The Best Carrot Cake with Pineapple Walnuts and Raisins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegetarian

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 50

Servings: slices

Calories: 453kcal

Author: Jazzmine Woodard

The ultimate moist carrot cake with sweet warming spices, golden pineapple, boozy raisins, and more

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Equipment

1 airtight container
1 hand grater or food processor
2 mixing bowls
1 whisk
1 stand mixer or hand mixer
1 silicone spatula
2 nine-inch round cake pan
1 piping bag or ziploc bag
1 offset spatula optional

Ingredients

For the Carrot Cake

½ cup raisins
½ cup bourbon whiskey
3 large carrots
5 eggs at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar packed
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup crushed pineapple drained
2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup walnut pieces

For the Cream Cheese Frosting, Filling, and Topping

2 ½ cups powdered sugar sifted
8 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
¼ cup unsalted butter melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ½ cup pineapple jam or pineapple preserves
½ cup chopped pecans optional garnish

Instructions

Prep Your Ingredients: Add raisins and bourbon to airtight container and set aside at room temperature for at least 24 hours up to one week.
½ cup bourbon whiskey, ½ cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two cake pans and set aside. Grate carrots using hand grater or food processor and spread out onto a paper towel to absorb some of their moisture. They don’t need to be completely dry.
3 large carrots
Make the Cake Batter: Add eggs, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to mixing bowl and use whisk, stand mixer, or hand mixer to beat until uniform. Drain the bourbon from the raisins into the bowl then add in melted butter, vanilla extract, and crushed pineapple and stir until combined.
1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup granulated sugar, 5 eggs, ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¾ cup crushed pineapple
In another mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and ginger. Add in drained raisins, walnuts, and grated carrots. Stir to dredge these ingredients in the flour mixture.
2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ¾ teaspoon ground ginger, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, 1 cup walnut pieces
Add flour mixture to egg and sugar mixture and stir until just combined and no dry pockets remain. Do not overmix batter. Spread batter into prepared baking pans, dividing it evenly between them.
Bake the Cakes: Transfer pans to oven and bake on upper rack for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.
Make the frosting: While the cakes cool, use stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment attachment or hand mixer to beat the powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth and fluffy (about five minutes).
2 ½ cups powdered sugar, 8 ounces cream cheese, ¼ cup unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Assemble and Decorate: Once cake layers are fully cooled to room temperature, pipe a ring of cream cheese frosting around the perimeter of one layer then spread pineapple preserves inside the ring. Stack the other cake layer on top of it then spread frosting around the sides of both layers and over the top until evenly coated. Top with pecan pieces and serve.
1 ½ cup pineapple jam, ½ cup chopped pecans

Notes

Preparation

You can bake, cool, and frost this cake up to three days in advance with good taste and texture following the storage instructions below.

For the smoothest frosting, you'll want to sift the powdered sugar first, however, I'm usually too lazy to do this and found a workaround. Add just the powdered sugar to the mixer first and run it for about 10 seconds before adding the other ingredients. This helps break up clumps of sugar.

If you don't have a piping bag, you can just snip one corner off of a ziploc bag to use instead!

Variations

You can use amaretto liqueur, cognac, or rum instead of whiskey. Or if you need to leave the alcohol out, simply soak the raisins in water and add an extra two teaspoons of vanilla extract.

If you're omitting alcohol from this recipe, you'll only need to soak the raisins in water for about 30 minutes. In this instance, you'd simply be rehydrating them not infusing them.

If you like coconut in your carrot cake, you can add up to half a cup of shredded or flake coconut to this recipe.

This recipe makes two nine-inch cake layers but you can use eight-inch pans instead--the cakes will just be thicker. Or you can turn it into a carrot sheet cake by baking it in an oblong 9 x 13-inch pan. You can also use a jumbo muffin pan to make 12 bakery-style carrot cake raisin muffins, a standard cupcake pan to bake 24 carrot cupcakes or transform it into a carrot bundt cake instead. For a small-batch option, cut the recipe in half to make a single-layer carrot cake.

Storage

Store refrigerated in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap to keep the cake moist and the frosting soft. Keeps for up to five days.

To freeze just the cake, wrap the fully-cooled cake layers in a few layers of plastic wrap then a layer of aluminum foil, and transfer to the freezer. And to freeze the frosted carrot cake, refrigerate it overnight first to allow the frosting to get firm, then wrap it and transfer it to the freezer. With either option, the cake will keep for up to three months.

Recipe originally published December 2016.

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