King Arthur's Carrot Cake
Moist, dense, and flavorful — who doesn't love carrot cake? Especially when it's topped with rich cream cheese icing. This much-requested recipe is easily customized to taste. We've used all nuts, you can use any combination of add-ins you like, including raisins or coconut; just keep the total of any (or all) additions to 1 1/2 cups.
This recipe is featured in our Bake the Bag challenge: a series of nine recipes that, when baked, take you through an entire 5-pound bag of white whole wheat flour. Want to see the rest of the challenge recipes? Sign up to Bake the Bag!
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
- 3 cups finely grated carrots
- 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts
Frosting
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
- one 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla OR 1/2 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia
- 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon milk or cream; optional, if necessary to thin frosting
Instructions
- To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two 9" round layer pans, or one 9" x 13" pan.
- Beat together the oil, sugar, salt, eggs, spices, and baking soda.
- Weigh your flour; you’ll find its weight by toggling to “ounces” at the top of the ingredient section above. Or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
- Add the flour, stirring until well blended.
- Add the carrots and nuts, and mix until just blended. Pour into the prepared pan(s).
- Bake the cake(s) for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow the cake(s) to cool completely before frosting. If you're using round layer pans, remove the layers from the pans after about 15 minutes, and place them on a rack to cool.
- To make the frosting: Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add the salt and vanilla. Beat in the sugar. Add a teaspoon of milk or cream if the frosting is too stiff to spread; add additional sugar if it's too thin.
- Frost the sheet cake right in the pan. For the layers, frost the top of one layer, top with the second layer, and frost the top and sides of the cake. For helpful tips, see our blog post: How to assemble and frost a layer cake.
- Refrigerate the cake. An hour or so before serving, remove it from the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature. Refrigerate any leftovers, well wrapped, for a day or so; freeze for longer storage.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size 146g
- Servings Per Batch 16
Amount Per Serving:
- Calories 580
- Calories from Fat 342
- Total Fat 38g
- Saturated Fat 9g
- Trans Fat 1g
- Cholesterol 75mg
- Sodium 420mg
- Total Carbohydrate 61g
- Dietary Fiber 1g
- Sugars 47g
- Protein 6g
* The nutrition information provided for this recipe is determined by the ESHA Genesis R&D software program. Substituting any ingredients may change the posted nutrition information.
Tips from our bakers
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Reviews
I made this as a sheet cake last week and it was awesome! We do prefer our desserts less sweet, so I used 1 cup of sugar. Thanks KAF for another great-tasting, whole-grain dessert.
I am not a fan of carrot cake, so when my son asked for a carrot cake for his birthday cake, I came to KAF for a recipe - knowing that you only provide the best taste-tested recipes. Not only was I pleased with the way this carrot cake turned out - I LOVE IT!!! The carrot is not overpowering, the nuts (I used pecans) add just enough texture, and the overall flavor is not too sweet. I will be making this again (minus the frosting) for a relatively healthy snack cake instead of banana bread (which I love but I have a bad reaction to).
I am sitting in my office now (which is just beyond the coffee station) and everyone at work is going NUTS over the cake. The cake is receiving rave reviews in the truest sense of the word. I am blown away by the compliments. And I know they aren't lying to make me feel good because no one knows I baked it. Full disclosure: I used ATK's buttermilk cream cheese frosting recipe (it's tangy and so good), but I'm getting more reviews on the actual cake than anything. Some even mentioned they wanted less frosting next time. This was a hit.
I an allergic to wheat so I spend a lot of time experimenting with recipes. This one is excellent!!!! I replaced the 2 cups of flour with 2 cups of gluten free bisquick and I added 7 oz (or half a small can) of pumpkin puree *since gluten free baked goods tend to be on the dry side. Other then that I followed it to the letter. Everyone loved it. My guests didn't even know it was gluten free.
I browned the butter and cooled it to room temperature before I made the icing. Butterscotch notes to the cream cheese. I recommend it.
I baked this recipe only changes I made was, I added one cup of raisins with pecans , didn't frost the top but made frosting and set it beside it with a butter knife, and set butter and a butter knife on other side , it was great with both.
whole family loved this recipe! will def make again. one question though- is there a way to reduce the sweetness in consideration for my mom who is diabetic? can i just reduce the sugar amounts and get the same results in terms of texture, just less sweet. i know it is cake and should be sweet but any advise would be greatly appreciated. thank you!Thanks for reaching out, Dan! You should be able to reduce the sugar in this cake by 25% without any real differences aside from less sweetness. Carrots have a sweetness of their own, and this really allows the flavors to come out! If you find that works well for you, you can experiment with reducing the sugar by as much as 50% and seeing how that fares, both in terms of taste and texture. We also have a blog post called "Baking with reduced sugar" that will provide tips for not just cakes, but also cookies, breads, and other baked goods. It's a super-handy reference for anyone looking to reduce their sugar intake overall. Happy baking! Kat@KAF
I love this cake. Has anyone baked it as muffins? How long did you bake the muffins?Go ahead and bake this as little cupcakes, Maryann! In a standard muffin pan, they'll like take around 20 minutes. Annabelle@KAF
This recipe is almost identical to the recipe I have used for years...from a Glamour magazine article in the 1970s or 80s. It was a recipe from the model Kim Alexis. The main differences were less oil (only one cup) and the addition of both baking powder and baking soda. Reading thru the comments I do think the extra oil in the KA recipe isn't needed. The Kim Alexis quantity works perfectly for me.
I've found my go to Carrot Cake in this recipe. I've made twice now. The first time I felt like one of the spices (probably the ginger) was the tiniest bit overpowering BUT upon making it a second time I wonder if I didn't get enough carrots in it the first time to balance out the spice. Either way, both times were absolutely delicious and surpassed any bought cake. I will try to make recipe measuring the ingredients by weight to see if that affects overall outcome. My only critique is just a matter of personal preference. If you're like me and don't like ultra sweet frosting and like the tang of the cream cheese to come through, the powdered sugar is reduced drastically. I thought 1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar was sufficient.
