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5 from 4 votes

Best Ever Carrot Cake

This carrot cake has an amazingly moist crumb, a perfect touch of cinnamon, and a smooth cream cheese frosting, making it the best ever carrot cake. It works for a layered, loaf, or bundt cake, making it an ideal cake for bakers of all levels.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Author: Lori Vaughn

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 cups flour, spooned and leveled
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 2 ½ tsp vanilla
  • 4 cups grated carrots
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting

  • 8 oz softened cream cheese
  • 1 lb powdered sugar
  • 1 TB vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • In a large bowl combine oil, sugar, and eggs. Beat well.
  • Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.
  • Mix in vanilla, carrots, and optional chopped walnuts.
  • Pour into a greased bundt pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes until moist crumbs come out on toothpick.
  • Let it sit for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
  • Beat frosting ingredients together until smooth. Frost cake. If desired, sprinkle additional nuts on top.

Notes

This cake converts well to a loaf or layered cake, just adjust the baking time. Most loaf cakes bake for about 50 minutes depending on the pan, and an 8" cake pan will bake for about 25 minutes.