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This Carrot Bundt Cake recipe has all the flavors of classic carrot cake, with a lighter texture that is more like the Nothing Bundt Cake’s Carrot Cake. Light, fluffy, so delicious!
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This Carrot Bundt Cake is one of the best copycat recipes I’ve ever tried. Our homemade versions of the Nothing Bundt Cake cakes are easy to make and so delicious! They are always a hit at birthday parties and special events. If you’ve never tried a Nothing Bundt Cake, you have to try one! They are the best bundt cakes you can find anywhere. This Carrot Bundt Cake is perfect for Easter dessert or anytime, is easy to make, and is always a crowd pleaser.
Ingredients in Carrot Bundt Cake
This carrot cake tastes like you made it from scratch, but this recipe gets a little help from some store bought ingredients to make things a little easier. Here’s what you need:
- Carrot cake mix – if you can’t find carrot cake mix, you can try a spice cake mix. You won’t need additional all purpose flour, baking soda, salt or any other dry ingredients when you use a boxed cake mix. It’s all the flour mixture you’ll need. The cake mix has nutmeg, cloves ground cinnamon and other warm spices that taste delicious in carrot cake.
- Instant vanilla pudding mix – you’ll just need the dry mix; don’t mix it according to the package. dry
- Sour cream – substitute plain Greek yogurt if you like.
- Large eggs – separate four egg yolks from the four egg whites.
- Vegetable Oil – Half cup vegetable oil. Canola oil also works for this recipe
- Water – you can also use pineapple juice if using crushed pineapple
- Shredded carrots – you’ll never find a more delicious way to get vegetables into a cake!
- Crushed pineapple – optional, but gives the cake an extra dimension of flavor and moisture.
Cream Cheese Frosting
This cream cheese glaze is the perfect topper to carrot cake or any of our bundt cake recipes. And there’s only four ingredients!
- Cream cheese – two packages, softened to room temperature.
- Butter – also make sure your butter is softened but not completely melted.
- Vanilla extract – two teaspoons
- Powdered sugar – start with four cups and whisk in more if you want a thicker icing.
A Change in Cake Texture
Many of our readers have tried our cakes and loved them too. We’ve had a few comments that our cakes are more dense than the actual Nothing Bundt Cakes. I like the dense, moist texture of our cakes, but I thought I would experiment a little with the recipe to see if I could come up with a lighter texture that is a closer resemblance to the original. I think I’ve come pretty close — you’ll have to give it a try and see for yourself. This Carrot Bundt Cake is more light and airy, but still has a moist, melt-in-your mouth taste and feel to it.
What’s the Difference?
There are two things I tried with this Carrot Bundt Cake that made all the difference between a more dense bundt cake and a lighter texture:
- The first thing I did was sift the cake mix. Once you try it, you’ll see what a difference it really does make. It gives the cake mix a fine, smooth texture. The batter is smoother and the cake comes out lighter.
- The second thing I did was to separate the eggs and whip the egg whites. I mixed the egg yolks in with the other ingredients. Then I beat the egg whites until they were white and fluffy, almost to the stage of a meringue. After all of the ingredients were well blended, I mixed in the egg whites. The batter at this point is very smooth and light, and the cake was amazing! I can’t wait to try this method on our other bundt cake recipes.
Options for this Carrot Bundt Cake Recipe
- If you like a nut texture, sprinkle chopped pecans or walnuts into the cake batter.
- Add raisins, craisins, or chopped dates for a chewy texture.
- This recipe makes one large bundt cake or you can use a mini bundt pan to make mini bundt cakes. They’re so cute to serve as individual cakes.
- Sprinkle a dusting of light brown sugar or cinnamon on top as a garnish.
Frequently Asked Questions about Carrot Bundt Cake
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about ten minutes. Any longer and you run the risk of soggy cake. But if you try to invert the pan to a cooling rack too soon, the cake could break apart.
Let the cake cool in the pan. Then tap on the pan firmly several times and shake it gently several times and shake it gently to help loosen the cake. Flip the cake over and once it’s out of the pan, let it continue to cool on a cooling rack or cake plate.
Since bundt cake recipes are usually more dense and moist, the hole in the bundt pan helps the batter bake evenly and prevents sogginess or undercooking.
Yes, real shredded carrot is used in a carrot bundt cake. We put a whole cup of shredded carrots in this cake for taste and moisture! It also adds a great texture.
READ MORE: 25+ Best Easter Desserts and Treats
Other Carrot Cake Recipes
If you love Carrot Bundt Cake be sure to try our traditional Carrot Cake and Carrot Cake Cookies!
More Bundt Cake Recipes
How to make Carrot Bundt Cake
Carrot Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Bundt Pan
- Hand Mixer
- Sifter
Ingredients
- 1 carrot cake mix
- 1 3.4 ounces instant vanilla pudding mix dry
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 large eggs separated into 4 egg yolks and 4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/4 cup water or pineapple juice if using crushed pineapple
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup crushed pineapple *optional
Frosting
- 2 8- ounce packages of cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Carrot Bundt Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, beat the cake mix, pudding, sour cream, egg yolks, oil, and water for 2 minutes. Stir in carrots and pineapple.
- In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with a hand mixer until white and frothy (almost meringue consistency). Fold or mix egg whites into the cake batter until well blended.
- Pour cake batter into a greased Bundt cake pan (nonstick cooking spray works best).
- Bake for 45-50 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the bundt pan and place it on a serving plate or cake stand. See post above for details on how to easily do this.
- Wrap the cake well with plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight or for several hours before frosting and serving.
Frosting
- In a medium bowl or mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually add the powdered sugar. Start with 2 cups and then keep adding until the frosting is nice and thick.
- You can completely cover the bundt cake with the frosting or you can frost it as pictured. Spoon all of the frosting into a gallon-size plastic bag. Squeeze the air out and seal it. Cut a corner off of one end of the bottom of the bag. Squeeze the frosting out in long strips as pictured starting at the outside of the cake and ending in the center. Fill the center of the cake with the remaining frosting. Keep refrigerated.
Video
Notes
- For a lighter cake texture, sift the cake mix. Once you try it, you’ll see what a difference it really does make. It gives the cake mix a fine, smooth texture. The batter is smoother and the cake comes out lighter.
- Also, separate the eggs and whip the egg whites. I mixed the egg yolks in with the other ingredients. Then I beat the egg whites until they were white and fluffy, almost to the stage of a meringue. After all of the ingredients were well blended, I mixed in the egg whites. The batter at this point is very smooth and light, and the cake was amazing! I can’t wait to try this method on our other bundt cake recipes.
This cake was good yesterday
but FANTASTIC today. Definitely more flavorful after “curing” overnight!
I agree! I always think it tastes better the next day. Thanks Terri!
THIS RECIPE is absurdly GOOD!
Thanks so much!
I can’t wait to try this w/your tips! Can this be made ahead and frozen? Maybe frosting after thawing? Thanks!
Yes, you can totally freeze it and frost it later. We actually do that with a lot of our cake recipes 🙂
This bundt cake is so good! Very light and full of flavor. I did sift the cake mix and whipped the egg whites as suggested.
The only thing is that the cream cheese frosting recipe made way too much, next time I’ll half it. I used 2 small bundt pans instead of 1 large. Cake batter was the perfect amount. Will definitely make again!
I made the white chocolate and raspberry and it turned out amazing. However, I live at an altitude of 6500 feet. Does the recipe need to be adjusted ( the first one , white chocolate raspberry had high altitude adjustment). I want to make it for my friend’s birthday and I’m hoping I will be able to do so. Thank you 😊
Yes! You would make the same high altitude adjustments.
We’ve done this several times and it is delicious
Is there a baking temperature or time for using a convection oven?
I haven’t done this in a convection oven, but I think the rule of thumb is to decrease the bake time by 25%. Hope this helps!
If I use pineapple on the carrot cake recipe, do I drain the pineapple and reserve the juice to add to the 1/4 c juice, or do I just measure 1/2 c of crushed pineapple then add 1/4 c of juice
Drain and save the juice, add 1/2 cup of drained crushed pineapple, and add 1/4 cup of the juice. Hope this helps!
Did I miss where it told how much sour cream or yogurt and how much water or juice to add? I love baking and know it’s about measurements.
Scroll all the way down to the recipe card for the measurements and instructions!
Do you have a gluten free version?? making for my granddaughter who loves the Nothing Bundt cake carrot cake but its not gluten free. I did not buy the box mix so i wanted to know if you would have the measurements for the scratch version.
thank you
We don’t have a gluten free version right now but we will keep that in mind for future recipes!
Absolutely the best and most moist carrot cake ever! And the frosting OMG.
I made this for Easter Friends Dinner and everyone loved it! Only thing I did different was I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of lemon extract to the frosting.
It was amazing how much sifting the cake mix made a difference. I also sifted the powdered sugar for the frosting and it was the lightest and fluffiest I have ever made.
I made it for Easter and mine fell. The taste was still great, but there was nothing fluffy about it. Do you know what could have caused this? I used my Kitchenaid mixer so maybe over mixing? Any thoughts are appreciated.
There are a couple of things that can cause a bundt cake to fall, usually it involves the oven temperature. If the oven door was opened during cooking, if the oven wasn’t fully preheated. It could also be due to the climate where you live. Do you live in a more dry climate?
what if the cake mix already has the pudding in it do i still add pudding
Yes!
Hello do you drain the pineapple and use the juice instead of the water? Thanks.
Yes! It tastes really good with pineapple juice!
Upset you did not include a picture of it cut. I want to see the texture.
If you scroll down a little in the post there is a picture of it cut!
If I make this in 3 smaller bundt cake pans – how long and what temp would you recommend baking it? I also have the mini bundt pans which would be 6 little bundt cakes – how long and temp for that?
We haven’t tried making it in smaller bundt pans so I am not sure! I would look up other mini bundt cake recipes and base it off of those!
This recipe looks perfect, I can’t wait to make this for my niece’s babyshower!
I was going to make these into cupcakes, either regular size or mini, aside from time to cook….any other suggestions?
Thank you!!
We haven’t tried these as cupcakes, but let us know how they turn out!
This was my first time making carrot cake and was super nervous. This was a great recipe and I received many compliments so thank you. I did use the pineapple juice and crushed pineapple and it turned out perfectly and was very moist just like nothing Bundt cake’s version.
Yay! I’m glad this recipe was a win for you! Congratulations! Thank you for letting us know how you liked it – and thank you for the 5-star rating. 🙂
I’ve made this cake 3 times. All with great success. However I am unable to find a carrot cake mix. Can I use a spice cake mix and add an extra cup of carrots? Will the spices in the mix still work?
You can definitely use a spice cake mix instead! I wouldn’t add the extra carrots because it will make the mixture too moist.