Moist and perfectly spiced carrot cake with honey praline – a mixture of honey cinnamon coated nuts, and a rich and creamy vanilla bean cream cheese frosting.
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carrot cake with honey praline
Hello hello! Today I have the perfect carrot cake recipe for you. Just like chocolate chip cookies and brownies, I know that carrot cake is very much not a one-cake-fits-all kind of dessert, but this is my version of a perfect carrot cake, and I hope it will be yours as well. It starts with a super moist and perfectly spiced carrot cake – no pineapple, no coconut, no nuts (in the batter at least.) Then, we make a honey praline with your favorite mixed nuts, honey, sugar, cinnamon & butter – which gives us a delicious crunchy layer in the cake. And of course, it’s all finished off with a rich and creamy vanilla bean cream cheese frosting.
The only thing special you’ll need is a 7″ springform pan – you can find the one I used here. But other than that, this cake is super easy to make. So let’s get into it! 🙂
why you’ll love this carrot cake with honey praline
- It’s perfectly spiced: a mixture of cinnamon, ginger and cloves brings the perfect amount of spice to these cupcakes.
- It’s super moist: Sour cream and the moisture from the carrots helps to make this carrot cake super moist and delicious.
- Honey praline: aka a delicious crunchy layer of honey-coated nuts.
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients:
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Be careful when mixing the cake batter:
When you over-mix your batter, you create more gluten in the batter which will make your cake go from light and moist to dense and chewy. When you mix in the wet ingredients, be sure to only mix just until that last streak of flour disappears.
Use room temperature ingredients:
This is super important for allowing the batter to come together smoothly. You’ll want to take your ingredients out of the fridge about an hour before baking to allow them enough time to come to room temperature.
Keep a close eye on the cake while it bakes:
Cakes and cupcakes like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. I’d recommend that you start checking on the cake around 45 minutes.
A note on oven temperature:
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for carrot cake with honey praline
carrot cake:
- All purpose flour: for structure.
- Baking powder & baking soda: for making the cake rise.
- Ground cinnamon, ginger and cloves: for flavoring. I recommend adding in all of the spices but I know it can be uncommon to have ginger and cloves. If that’s the case for you then you can definitely replace the ginger and cloves with more cinnamon.
- Salt: for balancing and bringing out the sweetness of the cupcakes. We will add a touch of salt to both the cupcakes and the cream cheese frosting
- Vegetable oil: for making the cupcakes moist and tender. You can use any other neutral oil, such as canola if that is what you have on hand.
- Light brown sugar: for sweetening the cupcakes, adding moisture, and adding depth of flavor thanks to the molasses in brown sugar. (Note: I’ve also successfully made this with a 50/50 mix of brown sugar & granulated sugar when I ran out of brown sugar!)
- Eggs: for binding the batter, adding moisture, and leavening.
- Sour cream: for moisture. I recommend full-fat sour cream for the best texture.
- Carrot: the star of the show of course! Make sure you are using fresh carrots and not pre-shredded carrots.
honey praline:
- Nuts: use your favorite nuts here! I used a combination of pecans, hazelnuts & almonds. You could also use only one nut here.
- Honey: for sweetness & flavor.
- Granulated sugar: for sweetness – you could also sub in light brown sugar here.
- Ground cinnamon: for flavor.
- Unsalted butter: for a bit of richness.
cream cheese frosting:
- Cream cheese: the base of any good cream cheese frosting.
- Unsalted butter: for thickening up the cream cheese frosting. You can substitute in salted butter, just be sure to omit the extra salt!
- Salt: to bring out the sweetness & flavor of the frosting.
- Powdered sugar: for sweetening and thickening up the cream cheese frosting.
- Vanilla bean paste: for flavor – you could use vanilla extract here as well.
how to make carrot cake with honey praline
Below are some images of what the cake looks like at various points of the process. You can find the full recipe at the end of the blog post!
- Shred the carrots.
- Then whisk together all of the wet ingredients until well combined.
- Followed by the dry ingredients.
- Bake the cake.
- Make the honey praline by mixing everything together and cooking it on the stovetop.
- Layer the cake with cream cheese frosting & honey praline & enjoy!
carrot cake with honey praline
recipe q&a
Help! My cake is dry / over-baked
If your cake turned out a tad dry, you can brush some milk on to the layers to help make it a bit more moist again.
Can I bake this cake in a different sized pan?
You could bake this in a 8″ springform. Just note that the cake and cream layer will be a tad thinner.
can I make this cake ahead of time?
Definitely! You can bake the cake a day in advance and keep it stored in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also make the honey praline 1-2 days before and keep it stored in an airtight container at room temperature. I’d recommend waiting to assemble the cake until you want to serve it, to avoid needing to keep it all in the fridge, where the cake will dry out faster.
how to store carrot cake
Once you fill the cake, you’ll want to keep it stored in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep well for about 3 days.
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Carrot Cake with Honey Praline
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 150 g carrots after peeling & shredding (1 ½ c.)
- 200 g light brown sugar (1 c.)
- 130 g vegetable oil (⅔ c.)
- 120 g sour cream room temperature (½ c.)
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 160 g all purpose flour (1 ⅓ c.)
- 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground ginger
- ½ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ tsp. salt
Honey Praline
- 120 g assorted nuts almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, etc. (1 c.)
- 21 g honey (1 tbsp.)
- 1 tbsp. granulated sugar
- ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tbsp. unsalted butter
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 226 g cream cheese room temperature (1 c.)
- 100 g unsalted butter room temperature (7 tbsp.)
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 330 g powdered sugar (2 ¾ c.)
- 1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste
Instructions
Carrot Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Butter a 7" springform pan, then coat the inside with sugar.
- Wash, peel, and shred the carrots. Make sure to weigh the carrots after shredding to ensure you have 150g.
- To a medium sized mixing bowl, add the carrots, sugar, vegetable oil, sour cream, and eggs. Whisk vigorously until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Gently whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until the last streak of flour dissapears.
- Pour the cake batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
Honey Praline
- In the meantime, make the praline. Add your nuts of choice, honey, sugar, cinnamon, and butter to a small saucepan.
- Set the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Continue occasionally stirring the mixture until the nuts start to brown (~5 min.)
- Remove the nuts from the heat and pour the mixture out on to a cutting board, pushing it down into a flat even layer. Set aside.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl, with a hand or stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and salt until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add in half of the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Then, beat in the rest of the powdered sugar along with the vanilla bean paste. Continue beating the mixture for an additional 2 minutes.
- Keep the frosting stored in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the cake. (*You may need to let it sit out at room temp for 10-20 minutes before frosting the cake if the frosting gets too cold.)
Assembly
- Chop up the honey praline nuts into smaller pieces.
- Once the cake has fully cooled to room temperature, cut it in half horizontally.
- Set the bottom half of the cake back into the springform pan and evenly spread ½ of the cream cheese frosting over it. Then, top the cream cheese with ~⅔ of the nut mixture.
- Place the top half of the cake on top, then remove the cake from the springform pan. Top the cake with the remaining cream cheese frosting (I used a large round tip to pipe the frosting on top) and with the remaining honey praline. Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that the nutrition facts are only an estimate and may vary based on different brands of ingredients and any substitutions made.
Must be the moistest cake I’ve ever baked!
For some reason my icing was very runny, and I wonder if it’s because the cream cheese was suggested to be room temp? Still very tasty, though.
I’d never had a carrot cake with clove and ginger before, and I have it say it’s VERY spiced! Tasty, but I’m keen to try a version with clove/ginger subbed for more cinnamon like the recipe suggests.
Overall, easy to make and I love the praline crunch!! 😊
Hi Gabby, thank you so much & I’m so happy you liked the cake! If your frosting is too runny I’d recommend sticking it in the freezer for ~5-10 minutes before frosting the cake. You definitely want to use room temp cream cheese to avoid a lumpy frosting – but it may have just gotten a tad too warm. I hope this is helpful and thank you again! ☺︎
Made this cake for my moms birthday and she couldn’t stop talking about the honey praline!
This was probably one of the easiest and best looking cakes I’ve made and it was really good.
Thank you so much! I’m so happy you both enjoyed the recipe – and happy belated birthday to your mom! ☺︎
I absolutely love this recipe! I made two cakes for a family party, and everyone loved them.
Just one note about the website, there’s a pop-up for “Fresh Bean Bakery Weekly” that keeps appearing while I’m viewing the recipe on my phone, even though I’ve already subscribed. It makes the experience a bit less user-friendly. Just wanted to share in case it helps improve the mobile experience!
Hi Kate, so sorry for the late reply! I’m so happy to hear that your family loved the recipe! And the pop up issue has been resolved ☺︎ thank you!
Fabulous cake! Company worthy! I had to use 2 6” cake pans since I couldn’t find the 7” spring form pan, so I didn’t have to cut the cake in half. It turned out beautifully. I baked it for about 25 minutes. It’s a keeper!
Thank you so much Lisa! So happy to hear it turned out with baking it in two 6″ pans! ♡