The Best Incredibly Moist Carrot Cake
This easy carrot cake is filled with warming spices, carrots, and pecans. Topped with velvety cream cheese frosting this cake is irresistable!
Servings 1 3 Tiered Cake
Calories 478kcal
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 1 lb carrots peeled and shredded
- 1 cup toasted pecans
- 1 ⅔ cups (335 g) white sugar
- 1 cup (335 g) brown sugar packed
- 1 cup (180 ml) vegetable oil
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ¾ cup (120 ml) apple sauce
- 2 ½ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 oz (452 g) cream cheese block full fat room temperature
- 4 sticks (340 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¾ lb (800 g) powdered sugar
Buttercream Carrots (optional)
- 1 stick (113 g) salted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups (350 g) powdered sugar
- Food coloring orange and green
Instructions
- Preheat the oven and prepare the pans. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare three 8" cake pans. Add a parchment round to the bottom of each pan and grease the parchment paper and the pans.
- Mix the wet ingredients and sugar. In a large mixing bowl, beat the brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, apple sauce, and vanilla together.
- Sift the dry ingredients. In the second large mixing bowl, sift together all-purpose flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and whisk.
- If using pecans, in a separate bowl coat the pecans with 2 tablespoons of the dry ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix together until just combined and scrape the bowl down.
- Fold the carrots and pecans into the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly into three-lined and buttered 8" pans
- Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave the cakes in the pans for about 5-10 minutes before removing them from the pan onto a wire rack to cool.
- Make the cream cheese frosting. Cream the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Whip until light and airy around 3-4 minutes.
- While the mixer is on low, pour in the vanilla and slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. (For a more stabilized easily spreadable frosting, simply add more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.)
- Make buttercream frosting carrots. In a mixing bowl, whisk up the butter until light and creamy. Then use a spatula and fold in the powdered sugar until it forms a thick pipeable consistency. Divide into two bowls and use food coloring to dye one bowl green and one bowl orange. Make sure to add more buttercream to the orange bowl.
- Assemble the cake. Pipe a thick layer of the cream cheese frosting onto the first cooled cake layer, add the second layer then repeat the process until the cake is built. Cover the cake in cream cheese frosting then smooth the side and top.
- Decorate the cake. Using a small round piping tip, pipe the carrots and the stems and add in the touch of pecans around the bottom layer. You can decorate the cake however which way you choose. This is the fun part! Go nuts!
Notes
- Measure your flour correctly. Adding too much flour to the recipe is the most common mistake. The best and easiest way to measure flour is by using a scale. Alternatively, you can fluff the flour with a spoon, then using that same spoon lightly scoop it into your measuring cup, and then use a knife to level it off.
- Make sure all refrigerated ingredients are at room temperature. This is important for your cake to have an even high rise.
- Use freshly grated carrots. Please grate them yourself the moisture from freshly grated carrots cannot be bought!
- Pecans are optional. Pecans add a crunch and depth of flavor but it is not necessary for the cake. You can also substitute the pecans with walnuts.
- If using pecans, lightly dust with a dry mixture. This prevents the nuts from falling to the bottom of the cake.
- Line your cake pans with parchment paper at the bottom of the pan! Place your cake pans on a sheet of parchment paper. Trace the bottom of the cake pan then cut the circles. Grease the pan and the parchment paper. This will guarantee an easy removal of the cakes.
- For perfect rise, use cake strips. For the longest time, I wanted to avoid having that dome shape in my cakes whenever I baked them. I used to have to shave the dome after the cake was baked and I always felt like it was such a waste!
- Let your cake cool to room temperature before frosting. This will prevent you from having a goopy melted-looking cake. Sometimes I pop the cake in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to speed up the cool down time.
- You can easily half this recipe to make cupcakes! Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 20-22 minutes.
- Add-Ins: If you’d like to add raisins or coconut, reduce the pecans to 1/2 cup. Then, add 1 cup of raisins or shredded coconut.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 478kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 130mg | Sodium: 973mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g