Carrot Sheet Cake Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting (2024)

Carrot Sheet Cake with a rich and creamy Cream Cheese Frosting is so unbelievably moist and perfectly spiced. Perfect for entertaining, learn how to make this easy Carrot Sheet Cake Recipe and enjoy all the flavors of traditional layered carrot cake, in a fraction of the time.

Before I learned to cook, I learned to bake. I baked everything from layered cakes, to cookies, to scones, to biscotti. These days, I find myself cooking much more than baking, but occasionally I’ll pull out my mixer and mix up something sweet (though I’ve yet to master a homemade pie crust- perhaps sometime soon).

In the spirit of Easter – which is right around the corner – and my neverending love for all carrot recipes (like this tropical carrot smoothie or thiscarrot ginger soup), I thought I would make a super EASY carrot sheet cake with cream cheese frosting. Moist, delicious, and perfectly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, you’d never know that this carrot cake is filled with an entire pound of finely grated carrots.

How to Make Carrot Sheet Cake

First, remove the eggs (for the cake) plus the cream cheese and butter (for the frosting) from the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. This is really important. Using room temperature eggs guarantees that they will mix evenly in the batter and result in a lighter, fluffier cake.

• Pro-tip – Bring your eggs to room temperature by placing them in a bowl ofwarm water for 10-15 minutes. Careful that the water isn’t too hot, we want to gently bring them to room temperature, not cook them.

With the eggs, cream cheese, and butter at (or coming to room temperature), preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour a large rimmed18 by 13-inch baking sheet. I usually melt a bit of butter in a bowl and use my fingers to cover the inside surface of the baking sheet. Then, I’ll sprinkle with a light coat of flour, tapping the sides to cover the entire surface and remove any excess.

Now we can start mixing the batter,

Grate your carrots first. I highly recommend doing this by hand as you want your carrots to be shredded nice and small. This ensures that they will mix evenly throughout the entire cake and you won’t end up with any stringy bits of shredded carrot.

You want 3 cups of finely shredded carrots. For me, this was just over one pound of carrots.

Next, whisk together your dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg. Add the carrots and mix well to combine.

Grab your stand mixer (or electric hand mixer) and beat the sugars with the oil until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, add the vanilla and pineapple and continue to mix until thoroughly combined.

Now we want to combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Simply add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and beat onlow until just combined.

If you’re adding nuts to your carrot sheet cake, fold them into your batter using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into your prepared baking sheet and spread it into an even layer. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frosting is my favorite kind of frosting. It’s also the only type of frosting that belongs on carrot cake if you ask me, so that’s exactly what you’ll see slathered all over the cake below. Not a fan? Use whatever frosting YOU love.

This cream cheese frosting takes about 4 minutes to make and requires just 4 ingredients – cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. It’s super easy to make.

One thing you may notice about my cream cheese frosting recipe is that I add significantly less powdered sugar when compared to many other recipes. Don’t worry- this was completely intentional as more powdered sugar means sweeter frosting. I didn’t want that. I also didn’t want my frosting to taste as if it belonged on top of a bagel, so some sugar needed to be added.

The result was a perfect compromise.

Decorating Carrot Sheet Cake

I knew I wanted to add some chopped pecans to the top of my cake. Originally I had planned to add them as a border, but that quickly changed once I started adding them to the cake. Also, as you can clearly see, I am not a professional cake decorator. As such, I went with a more “rustic” look. The frosting isn’t perfect, but certainly better than what my 6-year-old would do. And the pecans? Well, those are crushed into varying sizes and pieces rather than ground into an even dust.

I also wanted cute (and edible!) carrot toppers for each slice of cake. I couldn’t find anything that I liked pre-made or store-bought so I made these cute little candy melt carrot toppers.

To make them, you’ll need orange and green colored candy melts. Melt each in separate bowls and transfer to individual piping bags with a small round top. Pipe onto parchment paper and allow them to harden before removing and placing them on the cake.

More Delicious Easter Recipes

This yummy sheet cake makes for a delicious Easter dessert, but what about the rest of the meal? I highly recommend my Slow Cooker Ham with Marmalade Glaze,Cheesy Baked Asparagus Gratin Recipe,Honey Glazed Carrots with Ginger, and Mashed Potatoes (orCauliflower Mashed Potatoes).

Check out these other delicious dessert recipes,

• Cherry Coffee Cake Recipe
• Blackberry and Blueberry Galette Recipe
• Best Ever Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
• Easy Apple Crisp Recipe (How to Make Apple Crisp)
• Chocolate Christmas Tree Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
• Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe (How to Make Sugar Cookies)
• Big Crumb Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Have you tried making this Carrot Sheet Cake Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting?

Tell me about it in the comments below! I always love to hear your thoughts. And tag me#theforkedspoononInstagramif you’ve made any of my recipes, I always love to see what you’re cooking in the kitchen.