We love buttermilk carrot cake! In fact, we haven’t ever met a carrot cake that we didn’t love! But, this one is the best yet! Made with buttermilk, it is both light and moist, and the fluffy cream cheese frosting is blissful! You can make it as a layer cake or as a sheet cake, and the only difference is that for a layer cake you might want to double the frosting recipe, so you can plenty of the cream cheese frosting between the layers and over the entire cake.
When you make the cake batter, it will be very thick with all of the goodies like raisins, nuts, pineapple, coconut and carrots in the batter. Don’t worry it is a dense cake, bursting with flavor and crunchy bits in every bite.
You can also add raisins to this cake, regular or blond raisins work. If you add raisins, I’d add 1 cup of them. I always like to soak the raisins in boiling water for about 15-20 minutes to make them nice and plump before adding them to the cake batter. Ring them out by hand or push them down into a strainer before you add them to the cake to discard any excess liquid!
Buttermilk Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 3/4 cup buttermilk no substitute for this
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups grated carrots can use the grater on a food processor or hand-held grater
- 1 flat can 8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
- 1 cup raisins (soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes, then drained to plump them up before baking)
- 2/3 cup walnuts or pecans quartered, not chopped
- 6 ounces flaked coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting (for 9×13 or 2 9-inch layers)
- 1 8- oz. package cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cube butter 2 oz., softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 4 teaspoons vanilla
Garnish
- 2 cups pecans pieces, toasted for layer cake sides
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease or spray 9×13 rectangular baking pan. (*Can also use three 8-inch or two 9-inch round pans)
- Reconstitute the raisins in 1 cup boiling water to plump them up. Let stand for about 15 minutes and then squeeze the excess liquid out through a sieve. Set aside.
- Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar with oil, buttermilk, and vanilla.Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add dries and mix well.
- Add pineapple, carrots, raisins, coconut, and nuts. Mix thoroughly.The batter will be very thick.Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.Cool completely before frosting.
- *Reduce baking time for layer cake rounds by about 10 minutes.
Frosting
- Beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy.Add vanilla and sugar and beat until smooth.Frost on top of cooled carrot cake.
- For layer cakes, pat the chopped pecans into the sides of the frosting all the ways around the cake. This is totally optionally, so if you don’t love nuts, just leave this part out!
- *Frosting adjustments for layer cakes: 2 layers of 9” – use 1.5 times the recipe and for 3 layers of 8”- use 16 oz. cream cheese, 1 cube butter and 6 cups sifted powdered sugar.
Notes
Needed an easy cake for a womens luncheon served it with butter pecan ice cream. It was a smash.
Hi Carol! Thank you so much for your comment. We are so happy that your cake was a big hit! We love that cake, too. Serving it with butter pecan ice cream is such a great idea! We’ll have to try that next time. I happens to be my dad’s very favorite ice cream! Please let us know if you try any other recipes of ours. We’d love to hear from you again!
Oh my goodness!!!
Baked this cake for tomorrow for church fellowship lunch… Wow!
Thank you so much for your comment, Connie and for loving our carrot cake recipe! We are always so happy to hear from our readers and we’d love to hear from you again, if you get the chance to try any other recipes from our blog or if you ever have any questions about any of our recipes! Have a wonderful day! 👩🍳
How much raisins and what color raisins should I use?
Hi Tina! Thanks so much for your comment. We normally do not put raisins in this recipe for carrot cake, but we have in the past and also enjoyed it. I would add 1 cup of either regular or blond raisins. I always soak raisins in boiling water for about 15-20 minutes to plump them up before adding to cookies or cakes. Be sure to strain the soaked raisins to eliminate any excess liquid before you add them to the batter! I hope this answers your question!