Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: This carrot cake is perfectly sweet, nutty, and perfectly spiced, while the frosting is rich and tangy.
Texture: Ultra moist and tender with that luscious cinnamon cream cheese frosting in every single bite.
Ease: Easier than you might think!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Brown butter really elevates the traditional carrot cake flavors. This might be your new favorite cake!
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This Brown Butter Carrot Cake is easily one of the most incredible cakes I’ve ever tried – and that’s really saying something, coming from this chocoholic!
It wasn’t until I had a slice of AMAZING carrot cake from a little café called Fragments in Paris that I realized just how great carrot cake could be.
So I got to work testing and tweaking, elevating my recipe for Carrot Cake Cupcakes into a show-stopping layer cake.
The nutty flavor of the brown butter complements the flavors in carrot cake beautifully – and it also helps make the cake super rich and moist.
Plenty of warm spices in the batter and an extra dash of cinnamon in the cream cheese frosting round everything out perfectly.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Brown Butter Carrot Cake
How to Brown Butter
This simple trick elevates the flavors here SO much. A skillet works better than a saucepan for browning butter because there’s more surface area for the brown bits to develop. Here’s how to brown butter:
- In a medium skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises.
- Once the crackling stops, continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom.
- Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl, then set it aside to cool completely.
- Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.
The Best Baking Pans For Cake
My favorite cake pan is this Fat Daddio’s pan. Never use dark-colored nonstick cake pans. They conduct heat too aggressively and often lead to hard, dry edges and undercooked or sunken centers.
How to *Properly* Prepare Carrots for Carrot Cake
- Fresh carrots only: For extra moist Carrot Cake, shred fresh carrots – don’t use pre-shredded packaged ones. Freshly grated carrots are more flavorful and much more moist!
- Farmer’s markets: Whenever possible, buy your carrots at the farmer’s market. They’re SO much sweeter!
- Coarse grating: Don’t grate your carrots too finely. You want carrot “confetti” in your cake, so the bigger holes on your box grate work better.
- If you have one, use your food processor: You can also use your food processor’s grating attachment to make grating quicker and easier.
- Buy extra: 3 cups of freshly shredded carrots equals about 4 medium carrots, but buy extra just in case.
Do I Have to Add Nuts?
I added pecans or walnuts as an option for this Brown Butter Carrot Cake. They add a nice crunchy texture and a bit of savory flavor to contrast the sweetness. Feel free to skip the nuts or add a few tablespoons of raisins, if preferred.
Applesauce in Carrot Cake?
This isn’t necessarily a healthy addition, although it does allow us to use a little less butter. Applesauce in Carrot Cake helps provide tender moisture and a nice, sweet, fruity flavor to complement the carrots. You don’t really taste apples, just a light freshness.
Carrot Cake Spices
- This recipe is written for a well-rounded flavor, with the spices harmoniously balancing out the sweetness and richness.
- Please note that new spices are much more flavorful, and older spices carry less flavor – so adjust accordingly based on the age of your spices.
- If your spices are expired, toss them and purchase new ones – otherwise, your cake may be bland.
How to Tell When the Cake is Done Baking
The cake is done baking when a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
The Best Frosting For Carrot Cake
Arguably the best part of Carrot Cake! Here are my best Cream Cheese Frosting tips:
- Cool room temperature ingredients: For the best and creamiest frosting, be sure your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature.
- Cream cheese: Use full-fat bricks of cream cheese, not reduced-fat cream cheese or tubs meant for spreading on bagels.
- Scrape the bowl: Beat in a large bowl until completely smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of your bowl often, until there are no lumps. Even if you have a paddle attachment that scrapes the sides as it goes, I still recommend scraping down the paddle and bottom of the bowl to ensure no lumps.
- Sift: Don’t skip sifting the powdered sugar! It’s a pain, but it’s necessary to ensure smooth frosting.
- Vanilla paste: For those beautiful vanilla speckles and a gourmet appearance, use vanilla paste over vanilla extract.
How to Assemble Brown Butter Carrot Cake
In this recipe, we take two cake layers and cut each in half horizontally, resulting in four layers that provide a better ratio of cream cheese frosting.
Feel free to skip this step (you likely won’t need as much frosting), but it’s much more fun and more of a beautiful centerpiece as a four-layer masterpiece!
To cut each cake layer, use a cake leveler or serrated knife. A cake leveler makes your layers absolutely perfect.
How to Decorate Carrot Cake
- Simplicity: The cream cheese frosting is a little looser than your classic buttercream, so you won’t be able to do intricate, detailed designs. I personally prefer a more basic or “naked cake” look for carrot cake anyway.
- Nuts: A border of chopped nuts on top of the cake makes a simple yet elegant final garnish. Feel free to add more chopped nuts as a bottom border, too, if you wish.
- Cute details: If you want to add a cute finishing touch, check out my article on How to Make Decorative Edible Carrots.
Can You Make This Recipe Into Cupcakes?
Sure – check out my guide on how to convert a cake into cupcakes (and vice versa!) – or simply use my easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes recipe here.
Can I Make Carrot Cake Ahead of Time?
Wrap cooled, uncut, unfrosted carrot cake layers in several layers of plastic wrap and place inside an airtight container. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days. Check out the freezing instructions below if you need to store longer.
Does Carrot Cake Need to be Refrigerated? How to Store Carrot Cake
Yes, because of the cream cheese frosting, Carrot Cake does need to be stored in the fridge. You can keep the cake at room temperature for up to 6 hours, but if storing longer, cover with a cake keeper and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Can You Freeze Carrot Cake?
Yes! Wrap cooled, unfrosted carrot cake layers in several layers of plastic wrap and place inside a freezer bag. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Don’t defrost at room temperature, or you will end up with mushy, sticky cake.
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Ingredients
For the cake:
- 10 tablespoons (142 grams) unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups (318 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 cups (400 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (250 grams) unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups (296 grams) finely shredded carrots* (about 4 medium carrots)
- 3/4 cup (84 grams) finely chopped walnuts or pecans
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 24 ounces (680 grams) cream cheese, completely softened to room temperature
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, completely softened to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon
vanilla paste or extract - 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 5 cups (625 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Thoroughly grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- In a medium skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter. Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises. Once the crackling stops, continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom. Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Let cool completely.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
- To the browned butter, whisk in the brown sugar, then the eggs. Stir in the applesauce, vanilla, and carrots. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the nuts.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely before transferring to wire racks.
- Slice each cake layer in half for four layers using a cake leveler or serrated knife. Place layers in the fridge while you make the frosting.
Make the frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt on medium-high speed until very light, creamy, and smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. On low speed, gradually add in the sugar and beat until creamy.
Assemble the cake:
- Place one cake layer cut side up on a cake stand or platter. Spread about 1/4 of the frosting all over the cake layer, pushing it out over the edge just slightly. Repeat with the remaining layers. With an offset spatula, spread the remaining frosting evenly all over the cake, smoothing the edges.
- Serve or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
This post was originally published in 2020 and has been updated with additional recipe tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I would like to add pineapple to this. my family loves it. could you tell me how to do that? beautiful cake
Hi Heather! We haven’t tested adding pineapple to this recipe, but other reviewers have used crushed pineapple in place of the applesauce with success. Let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
I came across this recipe, searching for one with apple butter. I’m curious if you think apple butter could be substituted for the applesauce.
I have a doubt, I only have one cake pan so I would have to do the receip twice with half of the batter each time (I am aware that I should avoid make all the batter at the same time, bake half of it and once finished, bake the second half, since the baking soda won’t have the same effect). The cake pan is 8 inch and quite high, assuming that the heigh is not a problem, could I consider baking all the batter together and then cut it into 4 slices instad of baking 2 cakes and slice them into 2 slices each? Should I expect a worse result if baking by this way?
Thank you
Hi Elena! I would worry about the pan overflowing in your oven if you baked it all in one! I’d recommend filling your pan 3/4 full, then make cupcakes out of the remaining batter. To be safe, you could place a baking sheet underneath the cake pan to catch any overflow. Let us know how it goes!
This cake was absolutely amazing! I replaced the apple sauce with greek yoghurt as I didn’t have any on hand. It turned out so delicious and moist! Thank you!
Can this be made as a sheet cake?
We haven’t tried that, but I’d imagine it’d work just fine with an adjustment to the bake time. Let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
In the ingredients for the frosting, when you call for the butter and cream cheese to be “completely softened”, and in italics yet, what temperature should I look for? In other recipes, I’ve been carefully following your room temperature guidelines of 67˚ to 72˚. But is “completely softened” warmer than that? Thanks so much for the help.
Hi John! Yes, the butter and cream cheese should be completely softened to room temperature. The temp range you shared is perfect, but if it’s a bit warmer, that’s fine too. The most important thing is that the butter and cream cheese aren’t too cold; otherwise, your frosting won’t be smooth.
I have made this cake 3 times now and every time it’s just as amazing. This is the best carrot cake I’ve ever had and everyone that eats it agrees. Phenomenal recipe!!
I just took the cake pans out of the oven, should I cool them on a wire rack before turning out the cakes? If so, for how long?
Hi Bex! I’d recommend letting the carrot cake cool in their pans on a wire rack before removing them from their pans. Start with about 10-15 minutes of cooling time, and if they’re still really warm, give them a few more minutes before turning them out. Let us know what you think of this carrot cake once you have given it a try! 🙂
Thanks Kiersten! I did let them cool for 10 minutes and they came right out. They are so super soft, they’re going to be delicious. I let them cool to room temp before wrapping them for the freezer. I’ll need them next week for a party. I’ve made this cake before and it is VERY DELICIOUS. It’s my go to recipe for carrot cake.
Can I add baking powder for higher cakes?
We haven’t tested that, but we recommend making the recipe as written first before making any adjustments. Let us know how it goes!
I’m curious- why wasn’t there any baking powder added in the first place
Tessa didn’t find that this recipe needed baking powder. It’s all in the testing process – using just baking soda as the leavener assisted the other ingredients perfectly in achieving the texture and appearance she was looking for 🙂
Can in add shreddded coconut
Hi Justyna! We haven’t tried that, but feel free to experiment with that!
I only have 9 inch pans. Can I use those?
Hi Justyna! We haven’t tried that, but it should work okay – just note that your cakes will be thinner than pictured, and will need less time in the oven as a result. Let us know how it goes!
Hi, I was wondering if the ginger is dry powder or grated ginger root? When I use nutmeg I always grate the pods for a really great taste. Thanks.
Hi Jeanne! We used dried ground ginger in this recipe. We haven’t tried it with fresh, but it might alter the flavor profile as its rather astringent.