We’ve come across various carrot cake recipes before, but we can safely say we’ve found the best one – and it’s perfect for a party, since it really feeds a crowd! Now of course there are versions out there that have coconut and pineapple, but we’ve got a slightly more pared back version, one that is absolutely delightful and that can be tweaked to cater to your carrot cake preferences; for us, that’s a spiced cake, stuffed to the brim with carrots and flecked with raisins and pecans. And don’t forget the cream cheese frosting!

If you haven’t made carrot cake before, it’s a breeze to make. We use vegetable oil and butter to keep this cake extra moist and never dry – plus, mo’ butter, mo’ better – then a combination of regular and brown sugar to get that deeper, richer flavor. Add to that two teaspoons of cinnamon and a healthy dash of nutmeg and you’ve mastered that perfectly spiced flavor that we love and yearn for in a carrot cake. That and, oh yeah, 4 cups of carrots to really make it clear we’re making CARROT CAKE here. Unapologetically carrot-y, folks.

And for the show-stopping element that truly is our favorite part: the cream cheese frosting. Easy breezy and completely addictive, this frosting comes together in five minutes (warranted you start with room temperature cream cheese and butter) and it’s just a matter of beating your ingredients together and getting the frosting to your desired consistency. Then it all gets smoothed onto the beautiful, golden brown cake and the rest is history. So, so good, you guys, and perfect for absolutely any get-together!