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, grated fine
- 4 oz. crushed, drained pineapple. (We buy an 8 oz can of crushed pineapple and use about half) put in a strainer to let the excess juice drain out
- 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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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!
Hi there! If I’m not using a cream cheese frosting on this carrot cake, how long can this cake stay out at room temperature?
Thank you!
Hi Ann Marie, Maybe 1 day if your home is at 70 degrees, but I like to be cautious so I would refrigerate, letting it come to room temperature before serving.
Hi, You don’t give any instructions about carrots in the recipe ingredients or baking directions. I’m sure they are grated. Can I grate them in food processor with grating blade on it? Do the carrots change color when baking?
Thanks n I’m glad I found your site.
Peggy
Hi Peggy, I’m going to add grated to the recipe. That recipe was posted in 2010, the year the site was launched and we were not as specific as we are now. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Yes, the carrots are grated. I grate the carrots very fine using a box grater. You want to have them small enough so they will soften during baking. I’m not sure about the food processor since I have not used it for this. You want the grated pieces to be short. The food processor would certainly be faster. The carrots are not quite as bright due to the spices in the recipe.
Can you use the pineapple juice and orange juice in the carrot cake.
Hi Beatrice, We put the pineapple in a strainer and let the excess liquid drip out, you can press it lightly with a spoon to remove excess pineapple juice. We have not used all orange juice and no water but I think it would be fine to do so.