The recipe was given to me by a long time family friend, Denise. She got this recipe from her grandmother on her mother's side. She remembers visiting her every summer in Costa Mesa.
I love keeping family recipes alive.
Our family was wholly traumatized when my Mamo passed away, and no one had bothered to write down the chiffon cake recipe.
This is THE cake that she had made for ALL the grandkids and ALL the great-grandkids for birthdays over the years. Losing this recipe made me realize how important it is to hold on to these memories.
(If you are wondering, we were able to finally find the infamous chiffon cake recipe. I will be posting that story here as well.)
The original recipe is not a gluten-free recipe.
Denise is gluten intolerant, so she has been making this recipe gluten-free for many years.
I tested it out, and I promise you will not miss the gluten. I made a few tiny substitutions and added a little extra spice to this cake. I made a note of my additions in the recipe in the recipe card.
Carrot cake is naturally a dense cake. The gluten-free flour does tend to make the cake even denser still. I don't mind this at all for carrot cake. The chunky walnuts, pineapple, and coconut add a great texture to this cake.
If you aren't trying to avoid gluten, feel free to swab in regular all-purpose flour.
Foodology Geek Recipe Notes
I mixed up this carrot cake batter in one bowl
The hardest part about making this carrot cake recipe is shredding the carrots.
You can mix all the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon.
I imagine this is probably the way Denise's grandma made it as well.
I sifted the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, gave it all a quick stir, and then poured the batter into my prepared cake pans.
You should use finely shredded coconut.
The original recipe calls for a can of shredded coconut. I have never ever seen this before.
I have since looked it up with our friend Google and you can order it, of course.
I used unsweetened coconut, but I only had the large chunky flakes. I would definitely swap that out for the finely shredded coconut.
I feel like this cake is sweet enough, so I decided that unsweetened coconut was a better choice here.
Buy more walnuts.
I ran out of walnuts so I ended up dressing the top of the cake with pecans instead. Pecans are fine, but I usually like to keep it consistent.
All in all this Carrot Cake was a success.
The cream cheese frosting is delicious!
I really wanted to impress you buy piping some cute little orange carrots on top. But alas. My baking skill set is limited to just making sure that whatever I bake tastes amazing.
Unfortunately, the looks of my baked goods, with a rare exception, are always marginal at best. C'est la vie.
Some of my other favorite Spring dessert recipes are:
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Carrot Gold Cake
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 2 cups Gluten free flour sifted
- 2 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ground ginger added by Laura
- ¼ teaspoon Ground nutmeg added by Laura
- 2 cups Granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups Salad oil I used liquid coconut oil
- 4 Eggs room temperature
- 2 cups Carrots grated
- 8 ounce Can of crushed pineapple
- ½ cup Walnuts chopped
- 1 ½ cups Shredded coconut I use unsweetened
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup Butter softened
- 8 ounces Cream cheese softened
- 1 lb Confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Instructions
Carrot Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉
- Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans with butter and flour. Set aside.
- Sift together the first five dry ingredients.
- Add the sugar, the oil, and the eggs. Mix well.
- Add in the carrots, pineapple, nuts, and the coconut.
- Bake for 35 minutes.
- Let the cake cool completely before frosting. At least two hours and up to overnight.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream together the butter and the cream cheese.
- Add in confectioners sugar and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Add in vanilla and blend until it is incorporated.
cararoxoxo
Wow, my first gluten free cake and it is amazing! I did modify a few things, ground up my leftover fresh pineapple that I needed to use up and just measured out a cup. I reduced the sugar to one cup which was almost too little sugar, but I was able to make up the sweetness in the frosting. I did 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup grapeseed oil because that was all I had left of my coconut oil. With half of the batter, I used a bundt pan and it was done in 30 minutes. The other half made 20 mini muffins and those took 12 minutes. Everything rose nicely and you'd never know they are gluten free, truly delicious and moist and everything I expect carrot cake to be. I did add toasted walnuts and coconut, as well as extra shredded carrot as the garnish and they look stunning! Thank you for the recipe!
Laura Reigel
Thank you for taking the time to post this awesome review. I'm so glad that this carrot turned out great! I loved hearing about your success. Enjoy and happy baking.
Anna
Loved this carrot cake. The best I’ve ever had. I have celiac disease so I made it with gluten-free
Flour. Absolutely yummy. No changes to the recipe !
Thank you !
Laura Reigel
Thank you Anna for the awesome review. I am so glad that you were able to enjoy this delicious cake recipe.
catherine
I have a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple. The recipe calls for 8 oz, can I just use a cup of crushed pineapple?
Laura
Catherine,
Yes! One cup of the crushed pineapple will work. Sorry for the late reply. I hope you were able to make this cake and that it came out great.