Home › Recipe Index › Dessert

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting

Averie Sunshine

5 from 6 votes

Updated: Mar 05, 2026

JUMP to RECIPE ▼

🥕 This Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting is my favorite recipe for carrot cake! It’s ridiculously moist, soft, tender, and full of cinnamon-and-spice-and-everything-nice, including an abundance of carrots and sweet, juicy raisins!

The Easiest Carrot Cake Loaf (From Scratch!)

Layered carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is one of my favorite desserts when it’s done well. As a result, I have lots of carrot cake-inspired recipes like my carrot cake muffins, carrot cake cinnamon rolls, and carrot cake cupcakes. However, this carrot cake loaf is an easier take that I come back to again and again.

Many carrot cakes turn out dry or bland, but this version solves both problems. The loaf bakes up incredibly moist with a soft, tender crumb. It’s spring and dense but not heavy or greasy, and a generous blend of warm spices gives it plenty of flavor without overpowering the classic carrot cake taste.

Then, shredded carrots and raisins add texture, and a rich cream cheese frosting brings the perfect tangy sweetness. The recipe makes two loaves, which is helpful, because it tends to disappear quickly!

Ingredients You Need

To make a carrot cake bread loaf, you’ll need: 

• Unsalted butter and oil
• Eggs
• Buttermilk: This tenderizes the batter and helps an otherwise dense batter rise nicely while baking. If you don’t keep buttermilk on hand, you can make a substitute using regular milk and either lemon juice or vinegar, as I do with my angel biscuits recipe
• Brown & granulated sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Spices (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg): If you don’t keep these on hand, I suggest using more cinnamon. For a twist, if you love pumpkin as I do, pumpkin pie spice would be lovely, too
• All-purpose flour
• Baking soda & baking powder
• Mix-ins: Grated carrots and optional raisins and nuts. If you’re using both raisins and nuts, reduce each to about 3/4-cup rather than one full cup each, so you don’t overwhelm the batter with add-ins
• Cream cheese frosting: Cream cheese, unsalted butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make a Carrot Cake Loaf 

This simple carrot loaf cake recipe has a quick, whisk-tougher batter. There is nothing fussy about it, and it goes from cupboard to oven in less than 5 minutes with very few dirty dishes!

Here’s an overview of how to make a spiced carrot loaf cake:

1. Make the carrot cake loaf: Simply melt the butter in a medium bowl or large bowl, and whisk the melted butter with the wet ingredients and spices.
2. Add the dry ingredients, stirring just until the mixture is smooth.
3. Pour the batter into a prepared pan, using a spatula to spread it out in an even layer. Make sure not to fill it more than halfway full because the batter rises considerably.
4. Bake until the top is set in the middle. It will likely have domed up a little, too. You’ll know your loaf is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The exact baking time will vary based on your oven and pan size used.
5. While the cake cools, beat the frosting ingredients with a hand mixer or stand mixer until soft and fluffy, and spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cake loaf.

Remove Ads Review Save Saved Print

5 from 6 votes

Carrot Cake Loaf with Cream Cheese Frosting

By Averie Sunshine

🥕 A soft, moist carrot cake that's baked as a loaf. So much faster and easier than baking an entire cake! Packed with carrots, raisins, & nuts!

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes minutes

Servings: 18 servings

Equipment

• 2 Loaf Pans
• 1 Large, Microwave-Safe Bowl
• 1 Wire Rack
• 1 Stand Mixer Fitted with a Paddle Attachment

Ingredients 

For the Cake

• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• ▢ ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ ¾ cup buttermilk
• ▢ 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• ▢ ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ▢ ½ teaspoon allspice
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ pinch salt, optional (buttermilk is already a salted milk and I omitted adding salt)
• ▢ 2 ¼ cups coarsely grated carrots, packed loosely
• ▢ 1 cup raisins, optional but recommended
• ▢ 1 cup diced nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, optional

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I used Trader Joe’s Whipped Light)
• ▢ ¼ cup unsalted butter, half of one stick
• ▢ 1 ½ cups+ confectioners’ sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions 

For the Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350F; spray loaf pans with floured cooking spray; set aside. I used one 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and one 8-by-4-inch loaf pan. Choose any combination of loaf pan sizes, tube or Bundt cake pans, or muffin pans.
• In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.
• Add the oil, eggs, buttermilk, sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and whisk vigorously until combined.
• Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, optional salt, and stir to incorporate; don’t overmix.
• Stir in the carrots.
• Stir in the raisins and optional nuts.
• Pour batter into prepared pans, making sure not to fill any pan more than halfway full because this batter rises considerably.
• Bake the two loaves (9×5 and 8×4) for 40 to 50 minutes, or until top is set in the center, golden, and a toothpick comes out clean.
• Allow cake to cool in pans for about 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. While cakes cool, make the frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the cream cheese, butter, and beat to soften and combine, about 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and beat until light and fluffy. Add additional sugar as desired for thicker frosting.
• Spread frosting over the tops of the cooled loaves. Slice into 3/4-inch wide slices and serve. I yield 9 to 10 slices from a 9×5 loaf.

Notes

Add-ins: If using both raisins and nuts, use about 3/4 cup of each rather than 1 cup each, or the batter may become overwhelmed with add-ins.

Baking times: Baking times will vary greatly by pan sizes used. I baked the 8-by-4-inch loaf for 42 minutes and the 9-by-5-inch loaf for 50 minutes. Muffins or mini loaves could bake in as short as 20 minutes, a big Bundt cake may need 55 to 65 minutes.

Frosting: Some people prefer to refrigerate cream cheese frosting and if you’re one of them, I suggest frosting the slices individually immediately prior to serving, rather than frost the whole loaf and then refrigerating it, which will dry it out.

Storage: Store unfrosted loaf wrapped in plastic wrap and placed inside a large ziptop plastic bag for up to 1 week at room temperature, or freeze for up to 3 months. Freezing second loaf after it’s cooled is recommended if you’re not going to eat it within a week.

Adapted from Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 398cal, Carbohydrates: 51g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 21g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g, Cholesterol: 48mg, Sodium: 220mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 36g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.

↓ Click the Stars to Rate This Recipe ↓

Tried this recipe? Leave a review!

Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!

More Carrot Cake Recipes: 

ALL OF MY CARROT CAKE-INSPIRED RECIPES! 

Layered Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — A tender and moist classic two-layer carrot cake with tangy-sweet cream cheese frosting!

Carrot Cake Bars — Dense, chewy, super moist bars that taste like carrot cake with a cream cheese topping that’s baked right in so you don’t need to worry about frosting them!

Salted Caramel Carrot Cake — Soft, tender, EASY carrot cake infused with salted caramel sauce and topped with tangy cream cheese frosting is the ULTIMATE in decadence!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting — These soft, moist, tender cupcakes are the BEST carrot cake cupcakes I’ve ever had! They’re fast and easy to make, and come together in minutes! 

Soft and Chewy Spiced Carrot Cake Cookies — All the flavors of richly spiced carrot cake, but in cookie form! Soft, chewy, extremely moist, and not at all cakey!

Carrot Banana Bread — EASY, no-mixer, super soft banana carrot bread that reminds me of carrot cake but healthier! Great Easter brunch idea or spring baked good!

Pumpkin Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — A marriage of pumpkin cake and carrot cake into one soft, moist, tender, and amazing cake! The tangy cream cheese frosting is truly the icing on this easy cake!

Soft Carrot Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Glaze — Super soft carrot cake bars that taste like blondies packed with chewy carrots! So good and a must-make!