Desserts · Cakes & loaves

Carrot cake

Name: Carrot cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 cup granulated sugar; 1/2 cup packed brown sugar; 1 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 tbsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp salt; 4 egg; 3/4 cup canola oil; 3 cups mature carrots, finely grated; 3/4 cup walnuts, chopped; 1 block cream cheese, softened; 6 tbsp butter, softened; 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar; 1 tsp vanilla extract

The layer cake that hides two cups of vegetables: spiced, moist, under cream cheese frosting. One of the most-searched cakes every spring, and the carrots do genuinely help.

Time: 65 min (30 prep + 35 cook)
Servings: 12
Per serving: 597 kcal
Protein: 7 g

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour250 g
1 cup granulated sugar200 g
1/2 cup packed brown sugar100 g
1 1/2 tsp baking powder6 g
1 tsp baking soda4 g
1 tbsp ground cinnamon6 g
1/2 tsp salt3 g
4 egg200 g
3/4 cup canola oil180 g
3 cups mature carrots, finely grated300 g
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped80 g

Frosting

1 block cream cheese, softened225 g
6 tbsp butter, softened85 g
2 1/3 cups powdered sugar280 g
1 tsp vanilla extract5 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Whisk the dry cake ingredients, then beat in the eggs and oil. Fold in the grated carrot and walnuts.
Divide between two lined 20 cm (8-inch) pans and bake at 175°C for 30–35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool completely. Warm cake plus cream cheese frosting equals a slide, not a cake.
Beat the frosting smooth — cold cream cheese lumps, so let it come to room temperature — then fill and cover.

Grate the carrots or buy them shredded?

Grate. Bagged shredded carrot is cut thick and dry, and it stays as visible strands in the crumb; fine hand-grated carrot melts into the cake and keeps it moist, which is the entire reason the vegetable is in there.

Alternative

Protein carrot cakethe whey-and-yogurt rebuild30

Why this score

engineered against fullness

Concentrated sugar, with little protein or fiber to slow it down; dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

5% of kcal

17% water

3 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

56%

41%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 7163 kcal goes into the pot, 1924 g of ingredients comes out as ~1600 g of food → 448 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 448
Protein: (5%); 5 g
Fat: (50%); 25 g
Carbohydrates: (45%); 51 g
of which sugar: 37 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 292 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More desserts

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.