Ultimate Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
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Last week I found a stockpile of carrots in the vegetable bin of my fridge. Before setting to work slicing and dicing, staining my cutting board, dulling my knife, and tearing up my uncalloused hands, I paused and, for once, used my brain.
Out came the shredder attachment to my food processor and in about 30 seconds, my pound of carrots had transformed into perfect little shreds. I didn’t even peel them. After a little scrub, down the chute they went. Magic.
With prep work done, I turned to a carrot cake recipe I had saved for years. It appeared in Fine Cooking magazine in 2004 in an article called “Carrot Cake, Perfected.” Why I waited five years to give the recipe a go is beyond me. It is called Ultimate Carrot Cake for a reason. I hope you love it as much as I.
How to Make the Ultimate Carrot Cake, Step by Step
Gather your ingredients:
Place the dry ingredients in a large bowl:
Whisk them together:
No need to peel the carrots, but trim the ends away.
Shred the carrots using the shredder attachment of your food processor or a box grater:
Add them to the bowl and toss to coat:
Then add the beaten eggs and oil:
Stir together until you have a smooth batter:
Transfer to a greased and parchment-lined 9×13-inch pan or two 8-inch pans:
Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean:
Let cool completely before frosting. Meanwhile, make the frosting:
First, place cold cream cheese, sugar, and a pinch of sea salt in a stand mixer.
Beat until light and creamy:
Then add the cold heavy cream and vanilla:
Beat until thick and creamy:
Once the cake is cool, you can frost it:
Here are some old photos of the cake baked in round pans:
Ultimate Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Total Time: 1 hours 50 minutes
- Yield: 1 cake
Description
Source: Fine Cooking Magazine Article: “Carrot Cake, Perfected” by Gregory Case
Note: I have made some modifications to the original recipe. Changes include using a different method to mix the batter, using a different frosting, and using a different method to frost the cake. To find the original, click here.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- Softened butter, for the pan
- 1 lb. carrots
- 2 1/4 cups (295 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (7 g) salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups (315 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) packed brown sugar
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 1/4 cups (264 g) vegetable or grapeseed oil
For the frosting:
- 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese, cold
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
- 2/3 cup (140 g) heavy cream
- pinch sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Position a rack in the bottom third of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×13-inch heavy-duty metal cake pan or two 8-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper for easy removal.
- In a food processor, using the shredder attachment, shred the carrots.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugars. Add the grated carrots and toss to coat. Add the beaten eggs and oil, and stir with a spatula until evenly mixed.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared 9×13-inch pan or divide the batter among the two 8-inch pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 45 – 50 minutes for the 9×13-inch pan, about 30 minutes for the round pans. Let cool on a rack to room temperature.
- If you baked round pans, halve each one crosswise to make 4 round layers total.
- To make the frosting: Beat the cold cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the heavy cream, a pinch of salt, and the vanilla. Beat again until light and fluffy.
Frost the cake:
- If using a 9×13-inch pan: Scrape the frosting onto the center of the cake. With an offset spatula, if you have one, spread the frosting evenly over the surface.
- If using round pans: Set one layer on a plate or cake platter. Top with one quarter (roughly) of the frosting, spreading to cover. Top with another layer of cake and repeat this frosting-spreading-layering process until each layer of cake has a nice layer of frosting.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
77 Comments on “Ultimate Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting”
You guys are adorable! Happy Anniversary and many many more!!
Happy anniversary! WOW you guys have known each other a long time. Even through prepubertal awkwardness!
I am in LOVE with both carrot cake and carrot soup (what, no salad?) 🙂 and those do look perfect– was the cake indeed the best you’ve had? 🙂
Happy Anniversary!
What a beautiful cake! That soup looks good too!
Cheers,
Rosa
Those cakes!!! Oh my. I would love to sink my teeth into one right now. Carrot cake is one of my faves and yours looks wonderful! Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! I can devour those cakes in no time–love carrot cake and that creamy frosting looks delicious. I can swipe my finger right across the screen and lick it clean!
The soup sounds delicious as well and I would love to hear about the flatbreads as they caught my eye the instant I scrolled down!
You always make me miss San Clemente. Carrot cake is my husband’s favorite and i love trying all recipes. This looks like a winner!
carrot cake + cream cheese frosting = win. always. happy anniversary to you, and i’m looking forward to reading more about that flatbread!
Happy Anniversary!
Congratst the 2 of you! That carrot cake looks so good,….mmmmmmmm!!!!!
That soup looks so comforting,…MMMMMMMMMMM!!! Lovely pictures again, my friend!
Great cake. It’s really perfect in every way. What a great way to celebrate!
Happy Anniversary! The carrot cake looks absolutely irresitible…and I know the soup is great because I’ve made that Moosewood Cookbook recipe (and posted on my site, too).
I love this carrot soup. I have made it too. I love the pictures that accompany it. I like the rustic look.
I had to look up Thessaloniki because I had no idea where it was and it piqued my interest. Do you live in Greece. (You tow have not changed much).
The cake… very pretty and delicious sounding. Your picture is WAY better than Fine Cooking. There’s is kind of boring. Yours has lot of texture and interest. Nice!
First of all: Happy anniversary for you two. Love the mini springform and carrot cake. By the way your photos are wonderful.
Those look amazing, but I want the soup recipe too!
Okay, seriously too many beautiful things in one post to comment on! Gorgeous, gorgeous photography, and I LOVE carrot cake… or pretty much carrot anything. Too good.
Happy Anniversary! I like carrot cake, but for me it is just an excuse to eat cream cheese frosting.
Me too! What is the soup recipe? It looks almost as good as the carrot cake.
Happy Anniversary! Carrot cake is my absolute favorite (we had it at our wedding!) and yours looks so fantastic! I still need to try that attachment on my food processor too.
I have to make a carrot cake tomorrow for my nephews birthday! Happy Anniversary!!
Love the mini-cakes! And I really like your pictures. My husband loves carrot cake (and is under the impression that its a “healthy” cake because it has carrots in it) and I always have forgotten carrots somewhere in the fridge so maybe I’ll do some baking this evening…
Happy Anniversary! The cake looks amazing, carrot is my husband’s favorite. He even wanted it for our wedding cake, but I vetoed that 🙂
Oh my, I love both carrot cake and carrot cake! mmmm, yours look wonderful!
Congrats and Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary!
Everything looks delicious, as usual.
That’s the prettiest carrot cake I’ve ever seen.
how did i miss this carrot cake?! i might have to give this a try. the balzano cake is already in heavy holiday rotation 🙂
Hi! Did one recipe supply enough batter for the three mini spring form pans you used? What diameter are they? Thanks!
Rachel, yes, it yielded enough for at least three mini spring form plans — I would say probably more like 6. (When I made it for the post I made three mini pans and about 9 to 12 cupcakes). The pans are 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches tall. I haven’t used them in awhile, but I used to use them for everything. They are perfect for making homemade gifts. I used to make pumpkin cheesecakes every fall and give them as gifts for people. I think I bought mine from Fante’s in Philadelphia many years ago (https://www.fantes.com/) but they are on Amazon as well: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DIX7U?ie=UTF8&tag=alexandrask06-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B0000DIX7U
So good! I had an intense carrot cake craving and this hit the spot! I did burn out the motor on my hand mixer making the frosting so had to finish it with arm power only, still turned out great!!
Great to hear about the cake, Jamie!! Bummer about the hand mixer … so sorry! Thanks for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve been making this carrot cake for years, and it is indeed the best recipe ever. And I do prefer your cream cheese frosting!
So great to hear this, Diana 🙂 🙂 🙂 I had forgotten how much I love this one. I am having a hard time not slicing off a piece every time I open the fridge. Thanks for writing!
My 9 x 13 cake didn’t rise very high. It is only 1 1/8 inches high. What did I do wrong?
Oh shoot! Not sure… is your baking soda fresh? Did you make any other changes?? Sorry for the trouble here.
So good! I reduced the sugar (leaving out 3/4 c in the cake & 3 T in the icing) and subbed apple sauce for half of the oil. They turned out wonderfully. Lovely textures and flavors… Thank you!
Wonderful to hear, Amanda! Always great to hear when less sugar works. Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes.
So easy and delicious. I made this in two 8” pans and made a lovely layered cake. This recipe is fool proof. I made the cake a day in advance and wrapped it overnight. The frosting came together easily and I assembled it before the party. What a hit!
So great to hear this, Kapua! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes 🙂 🙂 🙂