I absolutely LOVE carrot cake, and this amazing doctored cake mix recipe is moist, flavorful, and bursting with flavor!
If you love working with doctored cake mixes, don’t let this carrot cake recipe pass you by! It may start from a simple cake mix, but there are so many delicious add-ins that it’ll taste like you slaved in the kitchen for hours!
Our Carrot Cake -doctored cake mix recipe is simpler than making a carrot cake from scratch (we have an amazing scratch Carrot Cake linked below), but it’s also more involved than just mixing up a Carrot Cake mix. In fact, we don’t even use Carrot Cake mix for this recipe!
We love this doctored cake mix Carrot Cake version over simply preparing a boxed Carrot Cake mix because it has SO much more flavor from the addition of freshly shredded carrots, spices, coconut, pecans, and crushed pineapple!
We may trust the cake mix factories to create mixes for delightfully fluffy and flavorful cake layers, but there’s just no substitute for the carrots and fruit needed to make this carrot cake shine! Trust us, the payoff is worth the extra bit of work!
Now, a word about the frosting. In my book it is a crime to frost a delicious carrot cake with anything other than luscious, dreamy, cream cheese frosting. It happens to be my FAVORITE thing.
The cool and creamy tang of cream cheese frosting is the perfect complement to moist spiced carrot cake layers. We actually have two favorite Cream Cheese Frosting recipes on our site.
Our Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting has a higher proportion of cream cheese and pipes beautifully. Our Classic Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting is a bit softer. Both are amazing.
(*This Carrot Cake doctored mix recipe is not recommended for fondant due to the moistness that the pineapple & coconut bring to this recipe.)
Carrot Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 box white cake mix
- Follow box instructions, substituting orange juice for half of the water.
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 c. shredded coconut
- 2 1/4-2 1/2 cups carrots
- 4 oz. crushed, drained pineapple. (We buy an 8 oz can of crushed pineapple and use about half)
- 1 cup chopped pecans.
Directions
- ** Mix cake mixes together according to box instructions. Then add remaining ingredients. Bake at 325 degrees until cakes spring back when touched in the center.
- **This makes a lot of cake batter. You can bake up and freeze any extra layers, tightly wrapped, or you can half the recipe. If you half the recipe, I would use the spice cake mix rather than the white.
As I mentioned above, we also have an fantastic Carrot Cake Recipe from scratch! The add-in ingredients are similar to the the semi-homemade carrot cake version above.
We love carrots, pineapple, shredded coconut, and pecans in our carrot cakes! Such a heavenly combination of flavors and textures!! Ahhhh….
You can find our homemade Carrot Cake Recipe here: Carrot Cake Recipe from Scratch
Thanks for stopping by! Don’t miss our full collection of tried and true cake and frosting recipes in our Cake Recipes Section! Also, we’d love to share some free cake tutorials with you too! You can find them here: Free Cake Tutorials Section
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Sounds delicious! Can this be covered in fondant? Or would it be too soft?
Thanks
Hi, we haven’t tried putting fondant on this cake. I’m afraid it might be too soft because of the pineapple.
I used this recipe and covered it in fondant and it held up great!
I wanted to see if raisins could be added…maybe switched out for the coconut.
We haven’t tried that but I would think that you could. Let us know if you give it a try.
Could this recipe be used to make cupcakes also? And if so how many do you think it might make? Thanks :)
Hi Danielle, yes, you could make cupcakes with this recipe. I think it would make 4 dozen (48 cupcakes)
Hi, when you say to follow the instructions on the box do you mean to just add both mixes to a bowl and then follow the directions for one of the mixes or both ( 3 eggs vs 6 eggs, etc) Thanks, Lori Allen, VA
Hi Lori, yes, add the two mixes to a bowl and follow directions for both, 6 eggs, etc.
What about using this for a 2-3 tier cake? 90th birthday celebration and I’ve been recruited for the cake job to feed 65… Her favorite is carrot, but not sure how it would stack up.
Hi Taylor, you should have no problem making the carrot cake as a 2 to 3 tier cake. Your dowels (we use bubble T straws) and cake boards will hold the weight of the tiers so there should be no problem. Here is a link to Melissa’s video on Tier Stacking if you would like to watch it, link to mycakeschool.com
The tiers could be assembled on site if you are worried about traveling with a 3 tier cake.
Which brand of cake mix you use for this recipe the Pillsbury?
Hi EmpyP, My memory is that Pillsbury does not have a carrot cake mix and we used either Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines
Hi, do you have a scratch carrot cake recipe? Thanks x
Hi Lisa, when are you making your carrot cake? I’m actually testing a couple of recipes this weekend.
I have nothing at the mo but would love to know your findings, Thank you.
Hi, would it be ok to leave out the nuts? My other half is not a fan of them. Thanks!
Hi Janice, yes no problem! ;0) Hope you like it!
In reading the recipe… it calls for carrots. Can you be more specific about what kind of carrots? Cooked? Raw? etc…
Thanks so much! Looking forward to trying the recipe!
P
Hi Pamela, The carrots in the recipe are raw and shredded. The shredded carrots are very thin so they will soften as the cake bakes. We shred the carrots with a hand held grater or a box grater. Hope you like the recipe.
My mom loves carrot cake but is allergic to pineapple. What can I do to substitute it?
Hi Kesha, I think you could use about 3/4 cup of finely grated apple instead of the pineapple. Peel the apple before grating.
Can I use two spice cake mixes instead of one spice and one white?
Hi Melissa, Yes, you can use two spice cake mixes.
Is it okay if I don’t use orange juice, does it alter the taste at all?
Hi Claudia, I think it will be fine of omit the orange juice and use all water.
How would this work in an oblong cake pan instead of round ones? Too much batter?
Hi Ginger, It would work in a sheet cake pan. I forgot to measure the cups of batter in this cake, but probably 10 or more cups. You could use a 9×13 pan filling with 10 or 11 cups of batter (don’t fill over 2/3’s full). Bake at 350 degrees for 40 -45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. If the cake starts to become too dark, you can cover loosely with aluminum foil during the last of the baking time. You can make cupcakes if there is left over batter. Here is a link to the Wilton Cake Batter Amounts Chart, you might find it helpful.
link to wilton.com
Hi
When you say to substitute orange juice for half the water does that mean if it calls for a cup of water then you only add a half cup of OJ and no water?
Thank you
Hi Melanie, You would have the full amount of liquid……if it calls for a cup of water, you would use 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup water
If you only use 1 of the box mixes, do you half all the other ingredients?
Hi Anne, We haven’t tried it using just one box of mix but it should work fine to half the other ingredients. I think using the spice cake mix would give you the most flavor. Let us know how it goes.
Could I leave out the pineapple and coconut?
On gosh, it’s in the oven..I used one box and full ingrediants…I guess we will see in 15 minutes…
Forgot to have the add ins…
If I use a 9” cake pan how long do I cook the cake at 325° ?
Maria
Hi Maria, If you are baking in two 9 inch round cake pans that are 2 inches deep, bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes of until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
When you say “this makes a lot of batter” how many 9 inch rounds does the batter make?
Hi Jackie, I’m sorry I forgot to measure the cups of batter, but a single boxed cake mix makes 4 to 4 1/2 of batter. Since this recipe has 2 boxes of cake mix plus the extra “add ins” I think you will have 10 to 10 1/2 cups of batter, maybe a bit more. The Wilton batter amount chart recommends 5 cups for a 9 inch round pan. Baked at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes. We usually use 2 1/2 to 3 cups of batter for an 8 inch round pan.
I used the Duncan Hines Decadent carrot cake mix which has dehydrated carrots and raisins. Since I was only using one box of cake mix I halved the pineapple, coconut, and nuts (I used walnuts) and omitted the extra carrots and the raisins given. I’d have to say it turned out pretty freaking delicious. A lot of reviewers of the Duncan Hines recipe said it was more gingerbread cake so I think these additions really helped tone down the flavor and make it more spice cake like. 10/10 would recommend.
Hi Amy, This is great information! Thanks so much for posting your review!
Bebe.
I made the Carrot Cake recipe into 9 inch pans. However it took about 50 minutes to bake at 325°. Just an FYI.
Hi Maria, Thanks so much for posting this helpful information!