The Best Carrot Cake | Easy Easter Dessert

This is the only carrot cake recipe you’ll need to try. It’s moist, perfectly spiced, and super delicious! The topping is what I call “Cheesecake Fluff”. Light, tangy, sweet, and the perfect match for the carrot cake.

This carrot cake is so good, your kids will hang around (joking and stealing swipes of the frosting) until you’re finished taking pictures.

Then they’ll descend on it and attack it like they’ve never eaten anything in their whole life.

Got Too Many Carrots?

I perpetually have too many carrots.

I have the same problem with broccoli.

Maybe I’ll try broccoli cake next. Life’s long enough to waste a little time making weird stuff like that sometimes.

This cake is great because it uses 4-5 medium carrots. You’ll need to peel and then grate them using the side of the grater with the smallest shredding holes.

You need about 2 cups of finely shredded carrot. By the time I grate 5 carrots, I usually have about 2 1/2 cups of grated carrot and that works too.

Use up those carrots!

The smaller you can grate it, the quicker you can bake it because the tiny shreds don’t need much time to soften.

I like to bake the carrot cake in a sheet pan for about 17 minutes. So, I grate it as small as I can.

No one wants crunchy bits in a carrot cake. (and I’m looking at you too, nuts and weird dried fruit)

Let’s Make Carrot Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Shred you carrots and set them aside.

If you have crushed pineapple you can use that for this recipe without any extra work.

I usually have chunks of pineapple on hand so now is when I prepare that too.

I drain the pineapple and then I chop some of the fruit as small as I can get it until I have about a heaping 1/3 of a cup. Then I set that aside too.

Using a stand mixer, mix 4 eggs with 2 cups of sugar until it’s lighter and pale yellow.

Pour in 1 cup of vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, shredded carrots, and pineapple and mix thoroughly.

The next step is to add all the dry ingredients. Dump them in altogether, and then mix. You’re trying to mix it the least amount possible after you add the flour so you get more of a tender crumb.

Dump 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix.

Pour into a parchment lined baking sheet for 15-17 minutes.

The cake is done when it’s a nice golden, orangey brown and you get just a couple tiny crumbs if you stick a fork in the middle.

Let that cool before you add the frosting.

Vanilla Cheesecake Fluff

You can totally make the carrot cake and enjoy it by itself. It’s moist, flavorful and on the same level as good banana bread.

I’ve got a bunch of slices just waiting in the freezer for breakfast time.

But if you want a real showstopper of a treat, make that cream cheese frosting.

It’s the best and easiest cream cheese frosting out there.

I call it cheesecake fluff because it tastes like no-bake cheesecake and the way it’s made makes it really fluffy.

Here’s how to make it:

In your stand mixer again, add 2 packages of cream cheese (I usually use Neufchatel because it’s often cheaper at the store) and 1 stick of softened butter.

Cream these two ingredients really well before you add anything else. That the key to a creamy frosting with no lumps.

Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and 2 cups of GRANULATED sugar.

Yes you read that right. Granulated sugar.

I don’t like the flavor of powdered sugar so I use it only when I have to.

The little grains of the sugar help to whip up the cream cheese and butter more too.

The granulated sugar is just the regular white sugar you use for everything. It works really well for this but you have to mix it for a lot longer than you would normally.

At first it’ll be grainy but after about 10 minutes, it’ll be nice, smooth, and fluffy.

And so delicious!

Spread it all on the cake and enjoy!

Don’t forget to pin it!

Print it for later!