Classic Carrot Cake Recipe from Scratch

This easy-to-follow, super moist classic carrot cake recipe can be made in one bowl and it will have your friends and family asking for the recipe everytime. The cream cheese frosting is optional but for the classic carrot cake recipe, that is a must in our home.

It’s fun to make a jar gift too for this carrot cake recipe. This blog has a printable recipe and free gift jar tags to print at the bottom of this post. This makes a great first-time cake too.

Dehydrating Carrots

Using dehydrated carrots for making a cake is easy to do. Add water to reconstitute the carrots and bake. It’s that quick and easy. Grow or buy carrots in bulk, dehydrate them, and use them any time of year!

I often buy a 25-pound bag of organic carrots and wondering what to do with them is not easy. Dehydrating carrots is the answer. If you follow me at all, you know I love to dehydrate. If you are interested in starting to learn how to dehydrate, you can read that post Dehydrate Food Naturally.

I shred half of the 25-pound bag of carrots to a fine fluff to dehydrate to use for carrot cake. The shredded dehydrated carrots make a super moist carrot cake once reconstituted. The other half of the bag of carrots, I dice small and dry.

Dehydrated cubed carrots are used all year long in our home, in soups, stews, and for my fur-baby meals. (Update, both my girls have gone to heaven-I miss them so much)!

My chicken loves the carrots skins once I steam them and let them cool, otherwise they have a hard time eating them.

Carrot Cake Ingredients

• 2 cups organic unbleached all-purpose flour (256 grams)
• ¾ cup sugar in the raw (150 grams)
• ½ cup unrefined white sugar (110 grams)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt (non-iodized)
• 1 ¾ teaspoons cinnamon (Saigon)
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• dash of cloves
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2/3 cup oil (light olive or vegetable oil) (149 grams)
• ½ cup raw milk (120 grams) or buttermilk
• Homemade vanilla extract 1-2 teaspoons
• Moonshine cinnamon extract 1 teaspoon
• 1 ¾ cup raw shredded carrots (193 grams liquid or 30 grams dehydrated)**
• 1 cup raisins
• Optional-any nuts-chopped very small (remind loved one’s nuts are in the cake)

**When the carrots were shredded raw, they weighed 193 grams (wet) and dehydrated for 5-6 hours in individual sections. Once dehydrated, the weight was 30 grams.

Print the Carrot Cake Recipe

Directions for Making Carrot Cake

• Grease and flour a 13×9-inch baking pan
• Or use food-grade wax paper (no butter or flour needed) leave extra for “handles”
• Soak the (dehydrated only) carrots and/or the raisins together in a little boiling water (I use the hot water on demand)
• Combine all the ingredients except the carrots and raisins into a mixing bowl
• With a mixer, blend on low until just moistened  (you may stir this without an electric mixer, it will take a little longer)
• Beat on high for 1 minute
• Scrape the bowl as you go
• Drain the carrots and raisins
• Compost the water
• Hand-stir in the carrots and raisins or very low on an electric mixer for 30 seconds or so.

Baking Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. I use the convection oven, that temperature is 325 degrees. Bake 30-45 minutes. Check after 25 minutes. Rotate if necessary.

It is best to take the cake out of the oven when the cake is still a “little soft”. This makes it less dry. This all depends on the size of the pan(s) and if baking muffins.

Cool completely. Remove from pan if desired. I leave in the pan and add cream cheese frosting (sometimes).

Substitutions for Baking

This recipe is so forgiving, I have used Ghee, melted butter, watered-down yogurt as substitutions for “out of stock” pantry items and it always works!

Did you notice the wooden cooling rack in the video? No worries, my post called 2 Free DIY Cooling Rack Options, shows how you can make your own!

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar 10xx (500 grams)
• 3 ounces room temperature cream cheese
• 2-3 tablespoons butter or Ghee-room temperature
• 2-3 tablespoons raw milk, half-and-half or heavy cream
• ¾ teaspoons homemade vanilla extract
• Splash of cinnamon extract
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)

You may like to know the benefits of lemons, you can find those in my post, Lemon Health Benefits. I have a whole series on milk, your journey can be started on my post 2 Easy Ways To Make Raw Milk Butter.

Directions for Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese
2. Scraping the sides, until well combined
3. Add the confectioner’s sugar
4. Add milk and vanilla extract
5. Beat well
6. If needed, add 1/2 teaspoon of milk at a time
7. This recipe will yield approximately 1 ¾ cups frosting, enough for a 13×9 inch cake or 24 cupcakes.

Gift Jars to Make

To make carrot cake in a jar gift or for future baking, you will need to assemble the ingredients in a jar. That would be the first 10 ingredients in this recipe. In other words, just the dry ingredients.

Do not add “wet” ingredients to the jar, including raisins. The small jelly jars work great for the dehydrated carrots and another one for the raisins.

I find it useful to trace and cut round circles of wax paper or parchment paper. I layer the wax paper between the sugars and place them first in the jar.

Using a vacuum tool that removes the air from the canning jar ensures it stays fresh for a long time.

I find it beneficial to layer a circle of food-grade wax paper or even a piece of washed and sun-dried linen for the in-between the sugar and spice layers.

Print Free Carrot Cake Gift Tags

Making a Carrot Cake Gift Jar

Assemble the canning jars and add a recipe label that is free for you to download by clicking the button above and getting your free Carrot Cake Gift Tags!

Decorate the jars and jar tops in many ways. For Christmas, paint them red and add a bow. Children can help with making gift jars. The older children can measure the ingredients and the younger children can decorate the lids and recipe card. Ensure to print out the recipe to include with the jar.

I have been making this same recipe for over 20 years. I have notes in my cookbook the dates the children made this along with the weather for that day.  It brings back fond memories.

Conclusion

Dehydrated foods are available all across the globe. Many people, who cannot cook every day opt for dehydrated food as they are nutritious, easy to store, safe, healthy, ready-to-eat, and free of any artificial flavors and preservatives.

Check out WebMD’s post on Dehydrating Food for more health information and benefits!

My advice would be to spend the money upfront (if feasible) on a good dehydrator as I have listed here. It’s equivalent to a commercial dehydrator, to say the least. I wish I would have purchased one from the beginning of my drying days.

Unfortunately, 30 plus years ago we were not able to afford such a luxury machine and made do with what we could afford at the time.

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