The Best Homemade Carrot Cake (Moist Cake Every Time!)

This Carrot Cake recipe will give you the most moist and delicious homemade carrot cake you've ever had! This recipe is totally made from scratch but is easy enough for even a beginner to try! 

Plus, this isn't any ordinary carrot cake recipe, but a healthy version that's packed with ingredients to add more nutritional value to your cake while still making it taste good (or even better!). 

This recipe for Homemade Carrot Cake is truly one of its kind and is perfect for just about any occasion! You're going to fall in love with it when you give it a shot! 

Want to learn how to make this Homemade Carrot Cake? Then keep on reading!

What is a Carrot Cake?

A carrot cake is a moist, dense cake made with carrot shreds and other ingredients. It’s often served as an afternoon snack or dessert. The cake can be sweetened with sugar or honey, but it’s also delicious when the sweetness comes from dried fruit like raisins or currants.

Carrot cakes are usually baked in round cake pans, and sometimes even feature different cake layers. It's the perfect dessert for fall or the holidays, and honestly even makes for the perfect birthday cake!

While it may sound like a tricky cake to make from scratch, it's truly one of the easiest ones out there and something every baker should try at least once! Plus, you don't need any fancy equipment to make this delicious homemade carrot cake either!

What Makes This Carrot Cake Recipe Special?

This healthier Homemade Carrot Cake recipe is my very own made-up recipe; a baker's creation. I made it several times to tweak the ingredients to get it on the healthier side, and still be delicious enough for kids to love. It's not an easy balance, but it's important. My kids absolutely love it.

The Greek yogurt adds that deliciously sour taste to balance out the sweet buttercream frosting. Toasted almond chips finish that irresistible tasty slice of cake, which goes wonderfully with a cup of tea or coffee.

This recipe will make you feel a little less guilty when having a piece of this cake with loads of carrots and healthy ingredients!

Trust me, I'm sure you're going to love this recipe! It's packed with flavor and full of moisture, making it soft and absolutely delicious. This seriously is the best carrot cake recipe out there! 

This stuff is truly delicious! The best thing is that it's a much healthier version than your original carrot cake.

I know, at first, it may be kind of weird having vegetables in a cake, because a lot of us traditionalists growing up in this era are not used to this combination. But it is so good, you will want one piece for breakfast and one for dinner, seriously!

What to Need to Make Homemade Carrot Cake

All you need are some super simple ingredients to make this delicious cake. Here's everything you'll need to make the cake and the delicious cream cheese frosting:

For Homemade Carrot Cake:

• All-purpose flour: To add structure to the cake, we'll be using some simple all-purpose flour in this recipe. Yep, that means no need for any fancy cake flour!
• Spices: We'll also be using some delicious warm spices in this cake batter, namely ground cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Baking soda: Whenever we use any fruit or veggie in a cake, that's when we need some baking soda as well! The acid in it will activate and give you a deliciously moist cake!
• Baking powder: Another leavening agent we'll be using is baking powder to make sure our cake rises to the right level.
• Sea salt: To balance out all the flavors, we'll also be adding a little salt to our homemade carrot cake.

Eggs: We'll also need some room temperature eggs for our cake. Not only will it add structure to it, but also flavor! 
Sugar: To sweeten our carrot cake to the right level, we'll also be using some regular white granulated sugar.
Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract is going to add a beautiful, subtle flavor to our carrot cake. 
Apple sauce: Apple sauce is the perfect alternative to butter and vegetable oil in baked goods, and it'll give you the most delicious moist crumb ever! 
Carrots: Of course, we can't have a carrot cake without some carrots! I've used homegrown carrots in this recipe, but you can use store-bought ones instead as well!

For Cream Cheese Frosting 

• Cream cheese: To make our delicious cream cheese frosting, we'll, first of all, need some softened cream cheese. The flavor goes incredibly well with the carrot cake and you're going to love it!
• Sugar: Next, to sweeten our frosting, we'll add some white sugar to it to get it to the right level of sweetness that goes well with our carrot cake.
• Unsalted butter: We also need some softened unsalted butter in our delicious carrot cake frosting to get it to the right consistency and also add the right richness to it.
• Greek yogurt: We'll need some plain Greek yogurt as well which adds probiotics to the cake, making it healthier, and the flavor also balances out the cream cheese frosting.
• Vanilla extract: To bring it all together, we'll be adding a little vanilla extract to our frosting!

For Topping:

Almonds: As a topping, you can use any kind of nuts you like but I recommend using toasted sliced almonds for the topping and decoration. 

How to Make Homemade Carrot Cake (Step-by-Step)

Making this delicious homemade carrot cake is easier than you think! Here's everything you need to do to make it at home step by step:

How to Prep Ingredients for Carrot Cake

First things first, toast sliced almonds (or any chopped nuts) in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes at 350 F (180 C). Set aside to cool completely before topping the cake.

Next, peel, rinse, and grate carrots. Set them aside as well until ready for use.

How to Make Carrot Cake Batter

Time to make our delicious carrot cake batter! Measure out all dry ingredients, and mix them all together with a wire whisk. Set aside until ready for use.

Next, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Beat eggs and sugar on high for 5 minutes in a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.

Reduce mixing speed to medium/low and add vanilla extract and apple sauce. Mix for another minute or so.

Time to combine our wet ingredients with our dry ingredients! Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and add mixed dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt) into the egg mixture in 4 separate additions.

Carefully mix the dry ingredients with each addition trying not to deflate air pockets as much. I use a wire whisk to mix the first 3 and then a spatula for the last addition of dry ingredients.

Next, use a large spatula to mix in the grated carrots very carefully in 2 additions.

How to Bake Carrot Cake

Let's bake our delicious homemade carrot cake. Divide the batter evenly into 2 - 8” baking pans greased with butter. I use a digital scale to weigh the batter in pans to be precise but you can also eye it.

Bake your cake pans in a preheated oven at 350 F (180 C) for 25 – 30 minutes. Check if the cake is done by using a toothpick. When it's ready, remove it from the oven and let them cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing the cake sponges onto a wire rack.

Cool sponges completely before slicing and frosting. If you're short on time, you may bake the sponges the night before and frost them the next morning.

How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting for Carrot Cake

Let's make our delicious cream cheese frosting. Start by beating softened cream cheese and sugar on high for a minute, scraping down the cream on the sides of the mixer bowl halfway through.

Next, add butter, and beat again until combined.

Then add Greek yogurt, and beat again for about a minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl in the middle of mixing. Add vanilla extract and beat again for another minute. Your delicious frosting is ready to put on the cake!

How to Assemble Carrot Cake

Finally, slice each sponge cake in half. See HERE how I slice my cake sponges with a thread.

Add about 2 cups of cream in between each cake layer. Push some of that cream off the edges of the sponge, for easier icing of the sides of the cake.

Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Top the cake with toasted and cooled nuts. Pop the cake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight for best results as it'll give you a moister cake. 

Your delicious Homemade Carrot Cake is ready to be served!

How to Store Leftover Carrot Cake

If you choose to decorate the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, store it in the refrigerator. Refrigeration can cause baked foods to dry out, but cream cheese frosting must always be refrigerated. Leftover carrot cake will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. 

You can also freeze this cake but it's best to do it before icing it. When freezing your carrot cake, cover it in plastic wrap making sure to cover each layer separately. It can last in the freezer this way for up to 3 months. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight before icing and serving. 

Similar Cake Recipes You'll Love

• Greek Yogurt Carrot Zucchini Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips
• Honey Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Need more cake? Check all of my cake recipes!

Recipe Card

The Best Homemade Carrot Cake (Moist Cake Every Time!)

Valya's Taste of Home

This Homemade Carrot Cake recipe will be the only one you'll ever need and it'll give you the most delicious and moist carrot cake you've ever had!

4.85 from 13 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 55 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

8 hours hrs

Total Time 9 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Course Cake

Cuisine American

Servings 14

Ingredients

  

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Homemade Carrot Cake Batter Ingredients

• ▢ 2 ½ cups – all-purpose unbleached organic flour
• ▢ 1 tbsp. – ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 tsp. – baking soda
• ▢ 1 tsp. – baking powder
• ▢ ¼ tsp. – nutmeg
• ▢ ¼ tsp. – sea salt
• ▢ 6 large – eggs
• ▢ 1 cup – sugar
• ▢ 1 tsp. – pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 cup – unsweetened apple sauce
• ▢ 3 cups – grated carrots

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

• ▢ 16 oz. – cream cheese (softened)
• ▢ 1 cup - sugar
• ▢ 2 sticks - unsalted butter (softened)
• ▢ 1 cup – any plain Greek Yogurt
• ▢ 1 tsp. – pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 ½ cup – toasted sliced almonds (walnuts or pecans)

Read More

Instructions

 

How to Prep Ingredients for Carrot Cake

• ▢
  First things first, toast sliced almonds (or any chopped nuts) in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes at 350 F (180 C). Set aside to cool completely before topping the cake.
• ▢
  Next, peel, rinse, and grate carrots. Set them aside as well until ready for use.

How to Make Carrot Cake Batter

• ▢
  Time to make our delicious carrot cake batter! Measure out all dry ingredients, and mix them all together with a wire whisk. Set aside until ready for use.
• ▢
  Next, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Beat eggs and sugar on high for 5 minutes in a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.
• ▢
  Reduce mixing speed to medium/low and add vanilla extract and apple sauce. Mix for another minute or so.
• ▢
  Time to combine our wet ingredients with our dry ingredients! Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and add mixed dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt) into the egg mixture in 4 separate additions.
• ▢
  Carefully mix the dry ingredients with each addition trying not to deflate air pockets as much. I use a wire whisk to mix the first 3 and then a spatula for the last addition of dry ingredients.
• ▢
  Next, use a large spatula to mix in the grated carrots very carefully in 2 additions.

How to Bake Carrot Cake

• ▢
  Let's bake our delicious homemade carrot cake. Divide the batter evenly into 2 - 8” baking pans greased with butter. I use a digital scale to weigh the batter in pans to be precise but you can also eye it.
• ▢
  Bake your cake pans in a preheated oven at 350 F (180 C) for 25 – 30 minutes. Check if the cake is done by using a toothpick. When it's ready, remove it from the oven and let them cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing the cake sponges onto a wire rack.
• ▢
  Cool sponges completely before slicing and frosting. If you're short on time, you may bake the sponges the night before and frost them the next morning.

How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting for Carrot Cake

• ▢
  Let's make our delicious cream cheese frosting. Start by beating softened cream cheese and sugar on high for a minute, scraping down the cream on the sides of the mixer bowl halfway through.
• ▢
  Next, add butter, and beat again until combined.
• ▢
  Then add Greek yogurt, and beat again for about a minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl in the middle of mixing. Add vanilla extract and beat again for another minute. Your delicious frosting is ready to put on the cake!

How to Assemble Carrot Cake

• ▢
  Finally, slice each sponge cake in half. See HERE how I slice my cake sponges with a thread.
• ▢
  Add about 2 cups of cream in between each cake layer. Push some of that cream off the edges of the sponge, for easier icing of the sides of the cake.
• ▢
  Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream. Top the cake with toasted and cooled nuts. Pop the cake in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight for best results as it'll give you a moister cake.
• ▢
  Your delicious Homemade Carrot Cake is ready to be served!

Notes

To get beautiful and clean slices of cake, warm the knife in hot water and wipe between each slice. It takes a little more time but is worth preventing a sticky mess. I hope you find this tip helpful with slicing all of your cakes. 

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This recipe was originally posted on October 7, 2016(original picture below), and updated for a better user experience. The post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure.