Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

A densely moist, oil-based carrot cake loaded with three cups of grated carrot and a full can of undrained crushed pineapple, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. No creaming stage and no butter to soften, so the batter comes together in three bowls. Topped with a simple cream cheese and butter frosting that stays tangy enough to balance the sweetness. Bakes in a Bundt pan, a 9x13-inch dish, two 9-inch rounds, or three 8-inch rounds.

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Prep Time 25

Cook Time 50

Servings: 16

Course: baking

Cuisine: British

Calories: 570

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

For the Carrot Cake: The Wet Base

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
4 large eggs at room temperature, added one at a time so the mixture stays emulsified
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Carrot Cake: The Sifted Dry Mix

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground allspice

For the Carrot Cake: Stirred In at the End

3 cups grated carrots
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple, undrained, juice included, so keep the can over the bowl
1 cup chopped walnuts optional
1/2 cup flaked coconut optional
1/2 cup raisins optional

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened, soft enough to dent easily with a fingertip
4 oz 1/2 stick butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Method

Heat the oven and prepare the pan. Set the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour your chosen pan generously, whether that’s a Bundt pan, a 9″x13″ baking dish, two 9-inch round pans, or three 8-inch round pans, then set it aside. For rounds, you can grease the pan, line it with parchment paper, and grease and flour the parchment as well, which guarantees a clean release.
Build the wet base. In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and oil together. Add the eggs one at a time, letting each disappear before the next goes in, then beat in the vanilla.
Sift the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice so the spices and leavening are evenly dispersed before they meet the batter.
Combine, then load the batter. Add the dry mixture to the wet, mixing only until the two are combined and the flour has just disappeared. Stir in the carrots, the pineapple along with its juice, and the nuts, coconut, and raisins if you’re using them. Transfer the batter to your prepared pan or pans.
Bake and cool completely. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes for a Bundt cake, 40 to 50 minutes for a 9×13-inch pan, or 25 to 30 minutes for round pans, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let a Bundt cake rest in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack, and give rounds or a 9×13-inch cake 10 minutes if you’re removing them from the pan. Once the cake is completely cool, frost it, scatter over extra chopped nuts if you like, and serve.

Notes

Recipe Notes

A few practical points come out of the way this batter and frosting behave, and they’re worth knowing before you commit to a format.

Bring the eggs, cream cheese, and butter out well ahead of time. Room temperature ingredients blend without resistance, and this is the one bit of preparation that can’t be rushed at the last minute.

If you’re baking rounds, resist the urge to frost early. The 10-minute rest in the pan is only the start of cooling, and the layers need to reach room temperature all the way through before any cream cheese frosting touches them.

The optional add-ins are genuinely optional. Leaving out all three gives you a plainer, smoother crumb that’s easier to slice neatly. Including all three gives you a chunkier, more textured cake.