Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting:  this luscious layer cake features finely shredded fresh carrots, crushed pineapple, melted butter, eggs, and a few pantry staples in its batter. Once baked, you layer and frost it with a rich cream cheese/pineapple frosting. Chopped pecans add to its tastiness and texture.

This is it people…the carrot cake that won me over. It literally taught me to LOVE carrot cake.

Bad vs. Good

Can you believe I never liked it? The truth is, my previous experience (nightmare?) with carrot cake was one bite. I tasted one hunk of an over-baked sheet cake when I was a kid. Turns out there were bitter bits in it too: flour not fully mixed in, and maybe rancid walnuts?! One bit of yuck! After that, for a dessert, I would almost always opt for chocolate cake, a lemon bar, or anything else.

One taste of this carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and I totally changed my tune. It’s dense but completely moist, and the cream cheese frosting is to die for! It was so easy to bake and I loved the creamy look of the batter just before mixing in the pineapple and carrots.

I brought the entire thing (minus my generous slice of course) to friends. Not to brag, but one said it was the best carrot cake he ever tasted. (Thanks Henry!) Another, just widened his eyes and said, “WOW!” (Thanks Jeffrey!) OK, yes, I am bragging, but that’s not the point =). This cake is something you definitely need to try at home!

Championship Cake Award Winner

This cake is another all-time favorite recipe from our archives. It’s based on a 1999 1st place winning recipe the Washington State Fair. Blue ribbon bragging rights went to Mark Yamamoto of Seattle. He won a Championship Cake Award for it. Thank you MARK! Funny thing, 1999 was my first ever year managing a recipe contest and its PR. The Washington State Fair was then known as Puyallup Fair or the Western Washington Fair. In fact, locals still call it the Puyallup Fair.  You know this recipe is good if it has been a favorite of ours for over 20 years! If you’re loving these “oldies but goodies” recipes, be sure to try another 1999 winner from our archives, this Mounds of Joy Cake, another championship cake award winner.

When I did our recipe test run for this crazy-good carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, I adjusted only a few ingredients. I opted for sifted all-purpose flour versus cake flour, added pecans, left out the raisins, and decreased the pineapple just a bit. Mark held back his cream cheese frosting recipe, so I added my own here.

As soon as you make this, you’ll have a winner on your hands too! Enjoy!

Cyndi