My Grandma’s homemade carrot cake recipe is filled with shredded carrots, crunchy walnuts, and warm spices. It’s easy to make with the perfect ratio of moist cake to rich cream cheese frosting. Carrot cake is perfect for holidays like Easter, birthday parties, or any occasion that calls for a delicious, classic cake made from scratch.

If you love carrot cake, you’ll have to try my banana cake recipe next. For a dessert that combines the two, check out my hummingbird cake!

A thick slice of homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting on a plate.

This carrot cake recipe is wonderfully simple, but it’s certainly not basic. This cake is ultra-moist, full of spice, and the texture is perfect. It’s Grandma’s recipe, so you know it’s good. Every layer is loaded with shredded carrots and walnuts.

Obviously, this has the most amazing cream cheese frosting, because really, is there any other way to frost a carrot cake? There’s plenty of frosting to go around, so expect every bite to be better than the next. Carrot cake is a year-round family favorite, and I hope you’ll love it as much as we do.

For a muffin version of this classic dessert, make my carrot cake muffins. And if you love this recipe, I think you’ll also like to try my sweet potato cake. The caramel cream cheese frosting is to die for!

Why This is the Best Homemade Carrot Cake

Just like grandma used to make. Carrot cake is the type of dessert that you can dress up or down, but I love this recipe in it’s home-baked, almost rustic form. Two thick layers of moist cake with a slab of frosting in between that’s almost as thick as the cake!
Oil-based. I use oil instead of butter in most of my homemade cake recipes, but nothing showcases the benefits more than a carrot cake. You don’t need to spend time creaming the butter and sugar, and oil creates a truly tender, light crumb that hugs the shredded carrots and nuts in this cake so beautifully.
Easy method. Apart from the carrots, this cake recipe uses pantry staples. You don’t even need a mixer to make the cake batter (though it does come in handy when making the frosting).
Crowd-pleasing. This is a generational carrot cake recipe with a lot of years spent perfecting it. It’s been a part of plenty of birthdays, holidays, baby showers, and I even made it as a wedding cake.

Two-layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting on a cake stand.

Ingredient Notes for Carrot Cake

These are the key ingredients with notes and substitutions. Scroll to the recipe card for the full list with exact measurements.

Raw Carrots – Finely chopped or shredded. See my tip below.
Vegetable Oil – As mentioned, oil is the secret to this recipe’s super-moist, tender carrot cake layers. It comes down to the fact that oil remains liquid at room temperature, while butter turns solid. Cakes made with oil tend to stay soft and moist for longer.
All-purpose flour – Weigh the flour using a kitchen scale, or spoon and level it to avoid adding too much to the cake batter. Regular flour can be substituted with a measure-for-measure all-purpose gluten-free flour blend (see my gluten-free carrot cake cupcakes).
Spices – Ground cinnamon and nutmeg. You can substitute the individual spices with a pie spice blend if you’d like.
Baking Soda – Make sure it’s fresh and not past its expiration date, or your cake layers won’t rise properly.
Chopped Nuts – Use either walnuts or pecans. These can be toasted to deepen the flavor.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

You could also frost your cake with mascarpone whipped cream for an elevated version. Or, make vanilla buttercream if you’d prefer it over cream cheese frosting.

Cold Butter – Yes, cold! Starting frosting recipes with cold butter instead of room temperature means it takes a bit longer to whip air into the butter, but the result is a light, stable frosting that’s ideal for filling cakes and decorating.
Full-fat Cream Cheese – This cake is not the place to cut calories! Be sure to use full-fat cream cheese for a thick, creamy frosting.

The Easiest Way to Shred Carrots

I don’t know about you, but I always find shredding carrots with a handheld shredder is messy and takes too long. Instead, my trick is to peel the carrots and chop them into smaller chunks. Add the chunks to a food processor and pulse until they’re shredded into small pieces. This uniform shredding also maximizes the carrots in each bite of cake!

A slice of carrot cake on a plate with a bite missing and a gold fork laying across the plate

How to Make Carrot Cake From Scratch

Here’s how to make my family’s favorite carrot layer cake, with photos to walk you through the steps.

Get ready to bake. Make sure to have two 8-inch round pans greased and lightly dusted with flour. I also like to line the pans with parchment paper to help with easier removal. Meanwhile, shred the carrots.
Mix the wet ingredients. Beat the eggs until they’re fluffy and lighter in color. Then, add the sugar, and beat again. Next, add the oil and slowly mix, so everything is smooth and combined.

Finely shredded carrots in a glass bowl. — Shred the carrots.

a glass mixing bowl with cake batter for a carrot cake — Shred the carrots.

Combine and add the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together, and mix the dry mixture into the wet ingredients.

Dry ingredients added to the wet carrot cake batter. — Add the dry ingredients.

Carrot cake batter in a bowl. — Add the dry ingredients.

Add the shredded carrots and walnuts. Even if I’m using a mixer for the rest of the steps, I like to fold in the carrots and nuts by hand. It avoids overmixing.
Bake the cake. Next, divide the carrot cake batter evenly between your prepared pans. I find it helpful to use a measuring cup, or I’ll weigh the batter using a kitchen scale. Then, bake at 350ºF for 28-35 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick comes out of the center clean. After baking, let the cakes cool completely before you frost them.

A glass mixing bowl with carrot cake batter, chopped carrots and walnuts. — Fold in the carrots and walnuts.

A close up of carrot cake batter in a glass mixing bowl. — Fold in the carrots and walnuts.

How to Make the Frosting

Perhaps the best part of carrot cake is the frosting, and if you look at my slices, you’ll see a nice, thick layer in the middle, which means frosting with every bite. It’s helpful to cut the butter and cream cheese into cubes before starting.

Beat the butter. Whip the cold butter for several minutes until it’s fluffy and spreadable. Next, beat the cream cheese with the butter. It will start out looking a bit curdled, but keep beating until it looks smooth.
Add the powdered sugar. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar, 1-2 cups at a time, alternating with the vanilla extract and heavy cream (or milk) until your frosting reaches your desired consistency. If you find that your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Whip. Once all the ingredients are added, beat for another 1-2 minutes to whip more air into the frosting.

A white spatula with creamed butter held over a stand mixer. — Whip the butter to a smooth consistency.

Cream cheese frosting in a glass mixing bowl. — Whip the butter to a smooth consistency.

Assembling the Cake

I kept it pretty simple here, but I wanted to share a couple of tips with you to frost this classic carrot cake:

Stack the cake layers. Start with the first cake layer, and spread a thick layer of frosting on top. Then, carefully place the second cake layer over the frosting. I like to invert my layers, so the top of the cake is nice and flat. Don’t worry about any uneven gaps, as you’ll fill that in with frosting.
Add a crumb coat. I recommend adding a crumb coat layer, as the edges of this cake tend to be a little flakey. Use an offset spatula to fill in the gaps and cover the sides of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. Once the crumb coat is added, pop the cake into the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes to let it set before adding the final layer of frosting.
Decorate the cake. Use the remaining frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake. Lastly, to garnish the cake with walnuts like you see in the photos, it’s best to do so before the frosting has set.

Two homemade carrot cake layers stacked with creamy frosting in between on a cake stand. — Stack the layers.

Carrot cake covered with a crumb coat on a cake stand. — Stack the layers.

Can I Make Cupcakes Instead?

Yes. I’ve adapted my grandmother’s recipe to make carrot cake cupcakes, so I recommend checking out that post if you’re looking for a batch of moist, delicious cupcakes instead of a cake. Fill your cupcake liners about ⅔ full with batter and bake the cupcakes at 350ºF for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

How to Store

I store my cake for 2-3 days at room temperature in an airtight container. I love my cake carrier for storing cakes. If you live in a hot or humid environment, then you’ll need to refrigerate this cake. However, be sure to serve it at room temperature for the best results. So give it about 20 minutes to sit on the counter before serving.

More Classic Cake Recipes