Anytime Easter gets closer I start thinking and thinking about the best carrot cake recipe! It is just so good I start dreaming about it. Haha.
You can make the best carrot cake with pineapple, isn’t that kind of surprising?! The flavors of the carrot cake mix perfectly with pineapple and it actually enhances the flavor. Another thing I love about this recipe is that it is a homemade carrot cake in a 9×13 inch pan! No need to have fancy frosting skills, just keep it in the dish and frost it, and enjoy it!
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our carrot cake, you need the following ingredients:
- Canola oil
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Grated carrots
- Crushed pineapple
- Flour
- Shredded coconut
- Raisins
- Chopped walnuts
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Vanilla
To make the cream cheese frosting, you need the following ingredients:
- Powdered sugar
- Butter
- Cream cheese
- Vanilla
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Our Carrot Cake Recipe
- In a large bowl cream together oil, sugar, and eggs.
- Then add remaining cake ingredients and mix until well blended.
- Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. (I used a glass pan)
- Bake at 325℉ for 45 minutes.
- Cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting the cake.
- After the cake has cooled, mix the powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a separate bowl until smooth and creamy. Spread evenly over cake.
Recipe Notes
Out of the list of ingredients for this carrot cake, crushed pineapple might be one of the things you might not have or could have a little hard time finding. But don’t fret you can indeed make your own crushed pineapple. With the Foodie Affair’s blog about how to make your own crushed pineapple from fresh pineapple, you will be able to make this recipe no matter what! I promise you don’t want to skip the pineapple because it adds so much flavor.
Storage Suggestions
If you manage to have any leftover cake, these can store well if prepped appropriately. Once the cake has cooled completely, here is how you can store it:
- Counter: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days are room temperature.
- Refrigerator: Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
- Freezer: You can freeze completely cooled, un-frosted cake. First, wrap it either in plastic wrap or Press & Seal wrap. Plastic wrap tends to be a little difficult, and require multiple layers. However, we usually always have plastic wrap on hand. Make sure to label your frozen cake with the date made. Frozen cake can last in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Enjoy More Delicious Cake Recipes
Some days there’s nothing we want more than a slice of chocolate cake. Check out our comprehensive list of cake recipes here.
- Chocolate Zucchini Sheet Cake
- Cinnamon Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Sheet Pan Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting
- Sheet Pan Zucchini Cake with Frostin
Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ¼ cup canola oil
- 2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cup grated carrots
- 1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
- 2½ cup flour
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 cup raisins
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts, optional
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting
- 3 cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup butter, (softened to room temperature, do not melt)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In a large bowl cream together oil, sugar, and eggs.
- Then add remaining cake ingredients and mix until well blended.
- Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. (I used a glass pan)
- Bake at 325℉ for 45 minutes.
- Cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting the cake.
- After the cake has cooled, mix the powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a separate bowl until smooth and creamy. Spread evenly over cake.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I absolutely love crushed pineapple in my carrot cake! It makes for such great flavor and texture! This cake looks super moist! A must for carrot cake!
Looks delicious, I would love to give this recipe a shot my husband love carrot cake ! thanks for sharing !
Oh, I love carrot cake. So does my dear dad. I should make this for him. Thanks for the recipe.
YUM! My husband and I love carrot cake! I’m definitely going to be making this recipe!
Am definitely going to try this one — coconut? That’s a new one. I suppose you could make cupcakes with this, couldn’t you? I want to send some to my husband’s office. Let me know about baking time for cupcakes if it’s different – I’m such a goof!!!
Hi Donna, We’re sure you could do cupcakes, but we have never tried it. So we can’t give you definite cooking times. We would think around 20 to 25 minutes. Watch them closely. Be sure to let us know if you try it. Thanks so much for stopping by our blog and have a great week! -The Six Sisters
Yum yum yum yum yum -)
I think Moby Dick was a minnow the last time that I had carrot cake! I need to pull out Granny’s recipe and make it! and then make y’all’s, too! Because YUM
<3
Hi Ladies!
This looks FANTASTIC! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing it at Marvelous Mondays!
I’m making it today for husbands birthday. Using 9″ cake pans (2) baking time?
I have this in the oven right now. Cant wait to taste it. Has anyone tried it in a bundt cake form or did the 2 layers turn out for you, Cheryl? I love the prettiness of a round cake in my glass dish. 🙂
Hello,
Hello, I’m a noob baker from Manila. I’ve aready baked this carrot cake recipe as well as your One Bowl Chocolate cake. I made them for my mom and aun’ts birthday. They turned out amazing! I’ll be blogging about them soon and will of course create a link to this site. I will also be trying the other recipes you have. Your blog is now one of my go-to sites for baking. 🙂
I was just wondering if I can substitute butter or shortening instead of margarine for the cream cheese frosting? Appreciate your help!
You can definitely substitute butter or shortening for the margarine in the cream cheese frosting.
I made this for my mom on mothers day and this is absolutely the best carrot cake recipe I have tried. I was afraid the pineapple and coconut may be overpowering however it was very subtle and in fact no one even knew the coconut was in the cake. The frosting is amazing as well. This will be a staple in my collection – thanks for sharing!
Do you use cake flour or just plain flour
We used regular flour.
Has anyone tried making this into a 2 layer with 9″ rounds? wondering what bake time or if I need to double the frosting recipe.
Will gluten free flour work for this
You can substitute GF flour for regular flour when baking, but not all blends are equal. If you are new to gluten free, pick a blend like Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten free blend.
Thank you for a great recipe! Finally a recipe that works for a new Utah resident, not used to baking in high altitude! I came from Newport Beach CA and all my baking efforts have failed so far! This is such a winner! I made it into two 8 in rounds & it was perfect!
I hope we can help you with baking in this new altitude! Welcome to Utah!
We love Six Sisters! I love carrot cake, but I am not a fan of nuts. Will the cake still be successful if I leave out the nuts or substitute with chocolate chips, maybe? Also, we live in KS. Any baking adjustments we need to make to accommodate the much lower altitude out here? Thanks!
Hi. Do you use grated fresh coconut or desiccated coconut?