Name: Pumpkin Carrot Cake for Supper
Yield: 8

Pumpkin Carrot Cake combines two of the best spiced cakes into one! With warming fall spices and cream cheese frosting, it’s a cozy fall favorite.

The Best Pumpkin Carrot Cake

This may be my all-time favorite cake, and I think my boys would agree! I took my two favorite cake recipes on this site (carrot cake and pumpkin cake), combined them, and was blown away by the results.

This cake has incredible depth of flavor and is so moist and tender. The cream cheese frosting ties everything together beautifully, and there’s no way I’ll make it through fall each year without baking this cake.

Wet ingredients being stirred together to create the batter.

Bring Ingredients To Room Temperature

Using room temperature ingredients will ensure the best-possible Pumpkin Carrot Cake texture.

Using room-temperature eggs helps them blend more evenly into the batter, giving the cake a lighter texture (the eggs trap air).
- Soak refrigerated eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for about 10 minutes to quickly bring them to room temperature.
- Alternatively, pull the eggs out of the fridge about 30 minutes before using to make this Pumpkin Carrot Cake.
Using room-temperature butter and cream cheese for the frosting will ensure a smooth, luxurious frosting without unpleasant chunks of cream cheese.
- Pull both out of the refrigerator about 45 minutes to 1 hour in advance.
- Alternatively, remove the cream cheese from the packaging. Place in the microwave and heat for 5 seconds, flip each and microwave for another 5 seconds. Continue to do this on each side of the cream cheese until softened to room temperature. Flipping frequently helps to evenly soften. Repeat in a separate bowl or plate with butter (I’ve found the two don’t soften at the same rate.)

Dry ingredients being sifted over the wet ingredients and combined until smooth.

Pumpkin Carrot Cake Tips

Spoon and level the flour. If you pack in too much flour, the cake with be dry, dense, and less moist. Here’s a great video showing how to properly measure flour for this recipe.
Grate carrots on the small holes of the grater. To ensure the right texture and even dispersion, we want the carrots very finely shredded. This is attained with the small holes on a grater.
Thoroughly drain the pineapple. First, make sure you have the right can size — it’s straightforward to miss since there are so many different sized cans of pineapple! We want the 8-ounce (tiny!) can and for all the excess moisture to be drained out. I press out the liquid through a fine mesh sieve.
Don’t overbake. To avoid dry cake, you’ll want to make sure you don’t overbake the layers; they can go from evenly moist to far less flavorful in just a few minutes.
Let the cakes cool for 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before turning them onto cooling racks to continue cooling. Wait for the cakes to be 100% cool before frosting.

Quick Tip

Don’t feel like every bit of the frosting needs to be used on this pumpkin carrot cake. I prefer to have a bit extra than to scramble and make more if needed. Use leftover cream cheese on these amazing pumpkin cinnamon roll cookies, on waffles/pancakes, or on these pumpkin cupcakes!

Lining The Cake Pans

Stick to 9-inch cake pans for best results. Here are the exact cake pans I use.

Pumpkin Carrot Cake is so moist that if the bottom of the cake pans aren’t lined, the cake won’t come out nicely (I speak from experience!). Make sure you line the cake pan with parchment paper.

There’s an straightforward to way to do this; check out this photo slideshow or read the directions below:

Tear off a sheet of parchment paper slightly larger than the cake pan.
Fold the parchment in half.
Then fold the parchment in half again.
Fold into a triangle.
Fold the triangle in half again.
Hold the triangle against the bottom of the pan from the center outwards.
Cut the parchment right where it meets the edge of the cake pan along the curve of the cake pan.
Unfold the parchment and press into the bottom of the cake pan.

Carrot pumpkin cake batter in a pan, ready to be placed in the oven for baking.

Pumpkin Carrot Cake Troubleshooting

A slice of carrot and pumpkin cake with a bite taken out of it, packed full of flavor and evenly complemented by the icing.

Storage

Pumpkin Carrot Cake Storage

Finished Cake: Store in the fridge, wrapped tightly or under a cake dome, for up to 3 days. Refrigerate due to the cream cheese frosting. The cake doesn’t freeze well once frosted.

Make Ahead/Freezing: Wrap cooled cake layers in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 1 month. Defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before frosting.

I prefer making and freezing the layers ahead. They’re more flavorful after sitting. Thaw for about an hour at room temperature (they don’t need to be fully thawed) before frosting.