This Carrot Cake recipe starts with a spice cake mix and ends in pure delight. We use real carrots in our carrot cake and finish with a delicious cream cheese icing!
This ridiculously simple carrot cake uses a box of spice cake mix and fresh carrots to create magic. It was inspired by our super yummy and super popular Orange Cake! It is the perfect addition to your Spring menu along with some honey mustard glazed ham, roasted asparagus, and quick dinner rolls.
Carrot Cake
Easy Carrot Cake {with Cream Cheese Frosting!}
Click the button above to save this recipe!
Carrot cake ingredients
- Spice cake mix
- Butter – Softened
- Eggs
- Cinnamon
- Whole milk
- Shredded carrot – We used the blender/food processor to get a fine shred.
- Cream cheese icing – You can purchase it or make your own cream cheese icing.
How do you make carrot cake? (Step-by-step)
⭐ First, combine all ingredients except icing in a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer.
⭐ Next, pour into greased cake pans (try our easy pan release recipe!), and bake until cooked through.
⭐ Finally, allow to cool completely, then frost as desired.
Preparation
Are carrots really in carrot cake?
Yes, carrots are really in carrot cake! We use a whole two cups of shredded carrot in our yummy recipe. The carrots add a delicious sweetness and tons of moisture. No, it doesn’t make the cake taste like roasted carrots. I promise.
How do you grate carrots for carrot cake?
We used our blender to grate the carrots for our carrot cake – you could also use a food processor or a hand grater. It’s important though, if you use a hand grater, to make sure you’re grating on the finest setting.
The goal with the carrot is to impart sweetness, a little bit of texture, and lots of moisture. What we don’t want to do is find big chunks of carrot in our cake. I do like to do a few long ribbons to decorate the top of the cake. A potato peeler works great for this.
Nutrition
Is carrot cake good for you?
It is better for you than cake without carrots. But, I don’t know that I would call it a diet plan. Carrot cake is after all cake – made with flour, sugar, butter, and all that other yummy stuff. But you could definitely argue that it’s high in beta carotene and full of fiber!
Variations
This recipe is easy and perfectly delicious as-is, but some folks like extras in there. If you try some of these add-ins, make sure to let us know in the comments!
🟢 Extra cinnamon– What’s better than one teaspoon of cinnamon – how about two!
🟢 Crushed pineapple – I didn’t even know carrot cake with pineapple was a thing until we did the show and a bunch of folks mentioned it. But I’m sure it’s super delicious and makes for an uber moist cake! If I added a can of crushed pineapple, I would skip the milk.
🟢 Raisins – We have definitely added raisins to our cake before. What is it about the combination of carrots and raisins that is so delicious? Mmmmmm.
🟢 Chopped walnuts – I am personally a big fan of walnuts in my carrot cake, but my kids don’t like it, so we skip the walnuts. If I was making these as a cupcake though, I might add them to half the batter!
More Like Carrot Cake
- Carrot Cake Cookies – A bite size version of the original! Yum!
- Easy Cinnamon Mug Cake – For when you want cake, but just for yourself. And super quick. Make a mug of this cinnamon cake, and a mug of coffee, and you’re all set.
- Simple Pumpkin Spice Cake – My cake hating husband can’t help but love this one. It’s dense and moist and spiced and super fantastic. I like to put a layer of powdered sugar glaze over top.
- Apple Cider Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting – The secret to this cake is apple cider drink packets! You guys, it’s really good. And that frosting. Mmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm.
- Hummingbird Cake – Hummingbird Cake is a dense and moist southern cake flavored with bananas, pineapple, and cinnamon and covered in a rich cream cheese frosting topped with toasted pecans.
- Sweet Potato Cake – A delicious classic!
- How to Make a Cookie Cake – Hands down, my husband’s favorite cake. It’s what he requests for his birthday every single year. (And we’ve been together a whole lot of years). It kills me when I see folks spending so much money on cookie cakes from the mall when they’re so easy to make at home!
More Recipes with Cream Cheese
Suggested Tools
- Twin Pack Round Cake Pan, 8-Inch – Standard fare for making a two layer cake! Also good for small batch casseroles and cinnamon buns!
- 1M Open Star Piping Tip – This is my favorite piping tip and the one we use to make the rosettes on the side of our orange cake.
- Porcelain Round Cake Stand – What does a beautiful cake need? Well a pretty white cake stand to show off on!
- Tall Cake Dome – There’s nothing worse than finishing a gorgeous layered cake and then having to way to protect it. This tall cake dome fixes all that. And I love that it’s clear so you can still see your cake.
Get our FREE Easy Casseroles Ebook!
Follow us below!Use #mamalovesfood on Instagram!
How to Make Carrot Cake
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 stick of butter softened
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 2 cups finely shredded carrot we used the blender/food processor
- cream cheese icing
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except icing in a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer about 2 minutes until fully incorporated and batter has lightened in color about one shade.
- Pour into greased cake pans (we used two 9 inch rounds), and bake at 350 degrees until done (25 minutes for us). Check by inserting a toothpick in the middle, it’s done if the toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely, then ice. We used this cream cheese icing recipe.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Easy Carrot Cake {with Cream Cheese Frosting!}
Click the button above to save this recipe!
Do you love recipes that start with a mix? Try our lemon mousse recipe, strawberry shortcake waffles, or chocolate cake mix cookies next!
Jodie says
I want to add raisins and do it as a bundt cake. Think I should make any changes to the ingredients or if the baking time will change? Looking forward to trying this.
April Woods says
I think it may take just a little longer to bake. I would check with a toothpick periodically 😊
Vicki says
Can you bake it in a 9×13 pan.
April Woods says
sure 🙂
Kathryn Kasie heupel says
I want my cake to very moist. I have made other carrot cakes a little on the dry side.
Melissa Berry says
I just made this cake and it turned out like sawdust. While I was preparing it, I wondered if there should be some oil in it as the box calls for. I believe I was right, there should be because this recipe was a waste of time and resources. Good thing it was a rainy day or I would have been more upset than I had been.
April Woods says
Hi Melissa – This is one of our most popular recipes and one I’ve made for my family many times. The directions are correct as written. It sounds like perhaps something when wrong in your kitchen. I’m so sorry to hear you had trouble with the recipe. xo
Alissa H says
I had a nearly “expired” cake mix and end stage baby carrots that needed using up. One Google search later, I landed here. I doubled the amount of whole milk, added walnuts, vanilla, and extra cinnamon & baked in a bundt pan. Turned out amazing! Moist, delicate crumb topped with leftover cream cheese frosting (always double your batch and freeze for later, trust me) Good luck not going back for seconds!
Jennifer Velline says
I would like to make this into cupcakes instead of a cake what is the recommending cooking time and temperature?
Kathlynne says
this was disgusting. I was thinking when i waa making it that we didn’t need that many eggs. I should’ve trusted my gut. especially since I now end up with a carrot omelet for my friends birthday. learn how to actually bake before going and posting recipes like your a pro
very disappointed. ☹️
lalala
April Woods says
This recipe has been tested dozens upon dozens of times by myself (every Easter!) and many others (it’s one of our most popular recipes). It sounds like perhaps you had a measuring error if you’re cake came out like an omelet.
Gayle Hopperl says
Very easy and yummy
Koneta says
If I add pecans and pineapple is there anything I should do different?
Debbie Horn says
This cake turned out great! Reading the negative comments made me worry, but it sounded easy so I decided to try it. Glad I did! I only charged up the milk, I used 2% instead of whole milk and Icing was awesome also!
April Woods says
Glad you love this carrot cake recipe as much as we do!
Dee says
I just made this cake tonight and it was absolutely delicious!! My husband and I loved it and he went back and got seconds. I added the raisins to mine, and it was perfect! This cake came out fluffy, moist and flavorful! This recipe is a keeper…I must say I was shocked by the negative reviews and I can say that something must’ve went wrong in their kitchens, because I’m an accomplished baker and cook, and this is now my favorite carrot cake recipe…thank you! <3
C says
Absolutely delicious. I was given a huge bag of carrots, and suddenly needed to do *something* with an entire shopping bag of carrots. I went searching for options, and came across this recipe. I’m so glad I did. I used two cups of blendered carrot in the first batch I made, and blendered, portioned, and froze the rest of the carrots once I’d confirmed that this recipe was absolutely delicious and I needed to make it again.
I made this recipe using a mini-loaf pan, with 8 loaf spaces, and it made up one dozen little mini-loaves. (I followed the on-the-box instructions for cupcakes for the bake time, testing a bit before they were due to be done, and adding a five minutes at a time until a toothpick came out clean.) Some of them did not last very long, but I managed through great application of willpower to allow eight of them to cool completely. These were then wrapped individually in plastic wrap, then all the loaves went into a freezer bag, and they were frozen.
Freezing the little mini-loaves means that I can have delicious carrot cake mini-loaves either plain or with a bit of icing smeared on, whenever I like. I thaw them either in the microwave ten to fifteen seconds, flip, ten to fifteen seconds, unwrap and eat, or else I just pop one out of the freezer the night before I want to eat it.
I included raisins, which turned out well. I also accidentally left out the butter. I did not realize this until I’d eaten over half the loaves, then wondered why there was a stick of butter sitting on the counter and belatedly realized I’d left it out of the cake batter. The taste and texture of the mini-loaves was wonderful, I would never have realized I’d left anything out if I hadn’t stumbled across the butter again later. I suppose this means that now, for science, I need to make it again without butter, with butter, and with half the called for butter, and document the results. Because if you write it down, that’s Science, not “this recipe is so delicious that I needed to make another 3 batches, asap”.