The best carrot cake recipe around, right here just for you! With the fresh carrots I add pineapple and coconut, then top it off with a delicious cream cheese icing with pecans and more coconut. You may not like Carrot Cake, but you will love this one!
Everyone loves this cake! Whenever we go to a get-together my friends ask me to bring either this Carrot Cake or my Spiced Salad. And the cake can be made a day ahead of time and some say it even tastes better the next day.
This cake can be prepared fairly quickly. If you bake it in a Bundt® pan, it is even easier. (I'm kind of a lazy Bundt® gal, myself.)
Making the Frosting Carrots
If you want to jazz up the cake a little, make a half batch of Decorator Icing, tint ½ of the icing orange and the remainder green. To make different colors, use gel food coloring located in most craft stores and some specialty food shops.
Here I used my Wilton decorating tip 352 for the leaves and tip 12 for the carrots. If you already have decorating tips, but not these specifically, feel free to use any leaf tip and any round tip from about 6 to 12.
Or, you can also easily decorate the cake by simply using a plastic sandwich bag and snipping off the ends.
Put the green icing in a plastic sandwich bag, twist the top to close and snip off a small piece of one corner. Do the same with the orange icing but snip a slightly larger hole.
Take a large knife and lightly indent the top of the cake in 8 slices. This will help to space out the carrots evenly.
You can either decorate 2 small or 1 large carrot per slice. Start by piping out the leaves by pressing on top of the cake and quickly pulling away. For the carrots, start at the large end of the carrot and as the carrot tapers release your pressure on the bag.
World's Best Carrot Cake with Pineapple
Special Equipment
- Two 9" round cake pans or Three 8" round cake pans or One Bundt pan.
- Rubber spatula, wooden spoon and hand or stand up mixer
- Large baking sheet
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
CAKE
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- ½ cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted
- 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups freshly grated carrots, well packed
- 1 8 ounce can crushed pineapple with juice, do not strain
FROSTING / FILLING
- 1 stick (½ cup) salted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 12 ounces confectioners sugar, 3 cups
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted
Instructions
CAKE
- Preheat oven to 350º F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment and spread the chopped nuts on the sheet in a single layer. When the oven is heated, place the tray in the oven and roast for 3-4 minutes or until they are slightly browned. Don't overcook! Immediately transfer the nuts onto another baking sheet to prevent scorching. Let the nuts cool completely.
- Prepare your pans – (Use two 9″ pans or three 8″ pans.) Grease the bottom of the pans with a little oil and lay a piece of parchment cut to size in the bottom of each pan. Grease the top of the parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk the first 8 ingredients (dry ingredients through the pecans).
- In a separate large bowl whisk the eggs, then add oil, vanilla, freshly grated carrots and pineapple and mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold the ingredients together using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, until well combined.
- Distribute the batter evenly into prepared pans.
- Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes if using 8″ pans and 40-45 minutes for the 9" pans. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops of the layers are springy to the touch. Oven temperatures vary so you may want to check for doneness a few minutes sooner.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans before removing them to assemble, about 15 minutes. Then run a knife around the edge of the cakes and turn them out on to cooling racks. Peel off the parchment paper and let them cool completely before frosting.
- It is important that the layers are completely cooled before frosting, preferably chilled for 2 hours or better overnight. However, the frosting needs to be at room temperature before spreading the layers.
FROSTING / FILLING
- Using a hand or stand mixer, beat together butter, cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar and vanilla until well blended (you may want to add the sugar a little at a time so that it stays in the frosting and not all over the kitchen counter!)
- Stir in the coconut and chopped pecans until well blended.
- Frost the top of one layer then place the other layer on top. Spread the remaining frosting on the top of the cake and the sides. If less frosting is desired, then leave the sides unfrosted. It can be just as pretty!
Kyle
Love carrot cake and love this recipe! I have made it without the nuts because some in my family prefer it that way. Either way it's delish!
Anna
Hi Janet! We love Gr8 Friends like you! When you make the cake be sure to let us know how it turns out. Xoxo
Janet DeBiaso
Can't wait to try this. I am loving adding your recipes to my binder of delicious treats. You gals are too much!! This comment coming from the girl who use to want to be anywhere but in the kitchen. Thanks for making it look so easy and fun!!
Anna
Haha! It is delicious!
Brenda Perlin
I will hold onto this. Thank you. Looks so darn good. Does this mean you will come over and bake it too? Ha ha!!! Sorry, couldn't resist.