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Published on November 8, 2026 by · This post may contain affiliate links · 120 Comments

Carrot Cake With Pineapple Recipe

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This carrot cake with pineapple is chunky, homestyle, and loaded with carrots, pineapple, candied pecans, and toasted coconut, then frosted with my tangy brown butter cream cheese frosting. It's my favorite cake to bake for my family!

Moist carrot cake with pineapple and cream cheese frosting

This carrot cake with pineapple has made lovers of carrot cake out of people who previously said they hated carrot cake. There are two kinds of carrot cake people out there. Those that like a nice spice cake with some teeny tiny carrots in it, and those who like a teeny tiny bit of cake with their carrots. I fall in the second category.

I love making this carrot cake because it comes together in one bowl and is pretty much impossible to mess up!

Quick Glance at the Recipe: Carrot Cake With Pineapple

  • Recipe Name: Carrot Cake With Pineapple
  • Why You'll Love It: Super moist, loaded with chunky carrots, pineapple, and candied pecans, and it all comes together in one bowl.
  • Time and Difficulty: About 1 hour 15 minutes, plus cooling. Easy.
  • Main Ingredients: Carrots, crushed pineapple, candied pecans, toasted coconut, banana, and brown butter cream cheese frosting
  • Method: A one-bowl batter baked in three 8" layers, filled and frosted with brown butter cream cheese frosting
  • Texture and Flavor: Moist, chunky, and warmly spiced with a tangy, nutty frosting
  • Quick Tip: Wrap your layers and frost the cake the next day. It tastes even better!
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What Makes This Carrot Cake With Pineapple Different
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This isn't a spice cake with a few carrots sprinkled in. Every bite is packed with carrots, pineapple, and crunch, and here's why it's so good.

  • LOTS of chunky carrots. This is the homestyle kind of carrot cake, with big chunks of carrot in every slice.
  • Candied pecans and toasted coconut. Sweet, salty crunch plus a toasty, nutty flavor that you won't get from plain nuts.
  • Banana for extra moisture. Mashed banana keeps the cake super moist and adds a little sweetness.
  • Brown butter cream cheese frosting. Browning the butter gives the frosting a nutty, toasty flavor that's amazing with all those warm spices.

Carrot Cake Ingredients

It might seem like there are a lot of ingredients in this cake that you don't fully understand, so let me explain! I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results.

Carrot cake with pineapple ingredients: flour, sugars, spices, oil, eggs, grated carrots, crushed pineapple, candied pecans, coconut, and banana
  • Carrots. The star of the show! I like a LOT of carrots in my carrot cake, and the chunkier the better.
  • Crushed Pineapple. Adds amazing flavor, moisture, and texture to your carrot cake. Drain it well so the extra juice doesn't make your cake soggy.
  • Candied Pecans. Sweet, salty, and crunchy. Candied pecans add a delicious crunch and texture to the cake.
  • Toasted Coconut. Adds another dimension of earthy flavor and texture. Not a coconut fan? Replace it with the same weight of extra grated carrots.
  • All-Purpose Flour. You might be surprised to see me using all-purpose flour instead of cake flour, but because there is so little flour in this carrot cake, we need the extra gluten to hold everything together.
  • Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar. Brown sugar adds moisture and a little molasses flavor, and granulated sugar keeps the cake from getting too heavy.
  • Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger. These warm spices give the cake that cozy carrot cake flavor.
  • Mashed Banana. Once upon a time I wanted to make my carrot cake and didn't have any applesauce, but I did have a frozen banana, so I used that instead. Honestly, I liked it better than the applesauce for that added moisture! (If you have extra applesauce, put it to work in my applesauce cake recipe.) You can use either banana or unsweetened applesauce (my homemade unsweetened applesauce works great).
  • Vegetable Oil and Melted Butter. Oil keeps the cake moist, and butter adds flavor.
  • Eggs. Make sure they're at room temperature so your batter mixes together smoothly.
  • Brown Butter. The secret to the nutty, toasty flavor in the frosting (here's how to brown butter).
  • Cream Cheese. Use full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature, for a smooth, tangy frosting.

Why Do You Put Pineapple in Carrot Cake?

It might sound crazy, but pineapple tastes amazing in carrot cake! Not only do the flavors complement each other perfectly, but the pineapple keeps the cake extra moist. The pineapple also holds onto moisture longer, so your carrot cake is less likely to dry out.

How Do You Grate Carrots for Carrot Cake?

I like my carrots to be nice and chunky. To prepare my carrots, I chop off the tops and then peel them. If you don't peel your carrots, they can turn green while baking.

To speed things up, you can use a food processor. For 12 ounces of grated carrots, you'll need about 6 to 7 medium carrots. Thankfully this carrot cake doesn't require an exact amount of carrots.

How To Make Carrot Cake With Pineapple Step-By-Step

Bring all your ingredients to room temperature, preheat your oven to 350º F, and coat three 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop.

Browned butter being stirred with a spatula in a saucepan
  1. Brown the butter the day before. Cook it until it's a deep golden color, then let it cool until it's soft but not melted.
Flour, brown sugar, and spices in a mesh sieve over a mixing bowl
  1. Sift together your dry ingredients: the flour, both sugars, salt, baking soda, and all the spices.
Bowls of vegetable oil, melted butter, and vanilla extract for carrot cake batter
  1. Mix your wet ingredients (the oil, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla), then blend them into the dry ingredients.
Crushed pineapple, chopped candied pecans, and coconut on top of carrot cake batter in a mixing bowl
  1. Fold in the carrots, pineapple, pecans, coconut, and banana until everything is just combined.
Baked carrot cake layer cooling in a round cake pan
  1. Divide the batter between your three pans and bake at 350º F for 35 to 45 minutes, until the center is set.
Three carrot cake layers wrapped in plastic wrap on a marble counter
  1. Cool and wrap your layers. Let them cool in the pans for 15 minutes, turn them out to cool completely, then wrap them in plastic wrap and partially freeze them before frosting. Cold cakes are so much easier to handle!

PRO TIP: This carrot cake actually tastes better the second day! I wrap my layers in plastic wrap and leave them on the counter overnight, then frost the next day. The flavors meld together and the cake gets even moister.

Brown butter and unsalted butter being creamed together with a whisk attachment
  1. Cream the brown butter and unsalted butter together until smooth.
Cubes of softened cream cheese on a white plate
  1. Add the softened cream cheese and whip until smooth with no lumps.
Brown butter cream cheese frosting being whipped in a stand mixer
  1. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, orange extract, and salt and mix until smooth and creamy.
Two carrot cake layers stacked with a thick layer of brown butter cream cheese frosting in between
  1. Fill and stack your layers with a thick layer of frosting between each one. New to layer cakes? Check out my how to make a cake tutorial.
Three-layer carrot cake with a thin crumb coat of cream cheese frosting
  1. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting to lock in the crumbs (here's how to crumb coat a cake).
Offset spatula spreading rustic brown butter cream cheese frosting on the side of a carrot cake
  1. Frost the outside with another thick layer of frosting. I like to keep mine rustic looking.

PRO TIP: If you need a sturdier frosting, try my crusting cream cheese frosting. It holds up better for stacked or decorated cakes.

Bowls of orange and green tinted frosting with piping bags and tips
  1. Tint some frosting orange and green for the little carrots on top.
Piping bags of orange and green frosting next to a piped buttercream carrot
  1. Pipe buttercream carrots around the top of the cake (see the video for how I pipe them).

Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator

This recipe makes enough batter for three 8"x2" carrot cake layers (or about 36 cupcakes) and enough brown butter cream cheese frosting to fill, frost, and decorate the cake. Use the calculator below for other pan sizes.

Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator

Select an option below to calculate how much batter or frosting you need. Adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to change the amounts the recipe makes.

Choose a pan type

Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)

Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)

Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)

Cupcake Tin Size

Choose number of pans

Cups of Batter Needed

8 cups

Cups of Frosting Needed

5 cups

Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.

Three-layer carrot cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting and piped buttercream carrots on a cake stand
Slice of three-layer carrot cake with pineapple and cream cheese frosting on a gray plate with fresh carrots

Common Carrot Cake Problems To Avoid

  • A soggy cake. Extra pineapple juice is the usual culprit. Drain your crushed pineapple really well before you fold it in.
  • Green carrots. Unpeeled carrots can turn green while baking, so peel them before you grate them.
  • An underbaked center. This is a heavy, moist batter, so check the middle with a toothpick. It should come out with just a few crumbs stuck to it.
  • Runny frosting. If your brown butter is still warm or melted, the frosting will be soft and runny. Let it firm back up to a soft butter consistency first.

Make This Recipe Your Own

  • Add raisins. Fold in about ½ to ¾ cup of raisins with the carrots. I prefer golden raisins.
  • Make it gluten-free. A 1:1 gluten-free baking flour works in this recipe.
  • Make cupcakes. This recipe makes about 36 cupcakes. Fill the liners about two-thirds full and bake at 350º F for 18 to 22 minutes.
  • Cover it in fondant. Fondant and cream cheese frosting don't mesh well, so use my easy buttercream instead. You can replace some or all of the butter with brown butter to keep that nutty flavor.
  • Make carrot cake bars. Want something easy to slice and serve? Try my carrot cake bars.

Carrot Cake FAQs

Can I make carrot cake ahead of time and freeze it?

Yes! Bake the layers, let them cool, wrap them well in plastic wrap, and freeze them. When you're ready to use them, thaw the layers in the fridge for at least 24 hours, or they will sweat very badly.

How do I store carrot cake?

Unfrosted layers can stay wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 24 hours. Don't put plain, unfrosted cake in the fridge, because it dries it out. Once it's frosted, store the cake in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Can I travel with this carrot cake?

Yes, and you don't need to freeze it. Just keep it in a cooler with an ice pack and it will be fine.

Can I measure this carrot cake recipe in cups?

I really recommend using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Weighing your ingredients is much more accurate than cups, and the recipe card has both ounces and grams so you can use whichever your scale reads.

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Recipe

Moist carrot cake with pineapple, toasted coconut, candied pecans and big chunks of carrots. Frosted with brown butter cream cheese frosting

Carrot Cake With Pineapple Recipe

Carrot cake with pineapple, big chunks of carrots, candied pecans and brown butter cream cheese frosting is the ultimate homestyle carrot cake!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate Recipe
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 24 servings
Calories: 765kcal
Author: Liz Marek

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

  • 14 ounces all-purpose flour
  • 10 ounces granulated sugar
  • 11 ounces brown sugar
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 1 Tablespoon baking soda
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
  • 8 ounces vegetable oil
  • 4 ounces unsalted butter melted
  • 7 large eggs room temperature
  • 1 ½ Tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 8 ounces candied pecans chopped
  • 5 ounces shredded coconut toasted (or replace with 5 ounces more grated carrots)
  • 12 ounces carrots peeled and grated (about 6 to 7 medium carrots)
  • 12 ounces crushed pineapple drained well
  • 6 ounces ripe banana mashed (about 1 ½ bananas) or 6 ounces unsweetened applesauce

Browned Butter

  • 12 ounces unsalted butter after browning it should weigh about 10 ounces

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
  • 6 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
  • 10 ounces brown butter softened butter consistency
  • 32 ounces powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon orange extract optional
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Before you begin: Bring all your ingredients to room temperature, weigh them with a scale, preheat your oven to 350º F, and coat three 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop.

Brown Butter

  • (It's best to do this the day before you bake) Place butter into a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer.
  • Whisk constantly (butter will foam up) and cook until the butter is a deep golden color
  • Pour the browned butter (do not strain) into a heat-proof container and let cool at room temperature overnight (or you can put it in the fridge to help speed up the process but stir every 20 minutes to prevent it from getting too hard. The butter needs to be soft but not melted.

Cake Instructions

  • Sift together the flour, sugars, salt, baking soda, and all the spices.
  • Mix together oil, melted butter, eggs and vanilla and blend into dry ingredients.
  • Add remaining ingredients and fold until combined.
  • Divide the batter evenly between three 8"x2" cake pans coated in cake goop (pan release). Weigh the pans so your layers are even.
  • Bake at 350º F for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the center is set. Test for doneness in multiple areas near the center with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes up dry with a few crumbs stuck to it, the cake is done. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 15 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. Wrap them in plastic wrap.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cream the browned butter and the unsalted butter with the whisk attachment until smooth
  • Add in your softened cream cheese and whip together until smooth and no lumps are present
  • Slowly add in powdered sugar one cup at a time while mixing on medium until smooth
  • Add in your vanilla and orange extract and salt and mix until smooth.

Video

Notes

Important Things To Note Before You Start
1. Bring all your ingredients to room temperature or even a little warm (eggs, butter, etc) to ensure your batter does not break or curdle. 
2. Use a scale to weigh your ingredients (including liquids) unless otherwise instructed (Tablespoons, teaspoons, pinch etc). Metric measurements are available in the recipe card. Scaled ingredients are much more accurate than using cups and help ensure the success of your recipe. 
3. Practice Mise en Place (everything in it's place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.
4. Wrap your cake layers in plastic wrap and partially freeze them before filling and frosting. Cold cakes are much easier to handle. You can cover a frosted and chilled cake in fondant if you wish. This cake is also great for stacking. I always keep my cakes chilled in the refrigerator before delivery for easy transporting. 
5. If the recipe calls for specific ingredients like cake flour, replacing it with all-purpose flour and cornstarch is not recommended unless specified in the recipe that it’s ok. Substituting ingredients may cause this recipe to fail. 
6. Brown your butter the day before baking and leave it at room temperature so that it's the right consistency for making buttercream the next day. 
Cupcakes: This recipe makes about 36 cupcakes. Fill the liners about two-thirds full and bake at 350º F for 18 to 22 minutes.
No coconut? Replace the toasted coconut with the same weight of extra grated carrots.
Video note: The video shows the original smaller batch. The recipe card has been scaled up to make three full 8"x2" layers.
Nutrition: Calculated per slice (1/24 of the frosted cake), made with banana and toasted coconut.

Nutrition

Serving: 8ounces | Calories: 765kcal | Carbohydrates: 89g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 45g | Saturated Fat: 26g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 155mg | Sodium: 484mg | Potassium: 202mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 72g | Vitamin A: 3658IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 2mg
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About Liz Marek

Liz Marek is a professional cake artist and recipe developer who has been teaching baking and cake decorating since 2008. She founded Artisan Cake Company in Portland, Oregon in 2009 and now runs Sugar Geek Show, where she publishes kitchen-tested recipes, food science explanations, and step-by-step tutorials.

Liz is best known for sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes. She won Netflix's Is It Cake? Holiday 2 in 2025 with a hyperrealistic Santa cake, and has competed on and won Food Network cake competitions. Cake Masters Magazine named her one of the top 10 cake artists in 2017. She is the author of Artisan Cake Company's Visual Guide to Cake Decorating and a graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute.

Her focus is on explaining not just how a recipe works but why it works, so bakers can troubleshoot instead of guess. Every recipe on this site is tested before it's published.

Liz teaches full-length cake tutorials, including sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes, at Sugar Geek University.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rosella Carreon says

    I am interested in making carrot cake most recipes ask for all purpose , I would like to use cake flour how do I incorporate ? Thank you

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      cake flour is usually too soft for this type of cake which is why all purpose flour is called for

      Reply

  2. Carla H says

    Can you omit the coconut? Or what do I replace it with?

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      yes you can 🙂 someone just asked this in another group

      Reply

  3. Sarai says

    5 stars
    First of all, you’re super incredibly awesome for sharing your talent and hard work with us. You have no idea how cool it is to find reliable recipes and bonus: from an awesome pro like yourself. I’ve had the whole, “this is my recipe I won’t share unless you pay to make up for my hard work” experiences before. I completely understand what they mean, i mean heck I’m still paying off student loans. But for recipes I think it’s kinda different. I mean My idea is that you can have the same ingredients, the same instructions, and even the same tools, and yet the final product comes out completely different. For me it’s the hand and the love that goes into it that makes the difference. So thank you for sharing. I had never made a carrot cake from scratch before, I was nervously thinking it would be hard and I’d fail yet again, but this totally was the best homemade carrot cake I’ve ever had! It tastes like a professional bakery cake, all made with my chubby hands. Thank you very much Liz, God keep blessing you with that awesome nobleness, and kindness! You rock!!

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Ah thank you so much for the kind words 🙂

      Reply

  4. Jessica Simmons says

    5 stars
    I LOVE this cake and have made it a bunch of times. My only silly request, is that you change the slide bar to be cups of batter, like some of your other recipes are. Sometimes I don't want an 8 inch cake, and I have to do the calculations myself and I base it on 3 cups/8inch cake and I don't even know if that's right! ?

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Yea some people say cups some people say oz is better. It's hard to know which one is best for people

      Reply

  5. Jill says

    How much creme bouquet should you use?

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      1/2 tsp or to your taste

      Reply

  6. Claudia says

    Excellent! How many cupcakes come out of this recipe?

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Oh man I'm not sure, at least 36

      Reply

  7. Shanlin Woo says

    5 stars
    Please consider a metric option to your recipes(for us South Africans). Love all I've tried so far, but gets confusing with ounces, especially with liquids.
    Thanks for the great recipes. Xx

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Ounces for liquids work the same as dry ingredients. Thats why I love using weight. If the recipe says 8oz of milk it means 8oz by weight, not volume

      Reply

  8. shabna anwar says

    hi, i am big fan of yours. i like the recipes you do. Instead of candied peccans what else can be added or can i omit it, if i dont have any of it.

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      You can leave them out or use toasted pecans or toasted walnuts.

      Reply

  9. Suzanne says

    Hi Liz, I made this cake for my family yesterday and it was a huge success! everybody liked it 🙂 I had to omit the pineapple since I didn't have any at hand but it still turned out amazing!!! thanks a lot 😀

    Reply

    • sara says

      Hi Liz!
      Thank you sooo much for creating these amazing recipes for us!
      Regarding the pineapple and carrots amounts...
      Do we weight out 8oz of unwashed and unpeeled carrots first, then peel and grate them later, thus ending up with less than 8oz?

      and do we first weight out 8oz of crushed pineapple in juice and then drain it?

      Reply

      • The Sugar Geek Show says

        I just grated carrots until I had 8oz but you could do either or. 8oz crushed pineapple after it has been drained

  10. Carlene D says

    can you carve this cake??

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Not really, it's very chunky haha

      Reply

  11. Uniquities Cake Design says

    Is it sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut? Thanks! Just made your red velvet cake for a client and it was a HUGE hit!

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Unsweetened 🙂 You're gonna love this cake if you love carrot cake! It's my absolute favorite!

      Reply

  12. celeste says

    Hi. Can this cake be used to cover with fondant? I am really struggling with a carrot cake recipe to use with fondant for a wedding.

    Thanks,

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Yes it can, just make sure you chill your cakes to harden the butter inside of them before stacking and filling.

      Reply

  13. Stephanie Priddy says

    If I omit the banana, will I need to replace it with anything? I really dislike nanners?

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      You can use applesauce 🙂

      Reply

  14. Jilean says

    Hi Liz,

    Would this recipe do well as a cupcake?

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Yes I have used it for cupcakes 🙂

      Reply

      • Kandace Smith says

        I tried these as cupcakes and they turned out dry everytime!!!! :'( what are your magic baking numbers 350 325 for 20 mins for 10 mins for 15 mins?

      • The Sugar Geek Show says

        Are you over-baking them?

      • Kandace Smith says

        Hey Liz! Would you still recommend 350 for 30 mins with cupcakes?

        This last batch I had in was at 350 for 20 and they over baked.

      • The Sugar Geek Show says

        Definitely bake for a shorter amount of time depending on your oven. Mine take longer for some reason but keep an eye on them

  15. Joy says

    Hi
    I have made this cake and it is delicious. My daughter is getting married, I would like to make this cake and freeze it. Does the cake freeze well. If I need to make a 12inch would doubling the recipe be ok
    Thank you
    Joy Sullivan

    Reply

    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      Yes you can double or triple. If you freeze a cake you need to wrap it well and make sure it's very deep in the freezer so it doesnt get freezer burn over time

      Reply
4.91 from 63 votes (44 ratings without comment)

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