Neva Tee's Carrot Cake Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Make Ahead

by: Mary Catherine Tee

March15,2021

22 Ratings

Neva Tee's Carrot Cake Recipe on Food52 (1)

Serves 12

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Author Notes

Neva (my late Mom Mom)’s carrot cake recipe is flawless. It's got the most perfect texture combination between the moist, rich cake and the crunchy, pecany (is that a word?) frosting. People literally lined up for one of these beauties. It even won a blue ribbon at the North Carolina State Fair. Note: to make your own self-rising flour, whisk together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt. This cake can be frozen. Simply wrap in foil. —Mary Catherine Tee

Test Kitchen-Approved

What You'll Need

Ingredients

2 cupssugar
1 cupvegetable oil (such as Crisco)
4 eggs
2 teaspoonsvanilla, divided
2 cupsself-rising flour
1 teaspoonbaking soda
2 teaspoonscinnamon
3 cupsgrated carrots
3 ¹/₂ cupsconfectioners' sugar
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 cupchopped pecans
8 ouncescream cheese, room temperature

Directions

Line 3 round 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and heat the oven to 350*F. Add sugar, oil, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to a bowl. Beat well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add slowly to the sugar/oil mixture, stirring to incorporate.
Fold in the carrots. Divide among 3 prepared pans.
Bake for 30 minutes. Once cake passes the toothpick test, remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
For the filling/frosting, use an electric mixer to mix the confectioners' sugar, butter, remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla, and cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth. Turn off mixer. Add chopped pecans and mix on medium-low speed until nuts are incorporated. Refrain from eating all of it with a spoon. Spread between layers and on the side and top of cake once the cake has cooled completely.

Tags:

Cake
Carrot Cake
Carrot
Cream Cheese
Pecan
Make Ahead
Serves a Crowd
Dessert

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Yiannis Psaroudis
mtrelaun
Sabine Gagnon
43Cravings
Babs

Recipe by: Mary Catherine Tee

sensetaste.com

I’m an old soul. My favorite Saturday morning activity is watching birds on the feeder while drinking strong, black coffee out of my favorite hand-thrown mug. My favorite place to kill time is in antique stores. The less organized the better. I like full-bodied red wines and bitter IPAs. I live for feeling the warmth of sunshine and hearing the stillness of freshly fallen snow. I can thank my stint in Alaska for that. I have salt water in my veins, having grown up in Eastern NC, and (shhh…don’t tell any of my Mainer friends this about me) I prefer blue crab over lobster.

Popular on Food52

38 Reviews

Catherine K. February 5, 2024

I added a teaspoon of cardamom which was a fine addition. Not too strong, but you can taste it. I wanted to make smaller cakes so I adjusted the time. I ended up making two 6.5” (full!) and an 8” cake (not so full). Seemed to work! I also added finely chopped pecans on top of the icing of each layer.

riceball December 13, 2023

Easy and refined carrot cake. I halved the recipe to put in 9" cake pan. It rose to about 1.5" (so I think this recipe could work for a 9", 2 layer cake). I used about half canola oil and half avocado oil (what I had on hand). I glazed just the top with a layer of cream cheese frosting following comments below on reducing sugar and butter and, adding more cream cheese. I adjusted by 1/3 and added a tiny pinch of salt, and few drops of lemon juice to balance flavor but suggest you taste as you go for your preferred consistency, mouthfeel and sweetness. Instead of mixing roasted pecans into the frosting, I dusted them on the surface of the cake (bigger chunks on outer edges with smaller bits and nut dust in the middle to create a "nut ombre" look). And it resulted in an elegant cake perfect for a potluck. This is not the unctuous super moist type of carrot cake - more like a light spice cake with a medium moist but tight crumb with a slight spring to it. The frosting and roasted pecans on top, is a nice foil to perk up this more subtle, not too sweet carrot cake (that works best as is -- without nuts or raisins). Tip on frosting - don't blend all the ingredients together at the same time or else you may get lumps. Make sure you first whip up the butter until it's light and creamy and then, whip in the cream cheese (as they melt at different temperatures). Meanwhile, sift in the powdered sugar gradually as you continue to whip. Or else you will get small chunks of butter and/or clumped sugar.

Yiannis P. February 2, 2023

I am _not_ mad at this cake. I've been looking for a raisin-free carrot cake recipe, as raisins are the _only_ thing my boyfriend does not eat, & this'un really ticked all the boxes. I was super impressed by how quickly it came together & I love the tips others have provided about making it less sweet, as the original recipe was a little too sweet for my own taste. I also felt it was a little more frosting-forward than cake-forward, but suspect that adjusting the sweetness may address that, too. If anyone has any recos for pumpin' up the carrot cakey-ness of it, as well, I'm all ears.

kerrie Q. February 25, 2021

The less sugar/butter idea worked really well. I added a half cup of chopped crystallized ginger to the frosting-a nod to Ina Garten’s carrot cake.

beaninthekitchen February 24, 2021

I never write reviews but am compelled to after making your Grandmother's cake, Mary Catherine - it was simply perfect!! I've always made a family recipe with crushed pineapple, but my now stepsons detest pineapple ... and so the search was on. I landed on your recipe and followed it almost to the letter - I subbed olive oil as that's what I had and it turned out to be the carrot cake of my dreams!!! Never going back to my family's version ... thank you also for sharing your Grandmother's story, so touching, my Mother has dementia <3

Kathleen S. January 22, 2021

I love this cake’s flavor but I am having some issues with the structure. Specifically, the cake sags in the center. It’s almost like a cake that relies on egg whites or a soufflé that falls. Anyone else have this problem? If so, how did you remedy it? It hasn’t stopped me from making this delicious cake!

beaninthekitchen February 24, 2021

I had some sagging in the middle - but for me it just meant more cream cheese frosting :)

Kathleen S. February 25, 2021

Not a bad fix!

mtrelaun October 5, 2019

The search is over! This carrot cake plus the Silver Palate’s cream cheese frosting is like taking a time machine to the Just Desserts bakery of my childhood 💕

Sabine G. June 30, 2019

I make my husband a carrot cake every year for his birthday, trying new recipes each year. I'm done with that and only making this one from now on. It's perfection. Absolutely perfect! Thank you for the best carrot cake recipe EVER.

43Cravings May 22, 2018

I made this recipe last Friday for a large family graduation gathering Sat. It was unbelievable! I got so many compliments and people asking for future orders! I added pecans and walnuts in my batter plus pecans in the frosting because they all love nuts. I only did 2.5C of powdered sugar + an extra 8oz cream cheese to make it less sweet & have more to spread. I also added some nutmeg but other than that followed the recipe to perfection. I wish I could post photos of it. It was my first 3 layer cake. This cake comes out moist, flavorful and light. love love love.

sonya December 2, 2018

thank you for your note on your frosting! i followed your amounts of cream cheese and sugar, and dropped the butter further by a third.

additionally, thanks also to mary for such a great recipe! i threw in a handful of currants (eyeballed it), and if anyone’s wondering, half this recipe makes an excellent loaf cake (and a quarter of the frosting recipe makes for plenty icing on top).