Jump to RecipeRate Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

This easy One Bowl Carrot Cake is tender, moist and incredibly flavorful! Layer with my favorite Cream Cheese Buttercream or even the boozy Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting for an easy and epic cake!

One Bowl Carrot Cake Black Plate
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake Stunning Crumb
FREE! My Best Fall Dessert Recipes!
Subscribe for a pastry chef’s best Fall recipes straight to your inbox!

I’ve already shared my recipe for the Best Ever Carrot Cake and carrot cake cupcakes, which is the recipe I make for clients and also the very same one I made for my hubs’ Grooms Cake. But sometimes you are short on time and/or patience (Who, me?) and you don’t feel like breaking out the mixer to make a whole egg foam extravaganza.

One Bowl Carrot Cake Interior

Time for the One Bowl Carrot Cake to make its grand entrance! You can make it all in one bowl, or not, baker’s choice.

I did whisk my dry ingredients separately because you can take the pastry chef out of the professional kitchen but you cannot force her to whisk everything together willy-nilly. You cannot.

One Bowl Carrot Cake Overhead

After I perfected the one bowl brownie and one bowl chocolate cake this year, I just had to try my hand at a carrot cake. One Bowl Challenge accepted!

Side View of Dessert

Unlike my other non-one bowl carrot cake, I mixed in all the things here. I love raisins so I threw them in. You can too or you can leave them in the cupboard for your chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. You’ll get no shade from me.  If you enjoy a cake with all the mix-ins then you should also try Hummingbird Cake!

One Bowl Carrot Cake Slice vintage fork

If you’ve been following along on the CLF journey these past years and years, you’ll remember that I have a real soft spot for carrot cake. It is my husband’s favorite type of one bowl cake (and he’s my favorite human).

Showstopping Dessert
5 from 47 ratings

One Bowl Carrot Cake

by Chef Lindsey
This easy One Bowl Carrot Cake is tender, moist and incredibly flavorful! Layer with my favorite Cream Cheese Buttercream or even the boozy Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting for an easy and epic cake!
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Assembly/Cool: 2 hours 20 minutes
Total: 1 hour
Servings: 22 people
Pin Recipe Comment Print Recipe

Ingredients 
 

The Best Cream Cheese Buttercream

Instructions 

Prepare the cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 350℉ conventional. Prepare cake pans with parchment paper and nonstick cooking spray.
  • In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl whisk eggs until smooth. Slowly whisk in the oil to emulsify. They should be pale and voluminous.
  • Whisk in the sugars, then fold in the dry ingredient mixture.
  • Fold in carrots, walnuts and raisins.
  • Divide between the prepared cake pans and bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with only a few clinging crumbs.
  • Allow to cool in pans 10 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Prepare Cream Cheese Buttercream:

  • Cream together cream cheese, butter, and sugar until smooth.
  • Add lemon juice and extract. If it gets too warm, chill it. Just pop the whole bowl and attachments in the fridge and give it an hour.
  • Beat with the paddle attachment on your stand mixer. Breathe. It’s just buttercream.

Assembly:

  • Once cake is cool, layer with buttercream!
  • For easiest slicing, chill before serving. This cake is DELIGHTFUL at room temperature though.

Notes

Presentation – For the cleanest slices, chill the cake before serving and slice with a sharp knife or a serrated knife!
Flavor Tips – You cannot substitute for freshly shredded carrots that you squeeze of excess moisture. I use cheesecloth or a tea-towel in a pinch. You can use pre-grated carrots but they will be fatter and have variable amounts of moisture.
Technique – Be sure to allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in their pans before turning out to cool completely, otherwise (even with properly prepared pans) the layers might not come out in one beautiful piece. 
Helpful Tools – Could I make this cake completely in one bowl? There is an important distinction between “can” and “should” in pastry. Can you mix this all in one bowl, yes. Should you mix it all in one bowl, perhaps a second momentary bowl is ok to pull out of the cupboard. Pre-whisking together the dry ingredients has two benefits: distributing the leavening and spices in the flour, and allowing for the fastest incorporation with the wet ingredients. Mixing it all in one bowl can more easily lead to an overmixed cake.
Variations – You can omit the raisins and walnuts, or substitute for another dried fruit or nut of your choosing. If you don’t have light brown sugar on hand, you can absolutely substitute dark brown sugar in equal amounts. The flavor will be a bit more robust but you will still get all the benefits of the added moisture and caramel notes.
Storage – Store unfrosted carrot cake well-wrapped at room temperature or freeze it! Unfrosted Carrot Cake will keep at room temperature for 3 days, refrigerated for a week or frozen for up to two months! Store unused cream cheese buttercream in an airtight, clean container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Buttercream can be frozen for longer storage. Once frosted, cake can be kept at room temperature for up to three days before the buttercream spoils. For longer storage, store in the refrigerator.
Yield: 2 layer, 9” Cake

Nutrition

Calories: 440kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 82mg | Sodium: 261mg | Potassium: 199mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 4583IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Calories: 440
Like this? Leave a comment below!

Hi, I’m Chef Lindsey!

I am the baker, recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind Chef Lindsey Farr. I believe in delicious homemade food and the power of dessert!

More About Me

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




12 Comments

  1. CAKE LOOKS AND SOUNDS DELICIOUS, BUT RECIPE DOES NOT MENTION THE OVEN TEMPERATURE. WOULD LOVE TO TRY IT BUT CAN YOU PLEASE SEND TEMPERATURE OVEN SHOULD
    BE. THANK YOU.

    Reply

    1. Goodness, Anna! I am so sorry. Bake it at 350 degrees F. I will update the recipe ASAP. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.

      Reply

  2. 5 stars
    Carrot cake is my favorite cake, and this recipe is just master piece. The cake is sweet enough but too much with a sour twist. I just cannot get enough.

    Reply

  3. 5 stars
    My 71 year old Daddy LOVES carrot cake and my Mom has always made the best – but, she now has dimensia and never wrote down her recipe. I have searched the whole internet for a version that I could make without being overwhelmed.

    At first, the long list of ingredients scared me, but you did such a great job with the instructions that we all got to enjoy homemade carrot cake this past weekend for the first time in 2 years!! Thank you!! I’d give this a million stars if I could!

    Reply