Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Moist and flavorful carrot cake topped with rich, creamy cream cheese icing—perfectly spiced and irresistibly delicious! A classic dessert for any occasion.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword carrot cake

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 20

Servings servings

Calories 699kcal

Equipment

bundt pan 10-cup

Ingredients

Cake:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar - light - packed
4 eggs - large
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups carrots - grated - about 4 large carrots
1 cup pecans optional - chopped - or walnuts
½ cup raisins optional
1 tsp orange zest

Icing:

8 oz cream cheese softened
4 tbsp unsalted butter softened
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp milk as needed
1 tsp vanilla extract

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Liberally grease and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. Set aside.
Whisk the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
Beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, oil, Greek yogurt, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until smooth. A stand mixer works great for this.
Slowly stir the dry ingredient mixture into the wet ingredients.
Fold in the grated carrots, orange zest, and any optional mix-ins like nuts or raisins.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading into an even layer.
Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until the toothpick test comes out clean. (when working with bundt cakes I find that the spring-back test isn’t quite as accurate because of how thick the cake is)
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting on a wire rack to remove it from the pan. Let it cool to room temperature on the wire rack before decorating.

Icing

Combine the cream cheese and butter in the mixing bowl and beat well until creamy.
Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar, little bits at a time until incorporated.
Stir in the milk (adding only what is needed to reach the desired consistency) and vanilla - until smooth. The icing should be spreadable, but thick enough to not drip completely off the sides of the cake.
Drizzle or spread the icing over the top of the cake.

Nutrition