[X]

Home > Recipes > Classic Carrot Cake

Classic Carrot Cake Recipe

Classic Carrot Cake Recipe photo by Taste of Home

Read reviews (46)

Rate recipe

I entered this yummy, moist carrot cake in a Colorado Outfitters Association dessert contest, and it took first place! —Cheri Eby, Gunnison, Colorado

[X]

Rate Classic Carrot Cake Recipe

Click on stars to rate

Would you make this recipe again?

Write a review

[X]

Classic Carrot Cake Recipe

Prep: 30 min. Bake: 35 min. + cooling

Yield: 12 Servings

30 35 65

Ingredients

1 can (8 ounces) unsweetened crushed pineapple
2 cups shredded carrots
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
FROSTING:
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

Drain pineapple, reserving 2 tablespoons juice (discard remaining juice or save for another use). In a large bowl, beat the carrots, eggs, sugars, oil, pineapple and reserved juice until well blended. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gradually beat into pineapple mixture until blended. Stir in walnuts.
Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
For frosting, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread over cake. Yield: 12 servings.

Originally published as Classic Carrot Cake in Taste of Home February/March 2008, p15

Recipe Slideshows

Browse slideshows featuring our best recipes, holiday ideas, easy how-tos, cooking tips, and more!

Get Recipes >

Top 10 Recipes

A collection of our favorite, highest-rated recipes—including the best dessert, dinner and holiday recipes.

Get Recipes >

Reviews for Classic Carrot Cake

Classic Carrot Cake

Tell us what you think of this recipe.
Did you modify it? Would you make it again? Rate it today! >

Rate and Review this Recipe

(1-10) of 46 reviews

Sort Reviews:

Reviewed on Apr. 02, 2013 by BeaDaNurse

I tried this recipe for Easter. It's a great place to start -- but not quite there yet. It was over-the-top too sweet for my taste (and I love sweet stuff). And the carrot flavor got lost in the shuffle. I will be tweaking this recipe and test driving it again in the future by decreasing the sugar to a total of 1 1/2 cups (3/4 c. white and 3/4 c. brown), and increasing the shredded carrots to 3 cups.

As for the frosting, I was very skeptical of using only 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar -- but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and stuck with the original recipe. And I loved it. Using the smaller amount of powdered sugar let the cream cheese flavor shine through. Of course, you could never use it to pipe. (But that is true of all cream cheese frostings.)

I did make this cake in two 9-inch cake pans as written and tested the cake after 30 minutes. It was spot on. I was afraid the cream cheese frosting would melt down the sides of the cake, but it held up fine with keeping it in the refrigerator. My husband can't stay out of it!

Reviewed on Mar. 29, 2013 by jenvaz

best carrot cake ever!!

Reviewed on Mar. 02, 2013 by jackstrat

The cake part was very good--rave reviews at our Church Potluck. However, the frosting, IMHO is off a bit. I used the better part of 5 cups of confectioner's sugar and 3 tsp of vanilla to get it "right". I figure the reviewer who went with 1 pkg cream cheese and 2 cups sugar is probably close to perfect.

Reviewed on Feb. 01, 2013 by danalbell

This is now my go-to recipe for carrot cake. It is unbelievably good!

Reviewed on Aug. 28, 2012 by delowenstein

I definitely am going to try this recipe and then I'll post the results! It sounds delicious! Dawn E. Lowenstein

Reviewed on Apr. 18, 2012 by trevenna

NO FLAVOR..AN FELL IN THE MIDDLE WHEN I TOOK OUT OF THE OVEN...

FROSTING WASN'T VERY SWEET..COULD OF USED LESS CREAM CHEESE AN MORE 10XX SURGAR...

Reviewed on Apr. 07, 2012 by nat.maillet

amazing recipe! everyone loves it! do you think you can make it as cupcakes?

Reviewed on Apr. 02, 2012 by tinker99

This was excellent! Very moist and delicious. I will definitely make this again. Best recipe I've ever had for carrot cake.

Reviewed on Mar. 29, 2012 by Briadona

Sorry but can't agree with most reviewers here. Definitely have much better recipes for carrot cake. Think the dark brown sugar made it too dark and gave it a crumbly texture. Also by the time the cake was done the edges and some of the bottom were slightly burnt. Also too much icing for the cake pan size. Had planned to wow company but had to store buy another dessert in this case.

Reviewed on Mar. 12, 2012 by acashen33

I made this for my daughter's birthday party and everyone loved it!!

I made a couple changes just to make it a bit healthier. I didn't drain the pineapple. i used only egg whites. 1/2 cup applesauce in place of all the oil. I split the flour 50/50 with whole wheat flour and all purpose flour and I used 1 fat free cream cheese and 1 reduced fat cream cheese. I was fantastic!

View all >