Best Homemade Carrot Cake

This is the Best Homemade Carrot Cake recipe because it is a sweet, moist, and rich Carrot Cake made from scratch with pineapple, raisins, and pecans with a smooth cream cheese frosting.

When you want a dessert that everyone will love, make this cake! It makes a perfect Easter Dessert, Thanksgiving Dessert, or Christmas Cake.

You won’t find any boxed cake mixes in the ingredient list of this carrot cake. That is one of the reasons it is the Best Homemade Carrot Cake recipe.

This was my Mother-In-Law’s favorite type of cake. I have been working on perfecting it for years because it was always served at our Easter dinner, and sometimes for Mother’s Day.

After so many years of tweaking, I think I have perfected the recipe and have made the best Homemade Carrot Cake with a smooth cream cheese frosting!

Jump to:

• Why This Is The Best Carrot Cake
• What Do I Need To Make Carrot Cake
• How To Make The Best Carrot Cake
• How To Frost A Carrot Cake
• How To Decorate A Carrot Cake
• Tips For Making the Best Homemade Carrot Cake
• What To Serve With Carrot Cake
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• More Dessert Recipes You’ll Love
• Best Homemade Carrot Cake Recipe

Why This Is The Best Carrot Cake

• No Cake Mix. This is a homemade recipe made from scratch with real ingredients, including shredded carrots, pineapple, raisins, and pecans!
• Texture. This cake is incredibly rich, soft, and extremely moist. Small bits of pecans add a crunch, and raisins add a different texture element that pairs well with the sweetness of the pineapple.
• Caramel Syrup. The caramel syrup is a unique feature of this carrot cake recipe. Warm homemade caramel syrup is poured over the warm layers of cake, and every cake layer absorbs that caramel syrup to make it sweet and moist, and delicious!
• Cream Cheese Frosting. This cream cheese frosting is made with real butter and cream cheese for the smoothest, creamiest cream cheese frosting for carrot cake!

What Do I Need To Make Carrot Cake

Equipment

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• Kitchenaid Stand Mixer or handheld mixer 
• Small mixing bowl
• 3-8” round cake pans
• Medium saucepan
• Offset spatula, optional
• Piping bag and star tip, optional

Carrot Cake Ingredients

Below I discuss the ingredients and possible substitutions in case you don’t have a specific ingredient on hand. However, if you are looking for the specific measurements of each ingredient, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this article, just above the comments, for the printable recipe card, which includes all the ingredients and the specific amounts of each one.

• Flour – All-purpose flour is the typical choice for this cake, however, I have successfully made it with a few different gluten-free flour blends. 
• Baking soda & baking powder – These will work together to make these cake layers rise to the perfect thickness. 
• Salt – This will help enhance all of the flavors in the cake. 
• Cinnamon – This will help add warmth and depth to this cake. 
• Eggs – These aid in the structure as well as moisture. 
• Sugar – I used granulated sugar although you could use a half and half mixture of granulated and brown sugar. 
• Vegetable oil – This will add a lot of moisture as well as softness to the cake. 
• Milk – Whole milk is what I usually use in this cake. However, you could also use 2% milk. 
• Shredded carrots – I like to buy the shredded carrots in a bag but you could just as easily peel and shred carrots. 
• Pineapple chunks – These add so much amazing flavor that you will be surprised with. They also add some moisture. If you do not like pineapple, just leave it out. You can also use crushed pineapple if you do not have the chunked pineapple. 
• Raisins – Raisins add a delicious flavor as well as a different texture. 
• Pecans – Pecans add in flavor as well as a light crunch. 

Caramel Syrup Ingredients

• Butter – This will make the caramel syrup rich and smooth. 
• Corn syrup – Light corn syrup is best used in this recipe. I have not tested this with dark corn syrup. 

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

• Vanilla – This will enhance the cream cheese frosting. 
• Cream cheese – This is the basis and structure of the frosting. 
• Powdered sugar – This will sweeten the frosting. 

How To Make The Best Carrot Cake

1. Whisk Dry Ingredients
   1. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Mix Wet Ingredients
   1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the sugar, milk, vegetable oil, and eggs together. 
3. Add Dry Ingredients To Wet Ingredients
   1. Add in the flour mixture to the egg mixture.  
4. Mix Batter
   1. Mix just until the flour is incorporated.
5. Add In the Mix-Ins
   1. Fold in the shredded carrots, pineapple, raisins, and pecans. 
6. Stir The Batter
   1. Stir the batter until all the carrots, pineapple, raisins, and pecans are evenly distributed throughout the batter
7. Divide The Batter
   1. Divide the batter evenly so that each cake pan gets 1/3 of the total batter..
8. Pour The Batter
   1. Pour the batter into the three prepared cake pans.

How Long To Bake A Carrot Cake

1. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven.
   1. Place into the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
2. Cool The Cake
   1. Place the cake pans onto a cooling rack to cool. 

How To Make The Caramel Syrup

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and butter over medium heat.
2. Whisk constantly so that the sugar does not burn on the bottom of the pan.
3. Once the butter has melted and the sugar has started to melt into the butter, turn to medium-low heat.
4. Continue to whisk and let the sugar continue to melt for 2 minutes.
5. Add in the corn syrup and whisk for 30 seconds.
6. Add in the baking soda.
7. Continue to heat over low heat and whisk for another minute or until the mixture starts to turn a caramel color.
8. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.
9. Pour 1/3 of the Caramel Syrup over the top of each cake layer.
10. Spread the syrup out evenly over each cake layer.

How To Make The Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Combine all of the frosting ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes.
3. When the mixture has turned into the smooth creamy frosting, it is ready. 
4. Remove each layer of cake from the pan and frost each layer of the cake.

How To Frost A Carrot Cake

1. Remove one cake layer from the pan and place it onto a cake stand or plate.
2. Using an offset spatula or a rubber spatula, spread about ¼ c of cream cheese frosting on top of the first layer.
3. Place a second layer on top of the frosting.
4. Spread another ¼ c of frosting onto the second layer.
5. Top with the final layer of cake. I like to put the last layer on bottom up so that it is smooth and flat.
6. Frost the top and sides with all but ⅓ c of frosting if you would like to pipe some frosting on top of the cake. If you do not want to decorate the top with frosting, use all of it on the top and sides.

How To Decorate A Carrot Cake

1. To decorate, sprinkle chopped pecans on top of the cake.
2. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip with the remaining ⅓ c of frosting.
3. Pipe little swirls in a circle by place the piping tip almost directly on top of the cake.
4. Apply a little pressure to the piping bag until frosting starts to come out. Lift up and release pressure to finish off the swirl. To achieve a fairly even circle, I like to pipe on swirl, pipe another one directly opposite of the first one. Continue around the cake doing the same thing. 

Slice And Serve the Carrot Cake

1. Once the cake is frosted and decorated, slice, serve and enjoy!

Tips For Making the Best Homemade Carrot Cake

• Use quality cake pans to bake the cake. It truly makes a difference in how well and how evenly the cake cooks. It is true. The folks at Bakepedia have actually tested cake pans and found this to be true.
• Use parchment paper at the bottom of the cake pan to make it easier to remove the cake. Place a cake pan on top of the parchment paper, draw a line around it with a pencil. Then cut the parchment paper and place it in the bottom of the cake pan.
• Make sure the baking powder and baking soda you are using are fresh. I’ve made this mistake before. If they are not fresh, your cake may not rise.
• Be sure not to over-mix the batter! It is easy to do. The reason that you don’t want to over-mix it is because too much air can get into the batter and cause the cake to fall when it cools.
• Make it easy on yourself and make the cake and frosting the day before you want to serve it. That’s right. It will still be good.
• Cover the cake and keep it at room temperature overnight, and refrigerate the frosting in an air-tight container.

What To Serve With Carrot Cake

• Coffee. I like to serve a hot cup of coffee with carrot cake, or maybe a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate.

See the printable recipe below for all the specific ingredient amounts and step-by-step instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Can I Make This Recipe Ahead of Time?
  • Yes, you can make the cake and frosting up to 2 days ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• How Do I Store Leftovers?
  • Unlike other cakes which can be stored at room temperature, a carrot cake, due to the fresh carrots in it, as well as the cream cheese frosting, needs to be refrigerated in an airtight container.
• Can I Freeze Carrot Cake?
  • Yes. You can freeze a carrot cake for up to 3 months.

More Dessert Recipes You’ll Love

• Glazed Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake
• Moist Chocolate Layer Cake
• Fresh Cranberry Christmas Cake
• Strawberry Upside Down Cake
• Lime Charlotte Icebox Cake

Go ahead and make this Carrot Cake and come back and leave a comment to let me know if you too think it is the Best Homemade Carrot Cake!

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This carrot cake recipe was originally published January 16, 2018, and the recipe, blog text, and photos were updated on March 30, 2021.