Carrot Cake
on Feb 18, 2023, Updated Jul 09, 2024
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I was first introduced to carrot cake when I moved to Canada 🇨🇦 in grade school. Growing up in Bulgaria and Greece, I had never had a cake made with carrots, zucchini, or bananas. My family and I initially thought vegetables in cake was an odd concept, but after one bite, we all fell in love. And I’m confident you will love the natural sweetness and subtle earthiness that freshly grated carrots 🥕 brings to this delicious cake. I’ve added my Modern Nonna twist to make this a bit more nutritious and wholesome with nuts, healthy avocado oil in place of butter, and loads of carrots.
Why You’ll Love Carrot Cake
My Carrot Cake recipe is easy to prepare, incredibly moist, and not too sweet. Cinnamon and nutmeg spice up the batter, evoking cozy autumnal feelings 🍂. Freshly grated carrots brighten up the flavor and transform the cake a beautiful orange color 🧡. Chopped walnuts add an unexpected crunch and added nutrition. Everything comes together in one bowl and bakes up in a loaf tin, for easy snackable slices 😉.
How to Prepare Carrot Cake
👩🍳 Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
🥚 In a large bowl, add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until combined.
🥛 Then, add the oil and milk and whisk again. Stir in the grated carrots using a silicone spatula.
💪 Next, add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg if using and stir until you have a thick pourable batter. Fold in the crushed walnuts, if using.
🔥 Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Give it a tap or gently shake to distribute the batter evenly. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center of the loaf clean. Let the loaf cool completely before icing.
😋 To make the icing, in a bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and butter. Using a hand-held electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the powdered sugar and combine, using a silicone or rubber spatula. Mix until silky smooth.
🍰 Spread the icing evenly onto the cake, slice, and enjoy!
Nonna’s Tip
Cool the cake completely before you add the icing. I like to chill my icing in the fridge for about 10 minutes so it’s easier to spread. 🎂
Variations and Substitutions for Carrot Cake
- Instead of walnuts, try your favorite nut, such as cashews, almonds, or pistachios. 🥜
- If you have a nut allergy, skip the walnuts and add raisins, shredded coconut, and/or pumpkin seeds instead.
- Milk not a part of your diet? 🥛 You can use any plant milk of choice, such as almond or oat milk. You can also use a dairy-free cream cheese for the icing as well.
- The cream cheese icing is optional. If you want a lighter, lower calorie cake you can absolutely skip this step.
- Make these into muffins or cupcakes! The bake time will be 15 to 20 minutes total; keep a close eye on them so they don’t over-bake.
- Use any neutral oil you like. You can also use coconut oil but it will give the cake a hint of coconut flavor. 🥥
Similar Recipes
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Orange Lemon Cake
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Best Served With
- Coffee or tea 🫖
- Other loaf cakes, like my Clementine Cake or cookies with a brunch
Common Questions
While 1 cup of flour weighs 130g in my kitchen, it might weigh anywhere from 120 to 145g in your kitchen and there’s a few reasons for that. The weight of ingredients may vary due to the brand of ingredients, the brand and style (wet vs dry) of measuring cups and spoons, and the technique for measuring into cups: scooping and leveling versus spooning the ingredients into the cup measure.
Certainly, this recipe will work in a 6 inch cake pan.
I have not tried making this recipe with a gluten-free flour, such as almond flour. If you substitute please add a little at a time and stir in between each addition until you have a thick pourable batter. Check out the comments below for some suggestions on making this a gluten-free cake.
Although I have not tried making this recipe egg-free, you can try experimenting by using a chia egg, flax egg or various vegan alternatives.
When using baking powder, always check the expiration date. Expired baking powder will not help your recipe rise in the oven, and you’ll have a sad, deflated cake. You can test if your baking powder has expired by adding ½ teaspoon baking powder to ¼ cup hot water. If the water bubbles up, it’s not expired; if it does not bubble, it’s expired and should be tossed.
Yes, the unfrosted cake can be frozen either as a whole loaf, or individually wrapped slices. Wrap tightly in parchment paper, followed by tin foil or plastic wrap and store inside a tightly sealed plastic bag or food container.
I have found the flavors of this cake are perfectly balanced without salt. However, you may choose to add a pinch of salt to the batter.
The Easiest Carrot Cake
Video
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
- ½ cup avocado oil, or any neutral oil
- ½ cup milk
- 2 large carrots, grated
- 1 + ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder, (make sure it's not expired*)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg, (optional)
- ½ cup walnuts, crushed (optional)
Cream Cheese Icing
- ½ cup cream cheese, softened to room temp
- ¼ cup butter, softened to room temp
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until combined.
- Add the oil and milk and whisk again. Stir in the grated carrots using a silicone spatula.
- Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg if using and stir until you have a thick pourable batter. Fold in the crushed walnuts, if using.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Give it a tap or gently shake to distribute the batter evenly. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center of the loaf clean. Let the loaf cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, in a bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and butter. Using a hand-held electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the powdered sugar and combine, using a silicone or rubber spatula. (I switch to a spatula here because the electric mixer will send the powdered sugar flying all over the kitchen.) Mix until silky smooth.
- If the icing is too soft, put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm up, before spreading it on the cake.
- Spread the icing evenly onto the cake, slice, and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just made this and I’m so excited to try it!! I’m currently waiting impatiently for it to be ready. The apartment smells amazing
SO SO EXCITED! Hope you loveeee it
Just made your carrot cake! Incredible! My 4yo is celiac so made it gluten free by following your recipe exactly- but omitting regular flour for 100g buckwheat flour and 80g almond flour with a half tsp of xantham gum. We cooked at the same temperature but it only needed 30mins. We did half the amount of sugar in the icing for our young kids sake, but honestly it was perfect, so moist and delicious no one knew the difference! Thank you so much!
Nella this is SO HELPFUL to everyone! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing on here. Kisses to you both!
This recipe was absolutely amazing to make. My family enjoyed it and it was so much fun to make. It was also easy to make and it was delicious. I made two loaves. One with Five Roses AP flour and one with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 baking flour. Both were sooo moist.
Makes me so happy to hear Katerina. Kisses!
Love these recipes thank you so much
My pleasure 🙂
Super easy and good to make BUT there was no salt in it and after baking, I feel like it made the flavors bland. I would add a pinch of salt in the future
Hi Naomi, there should be lots of flavor without the salt but you are more than welcome to.
So simple yet so delicious – flavourful, moist and light (I did not ice it). I will definitely be making this on a regular basis for my family. It took 15 minutes to make and 10 minutes to clean up. Win/win for me ! Thanks for the great recipe!
YAYYYYYY SUSAN! You made my day!
Wow incredibly easy! I used spelt flour and the flour ratio and cooking time qas on point with your instructions!! Delicious
SO happy Rosemarie 🙂
Thank you for always being so amazing.
Thank you for adding possible substitutes to this fantastic looking carrot cake.
I will definitely be making this recipe soon ❤️
Elisabeth your words mean so much to me! Thanks for trusting me
Can I use vegetable oil
absolutely. any neutral oil you like 🙂
This recipe was super easy to make. I tried to make it gluten free and this is what I did, for anyone who is interested: I used robin hood all purpose gluten free flour, coconut sugar, almond milk and coconut oil. All other ingredients were just as stated in the recipe. The cake came out nice but I think I’ll add a bit more sugar next time for a sweeter taste as it felt a bit bland probably because coconut sugar is not as sweet as regular sugar.
THANK YOU Katy! This is INCREDIBLY HELPFUL.Kisses
Haven’t made this year but plan to. What size loaf pan do you use for the 50 min bake time?
Hi love it’s a standard size loaf pan which, I will have to measure but you can also find it linked in my Amazon stores as well