Carrot cake is probably my favourite cake. I love the combination of flavours and textures. It’s one of the cakes you can actually eat for breakfast because.. it’s pretty nutritious for a cake! And it’s not too sweet. In this cake, you will find everything; carrots obviously, coconut flakes, pineapple, pecans and raisins. It’s a fully garnished cake with a regular cream cheese frosting and candied carrots on top. The cake is so moist, flavourful and satisfying.

The frosting is yes, made with cream cheese, but how many times a year do you eat carrot cake? I don’t know about you but I have carrot cake like once a year at Easter, and maybe another time during the year if we eat in a fancy restaurant. So I’m totally cool with a little bit of cream cheese here. I’m saying this because.. Sometimes, if you’re going to make a dessert, like why not just making a real dessert and just enjoy it to the fullest. You can eat a salad for dinner if you like, lol. But seriously, I use to be so strict with myself, not allowing me anything. It wasn’t better. It’s ok guys to indulge once in a while and enjoy ourselves. Thats what life is about too.

But the frosting? It’s out of this world. Especially if you don’t eat a lot of it, it’s a total treat. See here? Don’t you just want to take a spoonful?

Ok, if you’re like me though, when baking, you still want to make it as healthy as possible but without always affecting its taste. Most of my baked goods are made with healthy items like almond or coconut flour, coconut sugar or maple syrup, and so on. But for special occasions like Christmas, Easter or a Birthday, I may (sometimes I don’t though) choose to just do a regular cake, especially if I have a request. So without affecting the taste of this cake, I chose to get high-quality ingredients, mostly organic.  I didn’t do the cream cheese though guys, have to be honest.

I didn’t know what to put on top of the cake because I wanted to avoid sugary stuff or frosting, like a 3 layer cake with frosting is enough, so I then thought about doing candied carrots to add on top. Result? The kids loved them. They said it was like candies. I personally didnt like them. I thought they were too hard. Next time, I will reduce baking time. I will adjust the recipe accordingly.

Hope you enjoy this cake and that it becomes a family recipe of yours.

Print Recipe

Best Homemade Carrot Cake

This cake is absolutely amazing. It's light, moist and full of flavours and textures, and the frosting is out of this world.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 2 cups organic all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cup organic cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon unrefined salt
• ½ teaspoon unrefined salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 3 pastured eggs
• ¾ cup organic whole milk, or almond or coconut milk (mix with 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar)
• ¾ cup organic grapeseed oil, or melted coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups freshly shredded carrots
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
• ¾ cup raisins
• Frosting:
• ½ cup grass-fed butter, softened
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups sifted organic powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Candied carrots (optional):
• 2-3 medium carrots
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 cup water

Instructions

• In a measuring cup, combine milk and apple cider vinegar. Set aside.
• Grease 3 9-inches cake pans (for a 3-layer cake) with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, ginger and cloves.
• In a medium mixing bowl, whisk eggs and add in milk, oil and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, combine shredded carrots, nuts, pineapple and raisins, stir and add to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Stir again to combine.
• Now put wet ingredients into dry, stir well and divide batter evenly between the prepared pans.
• Bake in the oven for about 1h or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely before frosting and assembling the cake.
• Frosting:
• Put butter into your mixer and mix on medium speed until fluffy.
• Add cream cheese and mix again until well incorporated.
• Add powdered sugar, one cup at the time, and mix until smooth.
• Add in vanilla and whisk again.
• Reserve frosting until ready to use
• Candied carrots:
• Peel the carrots completely until you can't anymore.
• Put cane sugar and water into a small saucepan.
• Add carrot peels
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
• Drain carrots into a sieve and let stand another 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 250F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Add carrot strips onto the baking sheet and bake in oven for about 1 hour or less if you want them a little more moist.