Easy Carrot Cake Recipe With Pineapple

This beautiful and easy Carrot Cake Recipe comes together in minutes—just dump and stir! It is ultra moist thanks to shredded carrots, crushed pineapple, and a luscious cream cheese frosting. Make it for Easter or anytime!

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A couple of days ago I shared with you a traditional Easter dessert popular in Mexico and today I’m sharing arguably America’s favorite Easter treat: Carrot Cake. That’s the beauty of living in a multicultural family, we get to have the best of both worlds!

Carrot cake is definitely Easter’s favorite cake recipe and this one is truly a gem. It has lots of sweet grated carrots, crushed pineapple, and butter to keep it super moist. Not to mention the absolute BEST cream cheese frosting recipe for carrot cake that I’ve ever made. It’s extra tangy thanks to the addition of plain yogurt and fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Some people find cake baking intimidating but this All-In-One method is absolutely fuss-free. Simply combine all the cake ingredients in the mixing bowl and stir until combined–that’s it! It is practically impossible to mess up.

So if you are a looking for the best carrot cake recipe to make this Easter, look no further. Make like the Easter Bunny and hop to it!

Why You Will Love This Easy Carrot Cake Recipe

Mega. Easy. Like I mentioned, this cake comes together in one simple step. Everything in one large bowl, beat until combined. That’s it!

Sooooo moist. Sorry, had to say it, ’cause it’s true. This is the ultimate moist carrot cake. It has a ridiculous amount of carrots, pineapple, and butter which makes it super forgiving and delectably, well, moist.

Simple to frost and decorate. First, this is the best cream cheese frosting recipe for carrot cake. It’s not too sweet and spreads like a charm. Plus you only need to do the middle and top, don’t even worry about the sides. Decorate with spirals of carrot and flowers if you’d like or just leave it simple and sophisticated.

More To Explore

30 Fresh and Flavorful Easter Recipes

22 Easter Dinner Ideas That Aren’t Ham

Authentic Tres Leches Cake Recipe

Easy Carrot Cake Ingredients

A pretty straightforward ingredients list. Feel free to add toasted walnuts, raisins, or other warm spices such as ground cloves or nutmeg that you might remember from other carrot cake recipes.

• Unsalted butter at room temperature. For this mixing method to work the butter must be soft. Best idea is to take the butter out of the fridge the night before you plan on making it.
• All purpose flour
• Light brown sugar. No granulated sugar here. The notes of molasses in brown sugar are essential.
• Eggs. Make sure to beat them first before adding to the mixer.
• Grated carrots. Peel and use the big holes on a box grater or the grater attachment on your food processor.
• Canned crushed pineapple. Carrot cake recipe with pineapple is a must.
• Baking powder
• Kosher salt
• Vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground ginger
• Cream cheese. Again, must be at room temperature.
• Powdered sugar
• Greek yogurt. Plain Greek yogurt. I’ve used full-fat or non-fat, either will work.
• Lemon

How To Make It

I learned this cake-making method while working as a cookbook editor for the famous British Queen of Baking, Mary Berry. She swears by the all-in-one mixing method and it is pretty genius. No extra mixing bowls for dry and wet ingredients, no creaming butter and sugar. Just dump and go!

The only necessity is to make sure the butter is soft. If it isn’t completely soft, beat the butter by itself in the mixing bowl first until fluffy. Then scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula and add the rest of the ingredients.

step one

Combine. Combine all the cake ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until combined. You can also mix this together in a large mixing bowl with a rubber spatula.

Start the mixer on low and then raise the speed to medium and beat until the butter is mixed into the cake batter. If your butter is not completely soft, beat it for a minute or so first before adding the other ingredients.

step two

Divide between pans. Grease two 8-inch cake pans, don’t worry about lining them with parchment paper the cakes will easily come out. Divide batter evenly between the two pans.

step three

Bake. Bake cakes at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the cake bounces bake when you press on it.

step four

Cool. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes. Then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

step five

Make frosting. To make the cream cheese frosting recipe for carrot cake is as easy as the cake itself. Combine all the frosting ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy.

step six

Frost. Spoon half of the frosting on top of one of the cakes and swoop it out to the edges. Place the other cake on top and press down gently. Top with the remaining frosting and spread it over to cover the top of the cake.

step seven (optional)

Decorate. If you want to decorate the top of the cake like in the photos, Take a vegetable peeler (I think a Y-peeler works best) and peel several long strands of carrot. Curl them around your finger and tuck them in the corner of a rectangular container or some container with edges that will help the curls stay together. Keep curling and inserting each curl inside the one before it until you have spirals. Place the spirals on top of the cake and add fresh flowers.

Storage and Other Tips

Is this the easiest of all carrot cake recipes? Yes, but that still doesn’t mean I can’t give you a couple of tips.

1. Chill the cake a bit before slicing. The cream cheese frosting is very soft so give it at least 30 minutes to chill in the fridge before slicing so it doesn’t sploosh everywhere.
2. If you have leftover, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
3. Freeze the baked cakes (unfrosted) for up to 3 months. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap first. Defrost completely before frosting and serving.
4. I think I’ve said this twice already, but make sure your butter is soft, like when you press on it with your finger it leaves a mark. If not, beat the butter by itself before adding the other ingredients.
5. Start the mixer on low when mixing the cake batter otherwise the ingredients will go flying everywhere.

More Easter Desserts To Try!

• Authentic Tres Leches Cake
• No-Churn Cream Cheese Ice Cream
• Chocolate Chip Coffee Cookies
• Arroz Con Leche
• Polvorones {Mexican Bakery Cookies}
• Mexican Chocolate Sweet Tamales with Hot Honey
• Homemade Conchas

This Moist Carrot Cake

Will be, hands-down, the easiest part of your Easter meal. Let me know when you make it by snapping a pic and tagging me on Instagram @holajalapeno and #holajalapeno so I can see or leave me a comment below (don’t forget to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating) ! Also, sign up for my weekly newsletter, lots of good stuff there too!

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