Easy Carrot Cake Recipe
I absolutely LOVE this easy carrot cake recipe. We call it "easy" because it starts with a box of spice cake mix, but it is ultra moist and still has all of the key flavors of our carrot cake recipe from scratch.
The addition of carrots, coconut, spices, crushed pineapple, and pecans is totally worth it!
We have made this flavorful carrot cake mix recipe into Carrot Cake Cupcakes as well! Swirled with cream cheese frosting, there's just nothing better!
Don't let this easy carrot cake recipe pass you by. It may start from a simple box of spice cake mix, but there are SO many delicious add-ins that you would never guess it wasn't from scratch. The flavor is fantastic!
Table of Contents
How to Make An Easy Carrot Cake Recipe
We love this doctored cake mix version of Carrot Cake because it involves more than simply preparing a boxed Carrot Cake mix.
The freshly shredded carrots, spices, coconut, pecans, and crushed pineapple make all of the difference!
**You can find our full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients (spice cake mix (we used Duncan Hines), all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger) and whisk 30 seconds to throughly combine.
- To this add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and sour cream and mix on medium speed for one minute ( a bit longer if using a hand held mixer). Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix one minute more.
- Next, fold in the shredded carrots, coconuts, pecans, and drained crushed pineapple.
- Makes approximately 7 cups of batter.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325 degrees. Check at 35 minutes, the cake will be slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center should pull out clean or with only a few moist crumbs attached.
Frosting for the Carrot Cake
There's nothing like cream cheese frosting with carrot cake! (We this way about Italian Cream Cake and Hummingbird Cake too!)
For today's cake, we've used one of our go-to cream cheese frosting recipes which is a simple combination of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
Cream cheese frosting is softer than most and so you will need to refrigerate it now and then if you notice it becoming too soft as you are working. In fact, we often pop our bowl in the refrigerator for several minutes just after making a batch.
Cream Cheese too Soft?
If you notice your frosting becoming too soft as you are decorating the cake, simply chill your piping bag, bowl of frosting, or even your cake for a few minutes to firm things up.
**Due to the cream cheese frosting, this carrot cake needs to be refrigerated until within a few hours of serving. If you cannot refrigerate the cake, I would frost with our Classic Vanilla Buttercream- you could even add a touch of cinnamon to the frosting.
Assembling and Decorating the Carrot Cake
Place the first carrot cake layer on your cake base or pedestal. Spread with a layer of cream cheese frosting.
Repeat for the next two cake layers and then apply a thin coat (crumb coat) of frosting.
At this point, I like to chill my cake for about 15 minutes in the freezer to firm things up before adding the final coat of frosting.
We kept things very simple with decorating- I swirled on the frosting with my small offset spatula and added a border of crushed pecans. (Find more ideas here: How to Frost a Cake).
We hope that you enjoy this delicious easy carrot cake recipe. Make sure to check out our other cake mix recipes and favorite cakes from scratch!
More Doctored Cake Mix Recipes to Try
We have made lots of delicious doctored cake mix recipes over the years! From our Orange Cake Mix Recipe to Easy German Chocolate Cake and lots in between!
If you love working with cake mixes, or simply love a great tasting cake whether it's scratch or starts with a box, here are just a few of many that you don't want to miss! Some of our favorites are Marble Cake Mix Cake, Banana Pudding Cupcakes, and Oreo Cupcakes!
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this Carrot Cake from cake mix! Don't miss our full collection of Cake Recipes! We have lots of cake mix recipes as well as favorite cakes from scratch.
Also, if you are interested in cake decorating, don't miss our huge collection of cake decorating tutorials!
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!
Carrot Cake -Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Nobody would ever believe that this amazing Carrot Cake recipe starts with a box of spice cake mix! The added carrots, coconut, pecans, and crushed pineapple add wonderful flavor!
Ingredients
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans
- Do not follow ingredients on the back of the cake mix box, use the ingredients listed below.
- 1 box Spice Cake Mix, sifted (We used Duncan Hines)
- 1 cup (121g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- ½ (3 g) teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (242 g) sour cream
- ½ cup (118 g) milk
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) ginger
- 1 ¼ cups (112g) Grated Carrots (small pieces)
- ¾ cup (50g) shredded coconut- We used Baker's Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut
- 4oz Crushed Pineapple, drained (You can put it in a strainer and let the excess juice drain out)
- ¾ cup (92g) chopped pecans
- ¼ cup vegetable oil **
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened (total weight 452g) I use full fat cream cheese. Using reduced fat or the spreadable cream cheese will cause the frosting to be too soft.
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. We also line the bottom of the pans with parchment circles.
For the Carrot Cake Layers
- In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients (cake mix, flour, sugar, salt, & spices) and whisk 30 seconds to throughly combine.
- To this add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil and sour cream and mix on medium speed for 1 minute ( a bit longer if using a hand held mixer). Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix 1 minute more.
- Next, fold in the shredded carrots, coconuts, pecans, and drained crushed pineapple.
- Makes approximately 7 cups of batter.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325 degrees. Check at 35 minutes, the cake will be slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center should pull out clean or with only a few moist crumbs attached.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is smooth.
- Cut the softened cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
- Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
- Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
- This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
- Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
Notes
**4/2025 I've updated the recipe to add ¼ cup vegetable oil to line up better with some of our other sour cream cake mix recipes. If you've always enjoyed this recipe without the oil, it is fine to leave it out ;0)
*We've heard from some of our readers that Carrot Cake Mix can be swapped in with good results also.
(We used to have a version of this carrot cake that used a box of spice cake mix and a box of white cake mix (plus all of the add-ins). We phased this one out as it made so much batter. However, if you are searching for this older recipe, here is a link! : Carrot Cake Doctored Mix (Retired Version)
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This recipe needs oil or something! I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out to be very paste like. I was embarrassed to bring it to a friend for dessert. Not good at all.
Hi Sally- I'm sorry that your cake didn't turn out. I'm not sure why the batter would have been paste-like unless an ingredient was left out (or too much of an ingredient was added)? This has been a popular recipe on our site over the years- even in recent posts- but I'll put it on my list to test again in case changes to the cake mixes have resulted in it needing a bit more liquid.
How long for a 9x13 pan?
Hi Donna, I would start peeking in as the time approaches the 30 minute mark, and then adjust as needed. Baking times can vary. (An inserted toothpick should come out clean or with just a few crumbs attached-- top of the cake should spring back when lightly touched).
Thank you for this recipe! I did alter it some: added 1/2 C veg oil, used 1-1/2 c grated carrots, No coconut or nuts, but replaced nut amount with golden raisins, used the juice of the pineapple can and baked at 350 F for about 50 min in a Bundt pan. It was very moist and had great flavor.
Can I use a Betty Crocker “Carrot Cake” for this recipe. If so, should I follow recipe as stated.
Hi Sally! I've heard from others that have swapped in Betty Crocker carrot cake mix with great results, without making any other changes to the recipe.
Made this for cupcakes. I didn't add the oil because I didn't notice it, but I also didn't get pineapple (Aldi didn't have it, and I lacked the energy to go to another store :D), so I increased to a little less than 2 cups to compensate. Regardless, it turned out amazing! It made 35 cupcakes. Super moist and full of great texture from the coconut, nuts, and carrots. (I also toasted the coconut and pecans slightly because I was feeling extra). I don't know if it made a difference, but it certainly didn't hurt anything either.
Hi Liz! Thanks for your feedback, so glad that you liked the recipe. Not sure if you'll see this but when you say that you increased to a little less than two cups to compensate, did you increase the sour cream or carrots or something else? Just curious and also there may be others that would like to skip the pineapple ;0)
Would it be okay to add about a half-cup of dried cranberries? How would it affect the texture of the cake? Thanks.
Hi Rachel! I think that would be fine, I know that people often put golden raisins in their carrot cakes and so this seems like a similar idea- it'll add a bit of sweetness. I wouldn't think it would effect the texture much as there are already lots of add-ins like nuts, coconut, shredded carrots, etc. Hope you enjoy it ;0)
good morning, thank you for all your delicious recipes. Do I have to use sour cream, what can i replace it with?
thanx
Amanda
Hi Amanda- I'm sorry that I missed this, greek yogurt is a common substitution for sour cream.
I don't know what files are.. I'm a baker not a computer person
Hi Nancy- I'm not sure what you mean, what message are you getting about files?
hello!
About how many cups does this batter yield?
Are two 10" pans good enough, or layers may be too thin and should go with one pan?
I saw it yields 7 cups?
so the question remains about the 10" pans
Hi Jazz, I don't make many 10 inch cakes. I'll link below to Wilton's batter/serving chart for various sizes of pans. For one 10 inch cake layer (about 2 inches thick), they estimate needing about 6 cups of cake batter.
I think that dividing the batter between two 10 inch layers could work also but they would be thin (probably closer to 1 inch thickness).
https://blog.wilton.com/cake-baking-serving-guide/