You don’t have to love carrots to love this best moist carrot cake!
I am not lying when I say this is the best moist carrot cake I have ever had. When I made it, I had my kids in mind. You know how picky kids can be? Well, I took this into account when I was making this carrot cake. The carrots are shredded enough that you don’t have to worry about a carrot shaving being too crunchy or hearing:
Gross! There are carrots in this cake!
Carrots are good for your vision and for your cake.
Out of my three kids, only 1 really like carrots. This is only because she loves ranch dressing. Y’all know what I am talking about. Well, I wanted my kids to love carrot cake as much as me. Could I sit in the kitchen and inhale this entire carrot cake alone? Of course I could. Do I really need to sit in the corner and inhale this entire carrot cake alone? Probably not 😉
So, let’s make a carrot cake that the entire family can enjoy. The first step is to make sure the main ingredient, carrots, is shredded enough so that you won’t actually be crunching down on carrots while enjoying the cake. I threw in almost the entire 1 lb bag of carrots into my food processor (minus 3 of the carrots). I pulverized these things until they were all basically a grainy mess. Not mushy though. You have gone too far when you reach baby food status.
This gives the cake that carrot flavor without the carrots being obvious. You will see tiny orange pieces throughout the cake, which I think looks almost like orange sprinkles.
An eggless cake.
I still can’t believe the price of eggs. Like what is going on? As much as I love to bake, I dread when a recipe calls for more than 2 eggs. To bake or not to bake, that is the question. I usually answer with ‘To bake!’. Shockingly, this best moist carrot cake recipe does not call for eggs. Say what?! Y’all, I am being serious. You don’t need eggs for this recipe, yet it comes out so good.
You will seriously be shocked when you eat this cake. The flavor and texture would have you thinking eggs were added. This cake basically only calls for flour, seasonings, oil, baking powder, baking soda, and crushed pineapples. Yep, crushed pineapples.
Crushed pineapples in the best moist carrot cake.
You are reading this recipe correct. It contains a 20oz can of crushed pineapples. I love the flavor the pineapples add, sweetness which balances out the carrots. The fact that these pineapples are crushed makes it where you really wouldn’t know that this cake contained pineapples. When I told my mother in-law that this cake contained pineapples, she was shocked.
Can you omit the pineapples? You can omit the pineapples, but I wouldn’t unless you absolutely had to do this. If so, you will need to add another ingredient in its place to replace the moistness and sweetness that the pineapples were adding to this carrot cake. One substitute would be applesauce.
No crunchy ingredients here.
Just with the carrots, I had to omit raisins and nuts from the cake batter. Firstly, my family (minus myself) is not big on raisins. Secondly, I know they would spit out every bite of cake that contained nuts. Nuts, right?! If you want to have raisins and nuts in your cake, you most certainly can add them back.
I would go with 1 cup of coarsely chopped pecans and 1/2 cup of raisins.
That cream cheese buttercream frosting though.
OMG! I had to start off this little section with ‘OMG!’ for a reason. This cream cheese buttercream frosting will literally have you yelling OMG because it is that good. I could eat this stuff by itself, as a dip, bath in it.. okay, not really. Seriously though. This frosting is the perfect match for this best moist carrot cake. It is fluffy, sweet and just perfect.
The key to this frosting is making sure both your butter and the cream cheese are completely softened at room temperature. The softer the better. It will whip up just right without all the chunks of cream cheese or butter.
Plus, it only has a few ingredients.
Butter: unsalted and softened at room temperature.
Cream Cheese: Do not skip on the cream cheese. Go with regular cream cheese and not one that is 1/2 fat this or that. You want it to whip up nice and pair well with the butter.
Powdered Sugar: You will need A LOT of this. Literally the entire 2 lb bag of powdered sugar.
Vanilla Extract: You would think this frosting is already sweet enough with the powdered sugar, but you need this vanilla extract to balance out the powdered sugar.
Also, make sure to truly whip this stuff up. I used my mixer with the beater attachment and mixed until it was creamy and fluffy. Starting the process with the cream cheese and butter first. Making sure these two ingredients are well mixed and fluffy together before adding the powdered sugar.
Best Moist Carrot Cake
Looking for a carrot cake that the entire family approves? This Best Moist Carrot Cake is one for the books! It is eggless and you won't even notice the main ingredient, carrots.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 3 cups carrots, finely shredded ( 1 - 1 lb bag of carrots)
- 1 - 20oz can of crushed pineapple
- 2 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup of canola oil
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cloves
- 2 tsp vanilla
- **Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting**
- 1 cup of butter, unsalted, softened at room temp
- 2 - 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened at room temp
- 1 - 2lb bag of powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- Optional : pecan pieces on the top of the cake
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and prep either 2 9" round pans or 3 - 8" round pans with nonstick spray- spraying the inside sides as well!
- Prep the carrots. A food processor makes the processor so much easier. You want ~3 cups of finely grated carrots.
- In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Mix these ingredients up and set aside.
- Add in the olive oil, vanilla extract, and crushed pineapples. Mix well by foliding everything together.
- Lastily, fold in the carrots. Mix the batter until everything is mixed well.
- Divide the batter among the baking pans.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until the batter is set in the middle. You can start to check the cakes at 30 minutes.
- Allow the cakes to fully cool before adding the cream cheese frosting.
- Prepare the cream cheese buttercream frosting while the cakes cool.
- Add the butter and cream cheese to a large mixing bowl. Beat these until they are mixed well and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar to the mixture carefully. Add the vanilla extract and mix well until everything is mixed and fluffy.
- Add some of the frosting to the top of one of the cakes, then top it with another cake. You want to have frosting on the middle layers. Once you have your cakes assembled with frosting between the layers, you can add the frosting to the outside of the cake.
- Optional: add pecan pieces to the very top of the cake.
- Keep any uneaten cake in the refridgerator and enjoy!
The best moist carrot cake that you will ever eat.
This best moist carrot cake recipe is one of the best ones I have tried. It is moist and fun of flavor. Make sure to give this one a try if you love a good cake recipe!
More cake recipes: Simple Easter Sugar Cookie Cheesecake , Simple Cinnamon Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Cake , Easy Fruity Pebbles Birthday Cake
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
1 Peter 1:3
Hugs!
Gonna cook this on weekend!
Gonna cook this on weekend! It looks perfect and images are great!
Thank you so much!