If you love carrot cake recipes, you might also like these easy carrot cake muffins and this ultra-moist carrot cake earthquake cake!
Why You’ll Love This Carrot Bundt Cake Recipe
This carrot bundt cake falls somewhere between a classic carrot cake recipe and a moist, spongey pound cake. Every slice is filled with tender carrots in a soft crumb with a touch of cozy spice. Of course, it’s smothered with tangy cream cheese frosting. Here are more reasons to love it:
Why You’ll Love This Carrot Bundt Cake RecipeIngredients You’ll NeedHow to Make Candied CarrotsCake Baking Tips and VariationsHow to StoreMore Bundt Cake RecipesGet the Recipe
One bowl. Mix the batter in one bowl, fill the bundt pan, and then bake. The best desserts keep clean-up to a minimum, am I right? Easy to slice. The whole point of a bundt cake is that it’s easy to cut and share. This carrot bundt cake is filled with classic carrot cake ingredients, and it’s totally party-ready. Candied carrots! I tested out the coolest technique making candied carrot curls to use when decorating this cake. It worked so well. The candied carrots are sweet, sugary, and deliciously chewy. The perfect garnish!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Check out my notes on the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy carrot bundt cake. Scroll down to the recipe card after the post to find a printable list with amounts.
Carrots – You’ll need grated carrots for the cake. I’ll also show you how to candy carrots for garnish, which calls for peeling whole carrots into ribbons using a vegetable peeler. Sugar – Granulated sugar works perfectly for the cake and also for making the sugar syrup to candy the carrots. Oil – Replacing butter with oil is the secret to a super-soft, tender cake crumb. Choose a neutral-flavored vegetable oil for best results. Eggs and Vanilla – You’ll want to use real vanilla extract and not the imitation stuff. Dry Ingredients – You’ll need flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Cinnamon – Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, or you can also use pumpkin pie spice to bring a touch of cozy flavor to the cake. Frosting – I frost this carrot bundt cake with a sweet and classic cream cheese frosting made from butter, powdered sugar, and cream cheese.
How to Make Candied Carrots
These candied carrot curls take a bit of time, but they make such a fun, sweet garnish for this carrot cake. I usually get started on the carrots ahead of time, so that they can candy in the oven before I put the temperature up to bake the cake. You’ll find printable instructions in the recipe card, but here’s an overview. To candy carrots, you’ll boil carrot ribbons in sugar, and then bake them at 225ºF for 25-35 minutes. The carrots should be a little bendy but still hold their shape. I like to use a wooden spoon and wrap the warm carrots around the end to shape them into curls. Sprinkle the carrot curls with sugar and then let them set. Afterward, arrange the candied carrots over the frosted cake any way that you’d like.
Cake Baking Tips and Variations
Measure dry ingredients correctly. If you have a kitchen scale, that’s the best way to properly measure ingredients like flour. If you don’t have a scale, spoon (don’t scoop!) the flour into a measuring cup, and level off the top with a knife to avoid over-measuring. Don’t overmix the cake batter. This is a cardinal rule for moist, fluffy cakes. Overmixing the batter leads to a dense cake that won’t rise, so make sure that you’re only mixing in the dry ingredients until they’re just combined. Add-ins. Stir in chopped walnuts or pecans for crunch. You can also add dried fruit, like dried cranberries or raisins. Cream cheese swirl. Make a cream cheese swirled carrot bundt cake by following the directions for my cream cheese swirled apple cake recipe. Add half the carrot cake batter to the pan, dollop over the sweet cream cheese filling, and add the remaining batter over top. Different frosting. I love the sweet-tangy contrast of cream cheese frosting with carrot cake recipes, but you can use any kind of frosting you’d like. Traditional vanilla buttercream, this brown sugar frosting, or even chocolate cream cheese frosting would all taste delicious.
How to Store
Refrigerate. I recommend storing this cake airtight in a cake carrier or container and keeping it in the fridge. It’ll stay fresh for up to 5 days. Serve the cake at room temperature for the best texture. Freeze. You can also freeze this carrot bundt cake for up to 1 month. Store it tightly wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap or foil. Defrost the cake in the fridge or at room temperature.
More Bundt Cake Recipes
Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake Sour Cream Blueberry Bundt Cake Samoas Bundt Cake Praline Bundt Cake Banana Pound Cake
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2 whole carrots 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided 1 cup water
Carrot Cake
2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 4 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups grated carrots
Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 4 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Store airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
