Carrot Cake Recipe

This Carrot Cake Recipe with a Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting is a classic favorite that deserves a spot on any dessert menu. This cake recipe can be baked in a 9×13″ pan or round pans.

Cake is great! Whoever thought about putting a root vegetable in cake? That’s craaaaaaaazyyyyy. Crazy Good is what it is. But seriously, who thought, “Hey, let’s shred up some carrots and bake it up in a cake and see what happens?” It had to have been a genius. Although it does make a bit of sense, seeing as how carrots naturally contain a large amount of sugar.

You know what else makes sense? Voice to text thingamajigs. Brilliant! Whoever invented that had to be related to the carrot cake inventor. Had to. It’s a mighty handy dandy tool, except when you have a southern accent. Sometimes it struggles a bit. My daughter and I were headed home one night from the grocery store when I realized I had not yet written anything for this recipe. So I asked her to turn on the voice to text thingy while I drove so I could dictate about this Carrot Cake recipe on the way back home:

“Cake is great virtual and it is what it is no cake is great virtual and it just what is it is no tattoo we didn’t get a good remedies do you have a catwell it’s it’s not open anything from Walgreens nope I told dad”

Yep. The voice dictation didn’t turn out as well as this carrot cake did, but when it does work, it’s pretty darn cool.

You know what else is cool? Baking cakes in a 9×13″ pan. There’s only one pan to deal with, which for some reason makes it seem so much easier. I tried a little something different for the photos for this cake. I cut the finished 9×13″ cake in half to make a two layer rectangle cake. Of course it’s just as delicious left as a single layer. The recipe below also can be divided up into round cake pans for a classic round layer cake if you wish.

And let’s not forget the frosting. A delicious Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting recipe is what I recommend to top off this scrumptious cake. With hints of cinnamon it is the perfect compliment to this carrot cake. Find the printable frosting recipe below after the cake recipe.

Happy baking, y’all!

Ingredients for Carrot Cake Recipe

• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• salt
• light brown sugar
• vegetable oil
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• grated carrots
• raisins (optional)

Ingredients for Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• unsalted butter
• confectioners’ sugar
• vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• ground cinnamon
• salt
• cream cheese
• toasted chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

A few Carrot Cake recipe notes:

• Be careful not to over beat the batter. Mix until just combined.
• Raisins shmaisins. I could take them or leave them when it comes to this cake. They are optional with this recipe, but if you choose to use them, I recommend giving them a rough chop. Raisins get kind of weird when baked, and in this cake they can puff up and…well, just be weird. I don’t like it. So if you chop them up, they can’t poof up. Plus smaller bits spread throughout are just nicer.
• This recipe calls for baking in a 9×13-inch cake pan. The cake can be carefully turned out, then frosted, or frost directly in the pan and be done with it. For the photos in this post, I cut the 9×13-inch cake in half to create a rectangle layer cake. It worked great. With that said, if you’d like to bake a round layer cake, the batter should be divided evenly into three 9-inch round cake pans, and baking times adjusted until cake is done (I’d plan on about 35-40 minutes, but always check for doneness before removing from the oven, as, typically, no two ovens bake the same).
• The frosting (oh the frosting!) amount in this recipe is just enough to cover a 9×13-inch cut in half and then layered cake (as shown). Adjust amount needed accordingly.

Carrot Cake Recipe

Originally published March 12, 2015.