The Pioneer Woman Tasty Kitchen
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Nana’s Amazing Carrot Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting

4.71 Mitt(s) 7 Rating(s)7 votes, average: 4.71 out of 57 votes, average: 4.71 out of 57 votes, average: 4.71 out of 57 votes, average: 4.71 out of 57 votes, average: 4.71 out of 5

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Level: Easy

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Description

This is the best carrot cake you’ll ever taste!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Sugar
  • 1-¼ cup Oil
  • 4 whole Eggs
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2 cups All-purpose Flour
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 2 cups Grated Raw Carrot (about Three Carrots)
  • 1 cup Chopped Nuts, Plus More For Sprinkling On Top
  • _____
  • FOR THE FROSTING:
  • 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
  • 1 stick Butter, Room Temperature
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2-½ cups To 3 Cups Powdered Sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and add them to the egg mixture. Add shredded carrots and nuts. You could also add about a 1/2 cup of raisins in you’d like, but we prefer it without.

Bake in greased cake pans, either two round pans or one 9×13 pan.

Depending on the size of pan you choose to use, your baking time will vary. I bake mine in round pans and it usually takes around 45 minutes.

Prepare frosting by mixing the frosting ingredients together until smooth. Frost cake when the cake is cool. Sprinkle with more chopped nuts.

Enjoy!

10 Comments

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ginabe on 12.8.2011

To torlan – I’ve never used just PAM on my pans. I’ve always buttered and floured my pans and also used buttered parchment rounds. I have a lot of luck with Baker’s Secret or Crisco with Flour for my baked goods, but not PAM. Good luck!

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torlan on 10.5.2011

I’ve made this twice now in round cake pans, and both times it was almost impossible to get out of the pans, even though I sprayed liberally with PAM. Any suggestions? I did put slightly more carrots in (2 1/2 cups), so maybe that’s the problem.

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lauralop on 4.6.2010

so delicious! i made this for easter and it was a big hit. i used whole wheat flour, and only half the butter in the frosting, and it was amazing. thanks for sharing!

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tkehle on 3.31.2010

Words can not describe the deliciousness of this cake. So good, so moist, so heavy and so amazing. I omitted the nuts and raisins and doubled the frosting so that I could run a layer of frosting through the two cakes and then have extra to eat with some strawberries.
Oh my…so, so good. It was gone at work within 15 minutes, people were literally squabbling over the last piece.

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beccathebaker on 2.28.2010

Absolutely The Best Carrot Cake Ever.
Fabulous!
Thanks!
xoxo,
Becca

7 Reviews

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chicagosummerlinds on 11.13.2011

The flavor was spot-on, classic carrot cake – delicious! But, I had an issue with the cake not rising evenly. I will probably give it another try soon though!

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moonflwr (Tai) on 10.16.2011

i made this the other night with some unbleached king arthur white whole wheat flour. it was absolutely delicious! i substituted grated apples for carrots and left out any raisins or nuts. i also used my own recipe for frosting. great recipe! cake came out very moist!

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missymissy on 2.26.2011

This is the first review I have posted- I HAD to come say what a great recipe this was! I did make some substitutions (applesauce for half the oil) and use pecans. I doubled the cream cheese and butter, but didn’t quite double the sugar- more like 1 1/2 times.
SO GOOD!

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brittney on 9.20.2010

perfect carrot cake – though i did leave out nuts and raisins. i like a plain, smooth cake. also the frosting wasn’t cream cheese-y enough for me so i doubled the amount of cream cheese and kept everything else the same. so good!

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Katy on 7.19.2010

This was the very first cake I have ever made from scratch. Very good! The frosting was divine. We skipped the nuts and I served it as a birthday cake for my boyfriend. He loved it.

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