King Arthur Carrot Cake with Not Too Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting
King Arthur carrot cake is tender, flavorful, old-fashioned carrot cake at its absolute best. Over the years, our family has made a few adaptations to the recipe, and the result is a long-time family favorite. Here's how to make it.
Calories: 561kcal
Ingredients
For the cake
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (350 ml) safflower oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups (350 grams) sugar
- 2 cups (240 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 cups (325 grams) shredded carrots
- 1 cup (120 grams) chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1 cup (120 grams) sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 8- ounce 225-gram can crushed pineapple, drained
For the frosting (see note 6)
- 2 cups (240 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) good salted butter (such as Kerrygold)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 8- ounce 225-gram package cream cheese
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans or one 9x13x2-inch pan with cooking spray.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs.
- Slowly pour in oil while mixer is running.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Gradually add the sugar.
- In a separate medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture a little at a time, mixing each addition on low speed until just incorporated.
- Add the carrots, nuts, coconut, and pineapple and fold in with a rubber spatula or on low speed with the stand mixer paddle until well-distributed throughout the batter.
- Pour batter into prepared pan(s). For a 9x13 inch pan, bake for 45 to 50 minutes. For two 9-inch rounds, bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cake is done when it has slightly pulled away from the edges of the pan and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- For a 9x13-inch pan, cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack. For 9-inch rounds, remove cakes from pans after 15 minutes and continue cooling on wire rack.
For the frosting
- Have ingredients at cool room temperature — an hour max out of the fridge.
- Sift powdered sugar into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle.
- Cut the butter into approximate 1-tablespoon pieces and add to the mixer.
- Beat, on low at first, and increasing speed to medium eventually, until well-incorporated. It's okay if the mixture is still crumbly rather than smooth at this point.
- Beat in vanilla extract.
- Add cream cheese and beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, but no further. (For this and all cream cheese frosting recipes, overbeating can result in a frosting that's too soft.)
Notes
- You'll need about ¾ pound carrots (before trimming) to get three cups shredded. Use the largest holes of a box grater or the shredding disc of a food processor to finely shred your carrots. Don't buy pre-shredded carrots in a bag — the shape is different and will prevent the carrot from melting into the batter to just the right degree. Also, don't grate the carrot on the smaller holes of a box grater. This shape is too small to yield the perfect texture, and also a real pain in the butt to achieve.
- You can use chopped walnuts or pecans, but I almost always choose walnuts for their slightly softer and sweeter vibe. When you buy them pre-chopped, the fineness varies by brand, but this cake does well regardless. If the ones you buy are coarser than you prefer, you can always run a chef's knife through them, pop them into the food processor for a few pulses, or place them in a zip-top bag and hit them a few times with the flat side of a meat mallet or a hammer.
- The coconut called for here is good old sweetened, flaked coconut in the blue bag (or its equivalent) that you'll find on grocery store shelves. It's very finely shredded and has added sugar.
- For the pineapple, buy crushed pineapple in a can and drain off the excess liquid before using.
- Safflower oil is my neutral-tasting vegetable oil of choice, but you can use your favorite (vegetable oil blend, canola, peanut, sunflower, etc.)
- Double the frosting recipe for a layer cake.
- You may notice that the mixing process for this frosting is different from what you've seen before. Coating the sugar with the butterfat before adding the cream cheese helps to prevent the frosting from being too loose.
- Use good-quality, full-fat, block cream cheese.
- For the butter, you can do as you like, but I really like to use a cultured, salted butter like Kerrygold for its nuanced flavors.
- I tend to use good old powdered sugar from the grocery store and give it a sift. (You'll only use half the amount pictured for one batch of this frosting.) However, if you like, you can use organic powdered sugar. It tends to be processed with tapioca starch instead of cornstarch and have a smoother, more powerful thickening capacity.
- Since the cake is made with oil and contains plenty of moisture, you can bake the layers up to a day or two before you need them (or up to three months in advance if you want to freeze them). For storage at room temperature or in the fridge, cool completely and then wrap each layer gently but thoroughly in plastic wrap. For freezer storage, once cool, wrap in plastic wrap, followed by foil, followed by a zip-top freezer bag.
- I like to assemble and frost the cake on the day of serving. Assembled cake, and any leftovers, can be stored in an airtight container (like this one) in the fridge for a week.
Nutrition
Calories: 561kcal | Carbohydrates: 54.8g | Protein: 5.1g | Fat: 37g | Fiber: 2.5g