Carrot Cake Straight Up

This is a scratch carrot cake for all of you out there who like your carrot cake without all of the “stuff” in it. Moist and delicious, this is also a recipe that will carve well.

Carrot Cake Straight Up

Ingredients

3 sticks, plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (or more if you like)
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups grated carrots

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter 3 (8-inch) cake pans with 1 tablespoon of the butter and set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add the sugar, and beat. In a medium bowl or on a piece of parchment, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the eggs, beating well after the addition of each. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Add the carrots and beat on medium speed until well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Divide between the 3 cake pans and bake until set and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, start checking at 25 – 30 minutes.
Hey.. it has carrots in it right??

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Comments (9)

mistis on 31 Dec 2009 , 8:36pm

This is Emeril's recipe

pottedmeatchunks on 31 Mar 2010 , 3:17pm

This was pretty good. I doubled the cinnamon since 2t didn't seem like enough and that was good. But it was a spongier carrot cake (not dense like I prefer). The good thing is the batter is thick so your mix-ins won't sink.

JanH on 19 Apr 2010 , 10:24pm

This is now my go-to carrot cake recipe. Perfect texture and tastes great!

preciosa225 on 20 Apr 2010 , 8:31am

This recipe was really good. Does anyone have a cream cheese icing recipe that is stable yet you can still taste the cream cheese in it? I've tried quite a few recipes from cc but they are all so sweet that you can't taste the cream cheese at all. And being that carrot cake is sweet, I think it needs that ting from a cream cheese frosting.

pottedmeatchunks- if you like a dense carrot cake try Paula Deen's. It's good but was too dense for my liking.

alecialondon on 27 Aug 2010 , 8:51am

Is this good for stacking carving?

lorik19 on 5 Oct 2010 , 2:25pm

I made this recipe along with the Decorator's Cream Cheese Frosting recipe (added an additional cream cheese to the frosting recipe) on cc and it received so so SO many positive reviews. I was a little nervous to make the recipe as I'm not a big carrot cake fan, but man-o-man, was this combination or recipes a killer cake - fantastic! I'm now a fan of carrot cake!

becks57 on 10 Apr 2011 , 9:26pm

fantastic taste but mine keeps falling - made it 3 times, 9"round, using Wilton's bake even strips. I'm at high altitude but haven't made any adjustments. they come out of the oven looking great but sink in the middle while cooling. what am I doing wrong?

Mark-Mexicano on 7 May 2011 , 5:21pm

I have the same problem with the sinking centers. I have made this recipe three times and it has failed all three times. I am also high altitude, sooooo that may be why. The edges bake fine and taste amazing!!! Definitely the best tasting carrot cake recipe I have tried. Wish it would bake right :-(

divachef213 on 11 Nov 2011 , 12:19pm

Becks57 & Mark-Mexicano- Have you tried lowering the oven temp to 325 degrees? Heavy cakes most often times prefer slower bake time. Just a tip. Good Luck!

Carrot Cake Straight Up