Nothing says, “It’s springtime or Easter!” quite like a slice of delicious Carrot Cake! This is the best of the best!
One of my family’s Easter traditions is Carrot Cake. I always bake one up for Easter Sunday. This is my go-to recipe! I love that it’s impressive and beautiful with the two layers. Decorate it how you like with nuts or extra cream cheese frosting. I chose to keep it simple with chopped pecans.
No matter how you serve it, this cake is absolutely divine!
What are your Easter traditions? Do they include carrot cake? Shredding the carrots is a bit labor intensive, but it’s well worth it! Especially once you take that first bite, you’ll be thanking yourself.
The carrots make it moist and tender and lend incredible flavor! If you’re one of those who think carrots don’t belong in cake, give this one a try! I dare you! I’m pretty sure you’ll love it! 🙂
I shred my carrots super fine, so you almost don’t even notice they’re there.
For Easter dinner, I’ll be serving up baked ham, cheesy potatoes, homemade rolls, green salad or veggies and this cake for dessert! My family looks forward to it! We’ll be having an egg hunt and the kids will have fun surprises in their basket that morning.
I’ve been making this cake for years and I’ll continue to do so every spring! If you love carrot cake, but would rather not make it in layered form, be sure to try this Carrot Cake Sheet Cake! And you definitely wont’ want to miss out on these Carrot Cake Cookies!
The Best Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. table salt
- About 3 cups freshly shredded carrots 6 to 7 carrots, peeled and shredded very finely
- 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
- 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 c. vegetable oil or canola oil
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional
- Frosting:
- 1 pkg. 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature or softened slightly
- 1/2 cup butter softened slightly
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Extra chopped nuts for topping if desired
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease (really well) a 13 by 9-inch baking pan or two 9-inch round pans.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in large bowl; set aside. In a food processor (or by hand like I did), shred carrots finely (you should have about 3 cups); transfer carrots to bowl and set aside.
- In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or in large bowl and using hand-held mixer), beat granulated and brown sugars and eggs on medium-high until thoroughly combined. Reduce speed to medium; with mixer running, add oil in slow, steady stream, being careful to pour oil against inside of bowl (if oil begins to splatter, reduce speed to low until oil is incorporated, then resume adding oil). Increase speed to high and mix until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 45 seconds to 1 minute longer. Turn off mixer and stir in carrots, dry ingredients, and nuts by hand until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.
- Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake just until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes (for two round cake pans-you may need to cook it longer for one 9"x13" pan). Every oven varies, so check it regularly so you don't over-bake it. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for about 20 minutes, then carefully remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
- When cake is cool, mix cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar at medium high speed in clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or in large bowl using handheld mixer) until well combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Frost, decorate with nuts or extra frosting and eat!
Notes
I hope you have a wonderful Easter filled with good company and great food!
For all other Easter desserts, go HERE.
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