33 Carrot Cake Recipes You’ve Got To Try

When it comes to crowd-pleasing cakes, good, old-fashioned carrot cake is always at the top of the list. With layers of gently spiced cake, rich cream cheese frosting and delicious add-in options (buttery pecans, anyone?) carrot cake is the easy dessert that truly has it all. Better yet, the tried-and-true combination of flavors can be used to make a number of different treats, so you can just as easily enjoy ‘carrot cake’ for breakfast any day of the week as you can for dessert on Easter Sunday. Don’t believe us? You’ll find everything from carrot cake baked oatmeal to easy-peasy Bundt cakes in this roundup—and you’ll love them all. There are, of course, plenty of traditional takes on the beloved dessert as well—starting with this one. The cake is spiced with a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg: the perfect complement to the natural sweetness of the carrots. Heavy cream whipped into the frosting makes it extra light and fluffy, perfect for finishing your sweet masterpiece.

Carrot cake lovers rejoice: your favorite cake has been transformed into a cookie. You'll get the same cinnamon-spiced cake slathered with tangy-sweet cream cheese frosting—but in portable and sharable cookie form. These treats are big, fluffy, tender and chewy, and they're about to become your new go-to dessert.

These carrot cake bars deliver all the cozy flavor of classic carrot cake in an easy, sliceable form. Packed with shredded carrots and warm spices, each soft, tender bar is finished with a rich layer of cream cheese frosting for a nostalgic, homemade treat.

Freshly grated carrots give this festive spring cake its signature moisture and subtle sweetness, while warm spices add depth to every bite. Finished with a tangy cream cheese frosting and classic carrot cake mix-ins like nuts or raisins, it’s a celebratory dessert that’s both rich and warmly spiced.

Whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt keep these cakes flavorful and moist while adding fiber and protein. Each cake gets 1 teaspoon of sweet cream cheese glaze — far fewer calories than the multiple tablespoons of frosting piled onto your typical cupcake.

Most people would agree that the cream cheese frosting is the best part of any carrot cake, so it makes perfect sense to replace it with a thick layer of creamy cheesecake. These two classic cakes make one showstopping mash-up dessert.

Our favorite part of this veggie-studded dessert granola is the yogurt-covered raisins — a nod to the cream cheese frosting on the classic cake.

If you avoid baking a cake because there aren't enough people in your home to help you eat it, then we have the solution: Make just one slice. We've scaled down a regular recipe so you won't be stuck with leftovers.

Each slice of this spiced, jelly roll-inspired cake comes with a creamy spiral of cream cheese frosting. Topped with cute frosting carrots, it's an extra-special dessert for any celebration.

Tender, flaky scones and spiced carrot cake come together in this quick baked treat. Drizzled with tangy cream cheese glaze and topped with a sprinkle of toasted walnuts, they're perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

Not only is the flavor of this perfectly spiced cake beautiful — the decorations are too. Molly rolls ribbons of rainbow carrots into small rosettes before carefully nestling them into the top of the frosted cake.

Ree incorporates all the best elements of carrot cake (fresh carrots, cinnamon, brown sugar and even cream cheese frosting) into her easy breakfast bake.

Nancy loads her carrot cake up with coconut, chopped walnuts and cut-up pineapple for a satisfying cake that's full of sweet and delicious flavor.

This fluffy vegan carrot cake has warm hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, plus an extra-generous portion of shredded carrots for sweetness and moisture. The layers are satisfyingly tall, thanks to applesauce, which reacts with the baking soda and baking powder to help the cake rise. Eggs typically add structure to baked goods, but this recipe has enough flour and shredded carrots to compensate.

Buddy's frosting-free treat is all about the cake! He keeps it incredibly simple, using just 9 ingredients, so that the natural sweetness of carrots and the warming spiciness of cinnamon get a chance to shine. No frosting needed!

This may look like a classic layered carrot cake, but it’s loaded with sweet maple and toasty walnuts. For the cake, we use a combination of all-purpose and walnut flours, warm baking spices and maple. Cream cheese frosting is flavored with both maple extract and syrup. For a finishing touch, top the cake with sticky maple candied walnuts.

With no oven, baking pans or cooling required, these tender cakes have the added bonus of extra surface area for cream cheese frosting. They are great for breakfast, brunch, or topped with a scoop of ice cream, for dessert.

This ultimate mash-up of two classic cake recipes is fun and surprising in all the right ways. Mixing carrot juice in with the 3 soaking milks turns the cake a pretty pastel shade of orange. To keep the sponge cake light and airy (and ready to take on all the milks), make sure to finely grate the carrots and beat the egg yolks and sugar until very thick and pale.

Ina's fan-favorite recipe has hundreds of 5-star reviews. And, for good reason: the cake is perfectly moist and flavorful. Topped with a homemade cream cheese frosting and fresh pineapple it's a next-level version of the classic.

These individual-size treats have all the carrot cake flavor you're craving — packed into a fluffy little sandwich cookie. You can even make them up to two days ahead, making them the perfect goodie to serve when friends and family come over to visit.

When you need an easy-but-impressive dessert, this is the one to make. This towering masterpiece boasts 6 layers each of homemade carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.

Maneet makes carrot halwa from scratch and sandwiches it between two rounds of freshly baked carrot cake for an over-the-top dessert that pays homage to the ones her grandmother used to bake.

Carrot cake for breakfast? Yes, please! Molly even tops her baked oatmeal with dollops of sweetned cream cheese for the full effect.

Our classic carrot cake is nicely spiced with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and has toasted pecans both in the cake and on top. Plumped golden raisins and a full pound of carrots make it nice and moist while buttermilk lends tang and tenderness. Our homemade cream-cheese frosting has just the right amount of sweetness.

Trisha's trick to baking a better-for-you carrot cake? She uses coconut sugar which is less processed, and still contains some nutrients. She also bakes the carrot cake in a single layer, to cut down on the amount of frosting that is needed.

Coconut is the perfect complement to fresh carrot. Both ingredients have a balanced natural sweetness that's not too sugary, giving this cake a flavor unlike any other.

These aren’t garden-variety carrots: They’re carrot cakes! To make the veggie lookalikes, we mixed crumbled carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, formed it into logs, then coated the faux carrots in orange candy melts. The finishing touches: some scratches for texture, a little cocoa powder for dirt and a green licorice stem.

It's a simple upgrade but adding a touch of fresh ginger to your homemade cream cheese frosting instantly elevates this classic dessert.

This oh-so-delicious cake swaps regular flour for almond flour — making this cake the perfect treat for anyone avoiding gluten.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on carrot cake, especially in our test kitchen. In our (lengthy) discussions, we debated the merits of adding common ingredients like coconut, pineapple, and chopped nuts. We even discussed just how much carrot to add. In the end, we all agreed that the classic carrot should definitely be loaded with carrots, walnuts, and raisins. One thing the test kitchen could agree on was that carrot cake must be frosted with cream cheese frosting. That is NOT negotiable.

Buttermilk and lots of grated carrots keeps this cake super moist without adding much fat. Whole wheat flour and pumpkin pie spice add a great spiced nutty taste.

We thought outside the box (or, in this case, upside-down) to come up with this carrot cake. Instead of shredding carrots and folding them into the batter, we used a vegetable peeler to make ribbons and candied them in a butter-and-sugar mixture for a fun and pretty topping.