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You know this is the best carrot cake recipe because it’s the one that BEAT BOBBY FLAY! The cake is moist, tender, and perfectly spiced, ensuring it will be the best and most flavorful carrot cake you’ll ever have!
The cake is moist, tender, packed with carrots, and generously spiced! It is layered with cream cheese buttercream frosting, making it the perfect carrot cake for a dinner party, pot luck or Easter! Just like with hummingbird cake or this banana cake with cream cheese frosting, it’s all about the delicious, tangy buttercream!
If you are looking to make an equally delicious cake in just one bowl with a whisk, make this easy carrot cake recipe or this moist chocolate cake recipe instead. Forgo the cake entirely and make carrot cake scones!
Table of Contents
Why This is the Best Carrot Cake Recipe
- The unique mixing method keeps this cake moist for a week! The eggs and sugar are whipped together until they triple in volume (ribbon stage). Then, the oil is slowly drizzled into the whipped egg foam. This emulsifies the batter, making a light, airy, moist, but not greasy cake.
- Maximum carrots. When I say carrot cake, I mean it! There is just enough batter to coat the carrots and walnuts, meaning maximum flavor. It’s going to taste AMAZING.
- Perfectly spiced. This cake contains a generous amount of cinnamon. If possible, use your best cinnamon, so grab some Ceylon or Saigon cinnamon and get to work.
Professional Tips for Making The Best Carrot Cake Recipe
- Shred your own carrots. Pre-shredded carrots are dryer and thicker than the ones you do yourself. Peel, shred, and squeeze for the perfect cake. You can also use your food processor with a shredding attachment to save time and your hand!
- Use room-temperature butter and cream cheese. For the best cream cheese buttercream, your butter and cream cheese need to be at room temperature to ensure there are no lumps. If they are straight from the fridge, cream them both separately in your stand mixer before mixing them together.
- Don’t overmix. This mixing method truly creates the best carrot cake, but you don’t want to lose all that volume you whipped into your eggs by overmixing.
Ingredients & Substitutions
For the cake:
- All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour has just the right amount of gluten to make a tender, soft cake. You can substitute pastry flour, but I would not suggest substituting cake flour. It doesn’t have enough gluten to support all that oil and carrots.
- Sugar: I use granulated sugar in this cake. It is used for flavor reasons and to aid in leavening, moisture, texture, and stability.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder: The baking soda reacts with the lemon juice, and the baking powder reacts with the heat, giving you double the rise. This allows for a much more even and strong rise to give you the perfect crumb.
- Cinnamon: As we know from my cinnamon scones, I love the warming spice cinnamon provides. In this cake, I use Saigon cinnamon, but any cinnamon will do.
- Kosher Salt
- Eggs: Whole eggs allow you to emulsify all that oil into the batter, resulting in a moist, not greasy, cake.
- Vegetable Oil: Vegetable oil makes this cake exceptionally moist. I emulsify it into the sugar and eggs to make the batter extra moist and not greasy. Be sure to choose a neutral oil like canola oil because there is enough in this cake that you will taste it if you use olive oil, coconut oil, or a blend. You can substitute oil for melted butter, but the cake will not be as moist.
- Lemon Juice: As I mentioned in my lemon blondies, my motto for citrus is that fresh is always best. If you must use store-bought, try to find a frozen option, such as frozen fresh lemon juice.
- Carrots: I use freshly peeled, grated, and squeezed carrots for carrot cake. You absolutely can substitute pre-shredded carrots, store-bought carrots. The cake will still be delightful. It will just be EVEN BETTER if you shred them fresh.
- Walnuts: Walnuts are optional here. I lightly toast them first to bring out their best flavor when I use them.
For the Buttercream:
- Butter: I use unsalted butter for this buttercream to add stability to the cream cheese, ensuring it will firm up slightly when cold and hold those cake layers.
- Cream Cheese: I use original Philadelphia Cream Cheese for all my baked goods. You can use reduced-fat cream cheese but don’t use whipped cream cheese, as it will make the buttercream too soft and unsteady.
- Confectioner’s Sugar: Confectioner’s sugar is a fine powder used for frosting and American buttercream recipes. It creates a smooth, silky buttercream without the application of heat.
- Vanilla Extract
- Lemon Juice: Lemon juice is the key to the best cream cheese frosting. Please don’t skip it! It cuts the sweetness and adds a tang that complements the cream cheese!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Use different spices: I love a spiced carrot cake. I use a generous amount of cinnamon in this recipe, but you could also substitute it with this pumpkin spice recipe or apple pie spice! You could also add ground ginger, nutmeg, or clove for a warmer spiced cake.
- Add some mix-ins: Add toasted and chopped pecans, hazelnuts, or even macadamia nuts! I love this cake with raisins, so you can add up to ½ cup if you like them, too! You can even experiment with adding dark or white chocolate!
- Make it tropical: For a tropical variation, you could add a little dried or crushed pineapple and shredded coconut. You could even add a little coconut milk to the cream cheese frosting in place of the vanilla and some of the lemon. Then top it with toasted coconut!
- Make it boozy: Take inspiration from my carrot cake roll and add some bourbon, rye, brandy, or even a little bit of amaretto to the cream cheese buttercream. 😉
How to Make The Best Carrot Cake
Use these instructions to make the best carrot cake every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
Prepare the ingredients:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350˚F convection (with fan) or 375˚F conventional (no fan) and spray 2, 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with a parchment circle. To make your own, trace the pan on a piece of parchment paper, then cut out a circle.
Step 2: Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
Step 3: Add the lemon juice to the vegetable oil and set aside.
Step 4: Peel and grate the carrots on a medium-sized box grater. Squeeze the excess juice from your carrots using cheesecloth or paper towels; discard or drink it!
Don’t skip squeezing the carrots, and be sure to squeeze them well! Do you know what happens if you don’t? Goo happens! You will get a gummy, gooey cake no matter how long it bakes. Also, use gloves, or you will have orange hands like me in the video 😂
Make the cake:
Step 5: In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs and sugar together until they triple in volume and lighten to a pale yellow, also known as ribbon stage.
What is ribbon stage? Ribbon stage is when the whole egg foam (eggs whipped with sugar) will hold a ribbon on its surface before slowly disappearing.
Step 6: With the mixer running on high (still with the whisk attachment), slowly pour in the vegetable oil mixture and whisk until completely emulsified (i.e. you can’t see any oil). It will deflate a bit, but it will still look like a light yellow cloud.
Pour the oil down the sides of the bowl like you’re making Italian meringue buttercream, or you could end up with oil everywhere.
Step 7: Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and use a rubber spatula to fold in the dry ingredients all at once, just until streaky.
Step 8: Before incorporating all the flour, fold in the walnuts and the grated carrots until the batter is just combined. Please don’t over-mix. If you think it’s done, it is.
Don’t be stressed about the cake batter to mix-in ratio! Power forward with the knowledge that you are making the best carrot cake ever. You want to fold quickly and expeditiously so that you don’t deflate the batter that you just worked so hard to make.
Step 9: Divide the batter between the two prepared pans. If you are feeling extra or just want to ensure they bake evenly, use a scale to divide the batter perfectly.
Step 10: Bake for 25 minutes or until you can gently press on the center and feel resistance. It shouldn’t feel like liquid under there! There is too much oil to use the cake tester. I know, the stress! But you’ve got this.
Step 11: Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool upside-down—yes, upside-down! Let cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting:
Step 12: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the confectioner’s sugar a cup at a time and beat until smooth.
Step 13: Add lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat to incorporate.
If the buttercream gets too warm and seems loose, put the whole thing in the refrigerator: the frosting, mixing bowl, and attachment. Chill and then beat it again.
Assemble the cake:
Step 14: Add about a ⅓ cup frosting on the first layer and spread until evenly covered. Layer on the second cake. Use as much of the remaining frosting as you want to cover the outside! Slice and serve.
Chef Lindsey’s Recipe Tip
This is the ONLY cake that I bake by time over testing. Since there is too much oil for a toothpick to work properly, you’ll need to test for doneness by feel. The cake should provide a little resistance when lightly pressed in the center. When in doubt, bake it 2 more minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store the fully prepared cake at room temperature for one day, in the refrigerator for up a week or frozen for up to 2 months. Make sure it is well wrapped with plastic wrap so as not to take on the flavor of the fridge or freezer. You can also store the baked cakes well wrapped in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for two months. The cream cheese frosting can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for two months.
Carrots turn green when they come in direct contact with unreacted baking soda. To avoid this, whisk together the dry ingredients thoroughly before incorporating them into the batter.
Your carrot cake might be thick because it was underbaked, the carrots weren’t properly squeezed, there is too much moisture, or the oil was not emulsified into the batter properly. The cake could also be overmixed when adding the dry ingredients, knocking out all the air from the cake.
I love serving carrot cake at room temperature with a bit of vanilla bean ice cream, crème anglaise, or a salted caramel sauce. You can’t go wrong with some crunchy, toasted walnuts! Carrot cake is also delightful with this easy lemon curd!
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Best Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Carrot Cake:
- 2 cups all purpose flour or pastry flour if you have it
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 eggs
- 1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup shredded carrots packed
- ½ cup toasted walnuts chopped, optional
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 21 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 18 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Prepare the ingredients:
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F convection (with fan) or 375˚F conventional (no fan) and spray 2, 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with a parchment circle. To make your own, trace the pan on a piece of parchment paper, then cut out a circle.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
- Add the lemon juice to the vegetable oil and set aside.
- Peel and grate the carrots on a medium-sized box grater. Squeeze the excess juice from your carrots using cheesecloth or paper towels; discard or drink it!
Make the cake:
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs and sugar together until they triple in volume and lighten to a pale yellow, also known as ribbon stage.
- With the mixer running on high (still with the whisk attachment), slowly pour in the vegetable oil mixture and whisk until completely emulsified (i.e. you can’t see any oil). It will deflate a bit, but it will still look like a light yellow cloud.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and use a rubber spatula to fold in the dry ingredients all at once, just until streaky.
- Before incorporating all the flour, fold in the walnuts and the grated carrots until the batter is just combined. Please don’t over-mix. If you think it’s done, it is.
- Divide the batter between the two prepared pans. If you are feeling extra or just want to ensure they bake evenly, use a scale to divide the batter perfectly.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until you can gently press on the center and feel resistance. It shouldn’t feel like liquid under there! There is too much oil to use the cake tester. I know, the stress! But you’ve got this.
- Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool upside-down—yes, upside-down! Let cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the confectioner’s sugar a cup at a time and beat until smooth.
- Add lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat to incorporate.
Assemble the cake:
- Add about a ⅓ cup frosting on the first layer and spread until evenly covered. Layer on the second cake. Use as much of the remaining frosting as you want to cover the outside! Slice and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested cake recipe. Be sure to check out this classic yellow cake next or this rich devil’s food cake!
On Beat Bobby Flay you used coconut and candied walnuts. I would like that recipe please.
Thank you
Hi Judy! To be 100% honest, I totally blacked out during filming because it was such an intense moment!
I recall using walnuts in my carrot cake (like I do in the recipe on the blog). As for coconut, I made a variation of my pepita brittle with coconut since one of the judges was allergic to nuts. I believe I used that during the first round of the competition. Brittle is absolutely an entire section of my little black book of chef’s secrets, it really brings desserts to the next level! Hope that helps, and happy baking!