Carrot cake is a classic cake recipe that is welcome any time and it tends to come to my mind more in the spring, maybe it’s the carrot eating bunny theme that Easter has going? Anyways, the other day I made my favourite carrot cake recipe for an Easter treat and it was the perfect opportunity to share it with you! This is a pretty basic carrot cake that starts with plenty of grated carrot along with the usual cake ingredients. A carrot cake is typically a moist cake an it’s kept nice and moist by using oil. A lot of recipes these days tend to try to cut back on the oil content replacing it with things like apple sauce, sour cream, 0% greek yogurt, etc. and although these substitutions can produce nice cakes, they just don’t have that classic moistness that I am looking for in a carrot cake. I like to add a bit of pineapple which adds to the moistness and brings a hint of exotic flavour, especially when combined with some coconut. I go with a pretty standard blend of spices that can easily be modified to meet your tastes and the addition of nuts and or raisins are easy, if that’s the way you roll with carrot cake! I finish my carrot cakes off with a cream cheese frosting, which is simply divine on a carrot cake, and I mix in dulce de leche (or caramel sauce)! If you are looking for a quick and easy dessert tonight, and one that is sure to impress, then you cannot go wrong with this carrot cake with dulce de leche cream cheese frosting!
I sprinkled on some chopped pecans!
Carrot Cake with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese Frosting
A super simple, moist and tender Carrot Cake with Dulce de Leche Cream Cheese Frosting with pineapple and coconut that is so good that you’ll be making it all the time!
ingredients
- 2 cups carrots, grated
- 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
- 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch ground cloves
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup dulce de leche (or caramel sauce)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
For the carrot cake:
For the frosting:
directions
- Mix the carrots, pineapple, coconut, oil, eggs, and sugars before mixing in the mixture of the flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
- Pour into a greased or parchment paper lined 9 inch diameter cake pan (or springform pan), and bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes, before letting cool.
- Spread on the frosting, slice and enjoy!
- Mix the the cream cheese, dulce de leech and enough powdered sugar to thicken the frosting to the desired consistency. The more powdered sugar you add the thicker and less runny the frosting will be.
For the carrot cake:
For the frosting:
Option: Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts! (walnuts, pecans, etc.)!
What a great recipe, thanks so much for sharing. I love your website.
That is very interesting how you incorporated dulce de leche into the carrot cake. I haven't seen that before. Thanks for this idea. I will post this recipe tomorrow on my Reddit Web page at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskRedditFood/
This looks absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to make it!
This carrot cake recipe sounds delicious and is definitely going to be our Easter dessert. Thank you Kevin for another delicious recipe!
Made this yesterday and it was delicious. I did minus the caramel, and used only a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, don’t care for it to be real sweet! Next recipe I’m trying is your Mojo pulled pork quinoa bowls with pineapple salsa!
Need to refrigerate?
This looks divine. However, a question on carrot quantity: 1 cup carrots grated is different from 1 cup grated carrots. A weight given for carrots needed before grating would be helpful. I would hate to waste such flavorful ingredients.
Yum, Kevin! A perfect Easter dessert, can’t wait!
This did not turn out for me at all. 30 mins in the oven it was still raw in the middle. It was a complete fail recipe:(
What size of pan did you use? The bake time will vary with the size and shape of the cake pan. The test to see if the cake is fully baked is to push a toothpick into the center and if it comes out clean, the cake is done, if there is batter on it it needs some more time.
Hi, can I bake the batter in two 9″ cake pans, or bake in a 9″ springform and then split it into two layers when cooled? I would like to make one and a half times the amount of the icing and put a layer betweeen the cake layers, as well as on top.
You can bake it in 2 different 9″ cake pans and the bake time will be less., check for doneness with a toothpick pushed into the center coming out clean at around 25 minutes. The double layer version will be amazing! Enjoy!
Hi, is there a reasonable substitution for the cream cheese?
I like a cream cheese frosting with a number of things: butter frosting, ricotta frosting, mascarpone frosting, whipped cream, simple icing sugar frosting, caramel sauce, dulce de leche. Enjoy!
I made this Carrot Cake yesterday when I saw the recipe by chance, it is absolutely delicious, I had a can of the Dulce de Leche that was over expiration by 18 months, when I opened it it smelled just as fresh as if I bought it yesterday, so I used it. Our wedding cake (20 years ago) was a carrot cake so yesterday on our anniversary I decided to make one to mark the date. My husband now has Alzheimers but with this disease the sense of taste is usually the last to go, so when my husband took his first bite and I saw the joy on his face it made the day even more special. Thanks for the recipe!
How absolutely wonderful. That moment you shared warms my heart as it did yours!
Thanks, Kevin. I’m making this for a special friend’s birthday in Oklahoma.
Thank you so much for all these wonderful recipes! I’m going to try the sticky toffee pudding recipe (it sounds simply delish!) but I can’t find any mention of the size pan to use. Please advise and thank you.
If I were to make this in a bundt pan, would the baking time and temp change? Thank you!
You can use the same temperature (350F) and the baking time may be a little longer, 5-10 minutes longer. Enjoy!