Ultimate Carrot Cake

I love carrot cake! Many years ago a friend that I worked with at the time shared a carrot cake recipe with me with a warning. He said “once you make this recipe it will ruin all other carrot cakes for you. You will never be happy with a piece of carrot cake from a restaurant again.”

It may sound strange to some people, a couple of IT guys exchanging recipes at work. I get it. But some of us computer guys love to cook too. And thanks to my old friend Dave Ryan, this carrot cake recipe is one of my favorite recipes. And my friends love when I make it.

For us this is an Easter dessert tradition. I don’t know why we don’t make this recipe more often, it really is delicious any time of the year.

For this post I wanted to take an already perfect recipe and step it up a little bit. How do you kick up carrot cake to the next level you ask? Add a layer of cheesecake to the middle of the cake! That’s right, instead of just cream cheese frosting, this has a layer of vanilla cheesecake in the middle. The cheesecake, the cream cheese frosting, the delicious moist carrot cake; they all come together for the ultimate carrot cake dessert!

This time around I didn’t want to make a full cake since we are still staying socially distant. So we cut the recipe in half and used 4″ mini spring form pans for both the cheesecake and the carrot cake. this gave us 3 complete mini-cakes. Each cake is still enough for 4 servings since they are so tall once assembled.

One special note; I recommend that you shred your carrots rather than buying pre-shredded carrots from the store. We have run into a problem a couple of times using store bought shredded carrots. It sounds strange, but the carrots turned bright green inside the cake. I have read various explanations of this from the baking powder not being evenly dispersed or too much baking powder, but this has only happened when we used store bought shredded carrots. If you have a food processor it is super easy to run some carrots through and you have perfectly shredded carrots. If you don’t have a food processor a box grater works perfectly also.

Give this cake a try, it will not disappoint!

Print Recipe

Ultimate Carrot Cake

Once you try this carrot cake you will never be satisfied with ordinary carrot cake from a restaurant. This can be made with or without the cheesecake layer, but believe me, it is worth the effort!

Cook Time1 hr

Course: Dessert

Keyword: cake, carrots, dessert, recipe

Servings: 12 people

Ingredients

For the Carrot Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour sifted
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil or other flavorless oil like sunflower oil
• 1 can crushed pineapple small can
• 4 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup chopped walnuts optional

For the Cheesecake layer (optional but worth it!)

• 16 oz cream cheese 2 packages
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese 1 package
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

Cheesecake layer

• Prepare the cheesecake layer first. This can be done early in the day, or the night before. If freezing the cheesecake, can be stored 1-2 weeks in the freezer.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Add 1 inch of water to a large roasting pan. Place it on the lowest rack of the oven! Allow it to preheat in the oven.
• Prepare 9-inch springform pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper.
  
• Beat cream cheese with granulated sugar for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Add in salt and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream and heavy cream, until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
  
• Pour into prepared 9-inch springform pan. Place pan in center of oven, on a rack just above the water bath. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and let cheesecake sit in oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely on counter.
  
• When cooled, remove cheesecake from the  sringform pan and place into the freezer for several hours or overnight.
  

For the Carrot Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of 2 9 inch cake pans.
• Place all ingredients except carrots and walnuts in a large bowl. mix with hand mixer until just combined. do not overmix.
  
• add shredded carrots and walnuts. Mix by hand with rubber scraper.
  
• Divide batter evenly into two 9 inch round cake pans. Bake on center rack of oven for approximately 30 minutes. Cake will be spongy and coming away from edge of pans.
  
• set aside on cooling racks until completely cooled
  

For Cream Cheese Frosting

• Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth, approximately 3 minutes.
• Add powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. beat until incorporated.
• Add heavy cream a little at a time to lighten the frosting and achieve desired consistency.

Assembly

• Start with one cake as bottom layer. Add a small amount of frosting to "glue" the layer of cheesecake in the middle.
  
• Add cheesecake layer and top again with a small amount of frosting to "glue" the top cake layer.
  
• Finish with the top layer of cake. Add frosting to sides and top of assembled cake. Decorate with some extra chopped walnuts if desired.