My Epicurean Adventures

A food blog about cooking quick & easy, healthy(ish) meals that my family loves + fun lunchbox ideas for kids with nut allergies and more!

The BEST Carrot Cake I’ve Ever Made

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I have my dad-in-law to thank for The BEST Carrot Cake recipe ever! Years ago, he and his wife (aka Goompa and Gooma as named by Little Sis when she was a cute little tot) were in town for the holidays. In honor of Dad’s birthday, I asked him what his favorite dessert was. Carrot cake was in his top 3.

I’ve always loved carrot cake, but good carrot cake is hard to come by. Sometimes the frosting is too sweet or the cake is too dry. Or both! So, I challenged myself to make one that was so good, I’d never have to look for another carrot cake recipe again! I started with Allrecipes’ Carrot Cake III recipe and made several changes based on gneebeanie’s comments from Dec 8, 2006. Lo and behold, it was certainly the best carrot cake I’ve ever had! I even added my usual flax seed, wheat germ and protein powder and it was STILL delicious AND a wee bit healthier!

It was moist and it was tasty. And, the frosting was just perfect – not too cream cheesy and not too sweet. Too often, I find that carrot cake is ruined by an overpowering, overly sugary frosting. This one was just right – even after accidentally putting only half the butter it called for. But, I’m stickin’ with it that way!

The best carrot cake recipe

So here’s the recipe. This one was made nut-free for my nut-allergic sweeties, but I’m a firm believer that carrot cake should have walnuts in it. And so is Hubby. Whenever we took bites of ours, though still delicious, we just couldn’t help but think this would be the best carrot cake ever if it just had nuts, lol! But this is a small price to pay to keep our little sweeties safe and we’ll survive, for sure!

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The BEST Carrot Cake I’ve Ever Made!

Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/

Using gneebeanie’s comments, Dec 8, 2006

Course Dessert
Keyword cake
Servings 12 servings

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cups grated carrots
  • 8 oz can crushed pineapples drained
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 4 Tbsp ground flax seed optional
  • 4 Tbsp wheat germ optional
  • 4 Tbsp protein powder optional
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped optional

Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) softened
  • 8 ounces cream cheese softened
  • 2 1/2- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar *
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9″ x 13″ pan or two 9” round pans.

  2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Stir in carrots, applesauce and canned pineapple.

  3. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, flax seed, wheat germ and protein powder (if using the last 3 ingrediets). Fold in pecans if using and pour into prepared pan(s).

  4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes for rectangular cake, 25 to 30 mins for round layer cake, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Frosting

  1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

  2. Frost cake once completely cooled.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

The original frosting recipe called for 4 cups confectioners’ sugar – YIKES! The adapted recipe used 3 1⁄2 cups but I further reduced it to 2 1⁄2 – 3 cups to make a just perfectly sweet (for me) frosting. If you like it sweeter, add more sugar, but start with 2 1⁄2 cups and go from there.

This frosting makes enough to frost a 9″ two-layer cake or just single layer 9″x13″ cake.

Recently, I made one for no other reason than, “I spied a carrot cake at the bar recently and now I NEED ONE, too!” It had been forever since I had one and now that was all I could think about! I made it in this Pyrex 9″x13″ dish with lid. I love it because you can simply bake in it, put it in the fridge after, eat out of it (yes!) and then toss it in the dishwasher when it’s all gone!

The BEST Carrot Cake recipe

Don’t ask me why we cut into it like this, but at least you can see the cake part better! While the girls like carrot cake, it’s not their favorite, so they only had a few small slices each. While the hubby is a big fan, he has more self-discipline that I do. That’s why I ended up eating about 3/4 of the entire cake myself. And enjoyed every.single.bite! I had it in the fridge for almost 2 weeks and I swear each time I had some, it just got better and better! It was insane!

The BEST Carrot Cake recipe

The cake is long-gone, but these pictures are temping me to make another. Next time, though, I will definitely be sharing as I don’t need to eat that much of it even if it is healthier AND the best carrot cake ever!

The BEST Carrot Cake recipe

Thanks so much for stopping by! Feel free to make my day by leaving me a comment, following my blog via email, on Facebook or on Instagram – the more the merrier!

Christine, aka happyvballgirl 🙂

To check out items used in this post or some of my favorites, simply click here: “Products I Love“. Purchases made using these links earns me a little extra cash to support my bento habit, which Hubby really appreciates. Haha! So, THANK YOU, should you choose to purchase any of ’em!

 

Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate links.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. anyonita green

    I go weak at the knees for a good carrot cake! 🙂 Lol. It's one of the few things that I can eat no matter what. Yours looks so moist and delicious! Thank you so much for linking up with me this week at Tasty Tuesdays! I’ve pinned this & shared it with my followers! Please be sure to stop back by the party and check out some of the other links!

    Reply

  3. Jess

    Carrot Cake is one of my favorites – yet I have never tried to make it. Definitely going to give this a try, looks great. Pinning! Thank you for sharing at Tasty Tuesdays. 🙂

    Reply

  4. Kirsten

    Christine,
    I liked your round carrot cake, but I think the M cake was brilliant!
    Nicely done. The best carrot cake I've ever eaten was won by my daughter at the school Spring carnival Cake Walk. It was HUGE! I think 7 layers? The family who made it came up to us as we were touring the carnival and told us all about how they came up with the recipe and hoped we liked it.

    I served it to company that night and it was amazing.

    Thanks for that memory–I saw carrot cake on Tasty Tuesdays and had to check it out!

    Reply

  9. HungryLittleGirl

    YUM! The applesauce in this cake is very interesting. I will try it this way for sure.
    Thank you so much for sharing this at Wednesday Extravaganza – hope to see you there again next week – and don't forget the voting is today!

    Reply

  10. Bethany

    Look delicious! Thanks so much for sharing at Wednesday's Adorned From Above Blog Hop.
    Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above
    Bethany @ Whistle and Ivy

    Reply

    • happyvballgirl

      Thanks so much Lenetta! Checked out your weekly goals link up and they sound like fun! But I've got to get my act together (though that sure sounds like my first goal! haha) before I join you (ie lots of backed up posts), and my girls are tracking out next week for 3 weeks which means I may not be posting much during that time! Thanks so much for commenting!

      Reply

  13. Nici Higby

    This looks so tasty! I love carrot cake. I am your newest GFC follower. I wanted to thank you for stopping by and leaving me a sweet comment on my Bowtie Pasta Salad. I hope you'll visit again soon and maybe even follow me back. Have a great weekend!
    Blessings,
    Nici

    Reply

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