No, really. This really is the best homemade carrot cake recipe you’ll ever make. Moist, perfectly spiced, and without getting carrot shreds stuck in your teeth!
Carrot cake is kinda like zucchini desserts. Where the veggie is the secret ingredient that makes the cake moist and adds a level of flavor you can’t quite place but couldn’t live without.
But unlike zucchini, carrots aren’t made up of as much water so you have to put a little more elbow grease into breaking them down before adding them to the batter. And this is where most people fail.
Horribly.
Why is this the best homemade carrot cake recipe?
Because the problem with most carrot cakes is that the carrots are in these giant ass shreds that make you feel like you’re eating both a salad and a cake at the same time.
Gross.
Which is why this carrot cake is better than all the rest. The carrots are practically pureed before being added to the batter so that you can barely tell they’re there. Boom!
Look at that. Just little carrot flecks. As it should be.
I was, admittedly, a carrot cake skeptic for a long time. It’s not one of my mom’s favorite cakes so we didn’t have much chance to eat it growing up. I tried the occasional slice at friends or relatives houses over the years and then I encountered the Carrot Salad Cake somewhere and I refused to ever touch another piece again.
Cut to years of me politely turning down carrot cake left and right + the feelings of sadness about missing out on all that cream cheese frosting. Until I randomly accepted a piece when visiting my college friend’s mom. I dunno why I said yes. (Yes, I do. She scares me.) But I’m glad I did.
Because holy WOW. That cake was moist, perfectly spiced, and had not a giant carrot shred in sight!
I thought I had died and gone to carrot cake heaven. And seeing as how this experience was over 4 years ago I can’t even believe it’s taken me so long to get up the nerve to ask for the recipe.
I’m SO glad I did. And you will be, too. Because this cake is just how I remember it. The perfect crumb, the sweet carrot that’s just barely there doing its thang in the cake batter. And all that to-die-for cream cheese frosting rounding out the party like nobody’s business.
You know you want this cake. You know you need this cake.
Because now you can finally enjoy a piece of carrot cake without feeling like you’re eating a salad every time you take a bite.
Huzzah!
It truly IS the best homemade carrot cake recipe I’ve ever had and pretty soon it’ll be yours, too 😉
Looking for more carrot cake inspiration? I have some for you.
Personally, I don’t like adding raisins to this recipe, but I know a lot of others do. Some people even add pineapple (this may be the baker’s equivalent to the pineapple on pizza debate). If you are a fan of those here is another delicious carrot cake recipe.
I was scrounging around on the internet and ran into something new, but delicious. I need to try these no bake carrot cake bites.
Homemade Carrot Cake
No, really. This really is the best homemade carrot cake recipe you'll ever make. Moist, perfectly spiced, and without getting carrot shreds stuck in your teeth!
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 cups carrot, , finely shredded*
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line two 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Add the carrot, vegetable oil, and eggs and whisk until completely combined.
- Pour into two lined and greased 8" cake tins and bake at 325 degrees for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan completely.
- Fill and frost the cake with a triple batch of this cream cheese frosting before serving.
Notes
*To finely shred carrots I used the smallest grate on my box grater and then put the carrots through a few pulses in my food processor.