This incredibly moist carrot cake is PERFECT! Beautiful aromatic spices wrap around the carrots and nuts in this cake. Topped with rich cream cheese frosting, this carrot cake really is delicious. Made from scratch and super easy, you will love this recipe.
I am rather picky when it comes to carrot cake. I am not a fan of the super dense carrot cake recipes. I like a fluffier cake. That is equally moist. It has to have nuts in the batter, lots of spices and a rich, not too sweet, cream cheese frosting.
I use both walnuts and pecans in this recipe, because, well why not? Carrot cakes are great with pecans and equally as good with walnuts, so I chose to use both. It was a good choice.
Now, for the moisture in this cake I chose to use yogurt. Yogurt is great to use in baked goods. Not only does it add moisture, but it adds a nice tangy flavor that helps balance out the sweetness.
In addition to balancing out the sweetness and adding moisture, the yogurt reacts with the baking soda in the recipe to make the cake fluffier. You can substitute yogurt for sour cream in most recipes.
Tips for Making Carrot Cake
- Shred your carrots with a food processor to save time. I like to use the smallest hole on the shredding blade on my food processor.
- Toss the carrots and nuts in with the flour to coat everything. This will help prevent clumping of the carrots and keep everything from sinking to the bottom of the pan while baking.
- When making the frosting be sure to start with softened butter and cream cheese. This will help prevent any clumps in your frosting.
This cake is the perfect dessert for Easter get togethers, or any occasion. I baked the cake in a 9"x13" pan and decorated it in the pan. I decorated the cake by lining out the cake portions and decorating each piece with a frosted carrot and nuts. By doing this everyone knows how big of a piece to get. Plus, it's super cute!
I used a small circle piping tip (Wilton Number 2) for the carrot and a Wilton Number 42 piping tip for the leaves. If you do not have piping tips you can use a bag with a small hole cut into the corner to pipe the carrots.
Or just frost the cake and top is with the toasted nuts!
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Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review below, I would love to hear how it turned out! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📖 Recipe
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 4 Large eggs
- ½ cup oil vegetable, canola or melted coconut
- ¾ cup plain yogurt vanilla flavored will work too
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup carrots shredded
- 4 oz pecans toasted and chopped
- 4 oz walnuts toasted and chopped
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 oz cream cheese softened
- 4 oz butter softened
- 1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9"x13" rectangular baking dish. In a large bowl mix together both sugars, eggs, oil, yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix well.
- In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, all of the spices and the salt. Mix well.
- Next add in the carrots and 1.5 cups of the nuts. Reserve the rest of the nuts for decorating the cake. Using your hands, mix until all of the carrots and nuts are coated with the flour and there are no clumps of carrots.
- Now add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Place on a cooling rack and allow to completely cool before frosting.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Make sure there are no clumps before adding the powdered sugar. Next add in the powdered sugar, a little at a time until completely combined. Finally, add in the vanilla, mix well. Your frosting is ready to be used.
Shelly R. says
I'm with you, I don't like raisins in my carrot cake either. I used pecans because I didn't have walnuts. The cake is so moist and delicious! I will definitely be making it again. Thanks for the recipe!
Simply Scratch Made says
Thank you!