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I have been making this Carrot Coffee Cake recipe for YEARS. It’s one of the first carrot cake mash-up recipes I made and it’s a hit every time I serve it. It’s also one of the most popular recipes in my book!
You will LOVE this coffee cake recipe all year long – not just at Easter!
If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll know that my husband doesn’t eat much of my desserts. But – this coffee cake is one of the recipes that Mel DOES eat…which means it gets 5 gold stars.
People tend to think of carrot cake as just a spring thing, but really, this coffee cake is so good you should make it all year long! It’s a from-scratch coffee cake recipe with a streusel topping and just happens to be full of carrots and carrot cake spices.
The coffee cake base is my mom’s famous coffee cake recipe – famous in our family, that is – and we’ve been making it my ENTIRE life – and longer.
Mom’s recipes are always best – especially this coffee cake (and her snowballs aren’t bad either).
Table of Contents
Why we love this recipe
Even though I’ve never posted my mom’s official recipe, I’ve made several coffee cake recipes here on the blog, and all of them are adapted from her base recipe. I think, besides this one, the peanut butter coffee cake is my favorite. (For obvious reasons. #crazyforpeanutbutter)
This is a two bowl recipe but you don’t need a mixer. And the second bowl is used to make the crumble topping. I mean…that’s necessary right? You can’t have coffee cake without crumble topping.
The cake is filled with the flavor of carrot cake. The carrots give the proper texture and the cinnamon adds that telltale carrot cake flavor. You can add nuts to your streusel topping, and if you’re so inclined, throw some raisins in the cake. (But we can’t be friends if you do that. #TotallyKidding #notaraisinfan)
Coffee Cake from scratch
The first thing you do when you make this recipe is make the cake part. One bowl, no mixer needed, remember.
Simply stir together the ingredients:
- Vegetable Oil – you can use melted butter if you prefer, but I like how oil keeps cakes moist.
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon – required for carrot cake!
- Flour
- Milk
- Shredded Carrots
When it comes to milk, you can use regular, low-fat or non-fat milk. You can also substitute non-dairy milk, like almond or soy. All types of milk work just fine.
I also know it’s tempting to use pre-shredded carrots because shredding your own is annoying, but don’t use the pre-done ones. They’re too thick and dry and won’t bake up nicely. This is where you need to do the dirty work and grate your own.
Grate your own carrots instead of using pre-shredded for best results!
PRO TIP
Coffee Cake needs Cinnamon Streusel
It wouldn’t be coffee cake with out some sort of crumble streusel topping!
Again, mom’s recipe is a winner, because this is such an easy topping you just mix together with a fork.
- Melted butter – a must!
- Brown sugar
- Flour
- Cinnamon
- Chopped Nuts
We LOVE using chopped nuts in coffee cake. Use walnuts or pecans (walnuts are traditional I think, for carrot cake, but I love pecans too)!
I love mixing it together with a fork so it stays fluffy and doesn’t get compact.
Simply spread it on top the batter in the pan and then bake the cake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Carrot Coffee Cake Icing
It really doesn’t need frosting, but you can make a simple cream cheese frosting, if you want. Or just do what I did and make a simple powdered sugar icing to make it look prettier.
Again, frosting isn’t needed – this is great with just the crumble topping!
This really is the BEST easy Coffee Cake recipe – we absolutely love it. I cannot wait to make it again…and again.
Serving Carrot Coffee Cake
Have you made this recipe?
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Carrot Coffee Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 cups shredded carrots grate your own, not pre-shredded
For the Streusel
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 3/4 cup chopped nuts walnuts or pecans, if desired
For the Drizzle
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9” round pan with cooking spray. (You can also use a 9″ square pan.)
- Stir sugar, oil, and egg in a large bowl. Stir in baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in milk. Stir in flour until just combined. Stir in shredded carrots.
- Make the crumb topping: stir together brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter. Add nuts, if desired.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Top with streusel. Bake for 25-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely in pan before frosting.
- To make the drizzle: whisk powdered sugar, vanilla and cream in a small bowl. Drizzle over cake as desired.
Recipe Notes
Recipe Nutrition
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This Carrot Cake Coffee Cake is moist and easy to make and gets rave reviews. It’s a from scratch coffee cake with cinnamon streusel and carrot cake flavors.
Last Updated on February 26, 2022
Do you know roughly how much it is per serving,
That’s really subjective, I usually cut it into 8 slices.
Looks delicious. Can this be frozen? If it can for what length of time?
Going to make it today
Yes! Wrapped well up to 3 months.
Sounds delicious But!! Where’s the coffee???
This kind of coffee cake is a brunch cake, made to be served with coffee. It doesn’t’ have coffee in it.
I made this in a 9″ square glass dish and it took at least 15 min more to bake, Cake is moist. For the drizzle, I had to add more than 1 tablespoon of whipping cream to get it to the loose consistency for it to drizzle. BTW I added a 1/2 cup walnuts to the batter, in addition to that used in the Streusel. More than likely, won’t make this again.
This is incredible! Love sneaking in something healthy and the kiddos don’t even know!
This looks so delicious! Do you think the recipe could be doubled and put in a 9 x 13 glass pan? If so, how long to bake?
This coffee cake was so delicious and soft! The crumb was fantstic and my family loved it. Great job, will make again.
My family absolutely LOVES this carrot cake – we make it every year!
Hello Dorothy I’m trying to figure out why the name is coffee carrot cake when there is no coffee.
Thanks for the feedback!
Can’t wait to make this, need something to new to make in isolation, and Indera, you could use some coffee before posting comments.
Coffee cake is just an expression, it does not contain coffee in the recipe.
Can you make muffins out of this recipe?
Yes you can – about 8-12 muffins.
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