Best Carrot Cake Ever

The Best Carrot Cake Ever with Ultra Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting sets the bar for all carrot cakes.

Ultra Rich Carrot Cake

This ultra rich carrot cake is incredibly moist from a generous amount of finely shredded fresh carrots and blanketed with a velvety cream cheese frosting that completes the perfection.  The Best Carrot Cake Ever.

I surprised my husband with a carrot cake for Father's Day this past weekend.  I had made one just the week before for my son-in-law's birthday.  Jim enjoyed it so much, I decided to make him one too.

Carrot Cake is often made around celebrations and holidays and rightfully so, usually for Easter.  It is such a rich and decadent cake that deserves all the compliments and praises.

I grew up eating a recipe that was simple and somewhat boring.  It is so funny. I really thought it was the best.  Until I started working with a recipe of my own.  

My daughter put me onto a recipe that called for pineapple in the cake and a generous amount of cream cheese in the frosting.  For me, this was the recipe I had been looking for.   

When I made the cake for Jim this past weekend, I decided to tweak the recipe a little more.  I left the nuts in the cake and added another cup of shredded carrots.

I increased the brown sugar in the cake and the vanilla to a tablespoon in the frosting.  I also left out the ginger in the cake.

No one in my family likes raisins in the Carrot Cake, but feel free to add them and pecans if you prefer. 

This carrot cake can be made quickly and easily without any fancy equipment.  I used my hand mixer to mix the cake and frosting.  I also used my box grater using the side with the fine blades. 

Not only is this The Best Carrot Cake Ever, but it is also a cinch to make.  There is no creaming butter for five minutes, separating eggs, or folding egg whites.  Did I say quick and easy?

I hope you will get to make the cake soon.

Enjoy!

WHERE CAN I FIND THE RECIPE?  TAKE ME TO THE RECIPE FOR THE UTRA RICH CARROT CAKE

Below, under the next heading, I give a list of preferred ingredients, tips, and cooking instructions for Ultra Rich Carrot Cake and similar recipe ideas you can have.

You can also scroll down to the bottom, where you will find a full printable recipe card with the amounts of the ingredients, complete instructions, and notes.

TIPS AND TIDBITS TO PREPARE THE ULTRA RICH CARROT CAKE

Carrots.  Use only fresh grated carrots and peel them before grating.  If not grated, the skin on the carrots will be bitter and tends to give a green tint to the batter when baked.  I like to grate the carrots with a medium or small grate; a too large grate will not distribute well in the batter.  The fresh grated carrots release the purest carrot texture, making the cake moist and structurally sturdy.

Pecans.  I like to use pecans in the recipe, but walnuts would be delicious, too.  While the oven is preheating, this is a good time to toast the pecans or walnuts.

Add in ingredients.  We do not like raisons in our carrot cake, but you can add them if you do.  Adjust the amount of the pecans to not overcomplicate the cake layers.

Sift the dry ingredients.  Sift the dry ingredients to ensure the spices are blended well in the batter.   

Do not overmix.  Once the dry ingredients are just incorporated into the batter, stop mixing.  Overmixing will yield a tough and dense cake.

Do not overbake.  Check the cake at the 25-minute mark for the toothpick to have light, moist crumbs, not a clean toothpick.

Let the cake layers cool.  The cake layers must cool completely before trying to frost them.  The cake is tender and delicate, so you do not want to break it up.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO PREPARE THE ULTRA RICH CARROT CAKE

Large mixing bowl

Hand mixer
Measuring cups and spoons
Three 9-inch cake pans
Three 9-inch parchment cake pan liners
Flour
Sugar
Brown sugar
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Vegetable or canola oil
Buttermilk
Eggs
Vanilla
Crushed pineapple
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Fresh whole carrots
Cream cheese
Butter
Confectioner sugar
Chopped pecans

HOW TO PREPARE ULTRA RICH CARROT CAKE

CAKE.

Have all the ingredients at room temperature before preparing the cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare three 9-inch round cake pans by lightly coating the pans with cooking spray such as PAM.  

Line the three cake pans with 9-inch round parchment paper liners; set aside.

Using a hand mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and pineapple at low speed in a large mixing bowl.

Using a large sifter, sift flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt onto a sheet of parchment paper.  

Pull the ends of the parchment paper together and funnel the flour into the wet ingredients.  Mix until all ingredients are incorporated, but not too much.  

Fold the shredded carrots into the batter until evenly distributed.  

Pour the batter into the prepared pans.  Bake on the center oven rack until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry with barely any crumbs left on it.  About 23-25 minutes.
Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes before inverting them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cakes are cooling, prepare the cream cheese frosting.

FROSTING.

In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until creamy smooth. Add a splash of half-and-half if needed to get a smooth, spreadable texture.

After the cake is cooled completely, arrange the layers.

Place one layer on a cake platter.  Scoop about 3/4 cup of the cream cheese frosting on the first layer.  

Spread evenly across the layer to the edge.  

Repeat this with the other two layers, frosting the sides after the final layer.

Pour chopped pecans into the palm of one hand, pressing and pulling the chopped pecans along the sides of the frosting while holding the cake plater with the other hand.  I like to just add pecans to the sides of the cake, but feel free to add them to the top, too.

Place the frosted cake in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, approximately 30-40 minutes.  Does not have to be refrigerated for leftovers. 

WHERE YOU MAY SEE THIS RECIPE

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