Name: Carrot Coffee Cake
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: ¼ c. brown sugar; ⅓ c. granulated sugar; ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon; ⅓ c. whole wheat flour; 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter (melted); 8 oz. full fat cream cheese (softened – set it out an hour or so in advance); ⅓ c. granulated sugar; 1 egg; 1 ¼ c. whole wheat flour (do NOT substitute with a different flour); ½ tsp. baking powder; ¾ tsp. baking soda; ¼ tsp. kosher salt; 1 tsp. ground cinnamon; 1 tsp. ground ginger; ¼ tsp. ground cloves; ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg; 1 egg; ⅓ c. granulated sugar; ½ c. brown sugar; ½ c. vegetable oil (or another neutral oil); 2 c. finely shredded carrots (loosely packed (about 5-7 medium sized carrots))

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe· 5 from 2 reviews

single slice of carrot coffee cake on a white plate

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Easy, warm and cozy carrot coffee cake with a spiced carrot cake base, a sweet cream cheese middle, and topped with plenty of streusel.

* For helpful tips, images, and how-to’s, make sure you read the whole post.

Carrot cake has never had a spot in my heart…until I combined it with coffee cake. This carrot coffee cake recipe is delicious and my new brunch go-to! It’s a sure crowd-pleaser and easy to throw together. Super cozy from the addition of warming spices and sweet from a cream cheese layer and signature coffee cake streusel. What more could you ask for 🙂

What You’ll Need to Make Carrot Coffee Cake

Tools

There are three basic components to this recipe, so the prep work requires four bowls. You’ll need a bowl for the streusel, a bowl for the cream cheese topping, a bowl for your dry ingredients, and a bowl for your wet ingredients. I tried to find a way around this, but none of the shortcuts resulted in a quality carrot coffee cake.

Carrot Coffee Cake Ingredients

Produce:

5-7 medium-sized carrots

Dairy:

unsalted butter
full-fat cream cheese
eggs

Pantry:

brown sugar
granulated sugar
whole wheat flour
baking powder
baking soda
kosher salt
ground ginger
ground cloves
ground nutmeg
vegetable oil
ground cinnamon

Prepping Your Baking Dish for Carrot Coffee Cake

You will need an 8-inch round cake pan for this recipe. I prefer using a springform pan, but that’s only because I love putting this cake on display. A normal round cake pan works just fine.

We are going to grease and flour the cake pan in order to easily remove the cake slices. To do this, you’ll do the following:

Begin by spraying an even, thin layer of oil onto the bottom and edges of your cake pan – anywhere the batter will come in contact with your pan.
Add two tablespoons of flour (whole wheat flour, in this instance) to the cake pan and lightly tap, rotate, and shift the pan until you have a thin layer of flour covering all of the areas you sprayed with oil.
Add more flour if you need to. You can dump out any extra once all of your edges have been covered.

Congrats – you’ve greased and floured a cake pan!

carrot coffee cake with two cut slices and a cup of black coffee

Getting the Perfect Rise

The only technique that comes into play with this carrot coffee cake recipe is when you work with your wet ingredients (in this case, your sugars, egg, and oil).

When you are whisking your egg and sugars together for the cake batter, you will continue to whisk until they are lightened to the color of a latte and are completely combined. You will then slowly drizzle in your oil (I prefer to use a liquid measuring cup for this) while continuing to whisk your egg and sugar mixture.

Your goal is to have a homogenous mixture. If you’ve done it right, then the oil won’t separate from the mixture. You’ve reached the perfect consistency when the mixture falls into the bowl in a ribbon when you lift your whisk. It should have a beautiful texture once finished.

Why does this affect the rise of your carrot coffee cake?

By whisking together your egg and sugar, you’re adding air to the mixture which will provide lift. By then incorporating your oil slowly you’re preventing the carrot coffee cake from being too dense. It’s a win-win.

I learned this method from this article from Bon Appétit about troubleshooting carrot cake. My first few carrot coffee cake tests kept falling in the middle and I didn’t want a chemical flavor from adding too much baking powder. This method solved all my problems!

Check out the images below that follow this process. If your mixture looks like these images, then you’re on the right track!

whisk, glass bowl with sugars and egg, liquid measuring cup with oil

glass bowl with ribbon of egg, sugar, and oil mixture drizzling into glass bowl — This is the ribbon stage – the mixture is homogenous and you can drizzle it into the bowl if you hold the up the whisk.

Carrot Coffee Cake? You Got This.

This carrot coffee cake recipe is super easy, moist, and made by hand – you don’t need any special kitchen equipment. It’s one of my personal favorites and a huge hit with everyone I’ve shared it with.

If you make your own carrot coffee cake I would love it if you left a review!

If you’re new to baking or nervous about spending more time in the kitchen (learning new skills can be intimidating!), you can check out My Kitchen Commandments for some helpful tips!