The Best Carrot Cake!

This is the best carrot cake I've ever made or eaten! If you, or someone you love, likes carrot cake, then you are going to want to make this cake.  

I made it last year for Leo's birthday, and he declared it the best he'd ever eaten.

It is a super-moist cake (who likes a dry carrot cake?) and you'll see why when you look at the list of ingredients in the printable recipe below.

What you need

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 cups grated carrot

For the Frosting

• 1 cup butter 2 sticks
• 2 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 5 cups confectioners’ sugar

For Garnish

• small bag of chopped pecans
• whole pecans optional
• grated lemon zest optional
• thin slice of lemon optional

How to make carrot cake

Learn how to make this delicious carrot cake step by steps below

Intructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with nonstick baking spray with flour.

In a large bowl, combine oil, sugar, and eggs; beat at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Add lemon zest, beating until combined.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Gradually add to oil mixture, beating until combined.

Stir in grated carrot. (You can grate your carrots by hand, but pull out that food processor and make things easier on yourself!)

Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans, and bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

You can squeeze your lemons, y'all, but I really recommend this juicer. If you ever see one of these in a kitchen store, grab it and rush to the counter to buy it!  Here's a similar juicer one.  I cannot tell you how many times I have used this tool because I love fresh lemon and lime juice in so many things. It's made so that you don't need to exert much pressure to get every little drop of juice from your fruit.

In a large bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until smooth.

Spread the frosting evenly between the layers and on top and sides of the cake.

Y'all do know about putting wax paper or parchment paper under the edges of your cake while you are frosting it, don't you? Gently pull them out and you'll have the cleanest server you've ever seen!

Garnish your cake with chopped pecans and a lemon slice. Sometimes I add additional grated lemon zest and whole pecans on the top.

I've updated this post to give you a printable version of this recipe.

Right now, I'm wishing I had a piece of this cake to go with my coffee.