound Cake.

Make sure to save these go-to recipes!

Carrot Cake Recipe Variations

If you love carrot cakes, we have even more carrot cake recipes for you to try ! Our Maple Carrot Cake is perfect for fall celebrations. We also have a Carrot Bundt Cake, Carrot Cheesecake Cake.

Our Carrot Cake Cupcakes and Carrot Cake Mix recipe both start with a mix but have such amazing flavor from add ins that nobody would believe it!

These would all make wonderful birthday cake recipes, special occasion cakes, and more.

Maple Carrot Cake Slice on a white plate — Maple Carrot Cake

Thanks so much for stopping by. We hope that you love this carrot cake recipe! Don't miss our full collection of cake recipes, including favorite cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!

We also have hundreds of cake decorating tutorials to share with you, from easy birthday cake ideas, to baby shower cakes, to elegant cakes and more!

Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!