World's Best Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
The world's best carrot cake recipe is so simple but has the absolute best flavor and perfectly moist texture, and is then piled high with the most heavenly, fluffy and rich cream cheese frosting.
Servings:16 servings
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ¼ cups vegetable or canola oil
- ⅔ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 1 ¾ cups brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cups shredded carrot
- optional: ½ cup raisins and/or ½ cup chopped pecans
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 ounces cream cheese , (2 8-ounce bricks), softened
- 1 cup butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract , OR 1 teaspoons vanilla + 2 teaspoons maple extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 cups powdered sugar, or as needed
- chopped pecans for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8-inch or three 9-inch cake pans.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl cream together oil, applesauce, vanilla, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time, then stir in carrots. (If adding raisins and/or nuts stir in now).
- Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until there are no more streaks of flour in the batter. Divide between prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick into the center comes out clean.
- Turn cakes out onto cooling racks and allow to cool.
- Prepare the frosting while your cakes cool. In a sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Once completely melted, continue to cook 2-4 minutes longer until the color goes from pale yellow to a dark amber color. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl cream together cream cheese and butter. Mix in vanilla and salt. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time mixing after each, until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
- Assemble cake by spreading frosting on top of all three layers, then spreading around the sides of the cake. Top with chopped pecans if desired and store in airtight container until ready to serve.
Notes
Pro Tips
- If you don't have three round cake pans, don't worry. You can bake one layer at a time if you only have one pan. Or, if you want to make a larger sheet cake, use a large, 12" x 18" x 3" rectangular cake pan. Bake for 40 minutes and check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center. Bake for 5-minute increments thereafter until a toothpick comes out clean.
- You can buy pre-shredded carrots, but I find that they are often already dried out while they're sitting in the bag waiting for you to purchase them. I much prefer to shred my own carrots on a box grater for best results.
- If you don't have an airtight container that will fit a whole cake, you can put the cake on a large plate, and then put some toothpicks or bamboo skewers into the top of the cake and plastic wrap around the cake and skewers/toothpicks. This method will keep the plastic wrap from touching the icing and pulling it off when you remove it.
Nutrition
Calories: 770 kcal, Carbohydrates: 123 g, Protein: 7 g, Fat: 29 g, Saturated Fat: 20 g, Trans Fat: 1 g, Cholesterol: 103 mg, Sodium: 618 mg, Potassium: 232 mg, Fiber: 2 g, Sugar: 102 g, Vitamin A: 4520 IU, Vitamin C: 2 mg, Calcium: 91 mg, Iron: 2 mg
