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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 easy 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).
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)
Important Ingredients
- Vegetable Oil – you can use melted butter if you prefer, but I like how oil keeps cakes moist.
- Flour – Use all-purpose flour
- Milk – You can use any kind of milk or nondairy milk.
- Shredded Carrots – shred your own carrots for best results! Pre-shredded carrots are too stiff and won’t soften properly.
Click to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions and below the recipe card for process shots.
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How to make Carrot Coffee Cake with Streusel
- This is a two bowl recipe – one for the cake and one for the streusel.
- Simply whisk or stir all the ingredients together.
- You can use a 9×9-inch square or round cake pan.
- The streusel is made with melted butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and chopped nuts (walnuts are traditional I think, for carrot cake, but I love pecans too).
Expert Tips
- The icing is optional but so so good.
- This is great served warm!
- You can omit the nuts if you want.
- As always, this is a coffee cake made to serve with coffee (it doesn’t have coffee in it).
- Coffee cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake.
Carrot Coffee Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups shredded carrots grate your own, not pre-shredded
For the Streusel
- ½ cup (50g) brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons (16g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- ¾ cup chopped nuts walnuts or pecans, if desired
For the Drizzle
- ¾ cup (85g) powdered sugar
- ½ 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
Serving Carrot Coffee Cake
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.
Why can’t you use pre shredded carrots for the store?
They’re too tough. Technically you can use them but they won’t soften as much and might be hard or crunchy in your cake.
This is so moist … I will admit that shredding two cups of carrots was a little tedious, but so worth it!!!
I double the ratios for the streusel, because I can never have too much of it! Perfect for the upcoming Easter holiday!
So glad you liked it!
The original recipe batter was so little
I doubled it
I only used 1 cup of carrots
Baked it for 45
It came out dry
Because you only used 1 cup of carrots (did you shred your own?) there wasn’t enough moisture in the batter.
Yes, I shredded my own.
I experimented and failed!
Today I am baking it again as the recipe instructs.
I will update again, if needed.
Thank you!
-Lynn
Best coffee cake recipe I have EVER made. The carrots create a wonderful moistness that can’t be beat. So flavorful. Beautiful crumb. Just the BEST!
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