Carrot Cake Lab
Carrot Cake: what 260 recipes agree on
Carrot, oil, sugar and spice per 100 g of flour, frosting set aside.
260 recipes from 119 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical cake, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
260
from 119 sites
Typical flour
250 g
about 2 cups
Oven
350°F
175°C · median of 229
Bake time
40 min
most 33 to 50 min
The typical cake of carrot cake
The median of all 260 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 250 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 250 gabout 2 cups |
| CarrotMost recipes use 220 to 330 g | 265 g |
| SugarMost recipes use 210 to 365 g | 265 gabout 1 1/3 cups |
| FatMost recipes use 145 to 230 g | 195 gabout 3/4 cup |
| EggMost recipes use 150 to 200 g | 170 gabout 3 1/2 large eggs |
| SpiceMost recipes use 1.5 to 7 g | 5 g |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 9 to 15 g | 12 g |
| Salt29% use none; the rest mostly 1 to 4.5 g | 1.5 g |
Bake350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Carrot
median 107% · most 88 to 132%
Grated carrot is moisture and sweetness; more of it makes a heavier, moister cake.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 31 to 250%
Sugar
median 107% · most 83 to 145%
White and brown sugar together; brown adds the molasses note carrot cake is known for.
Each dot is up to 4 recipes. range 50 to 219%
Fat
median 78% · most 58 to 92%
Almost always oil, which keeps the cake moist for days and lets the spices show.
Each dot is up to 5 recipes. range 26 to 150%
Egg
median 68% · most 60 to 80%
Several eggs hold a wet, heavy batter together.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 23 to 135%
Spice
median 1.9% · most 0.7 to 2.7%
Mostly cinnamon, with nutmeg, ginger or cloves in some.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 0 to 6.5% · 21% use none
Leavening
median 4.8% · most 3.8 to 6.1%
Baking soda, often with powder, to lift the carrots and nuts.
Each dot is up to 3 recipes. range 1.4 to 8.9%
Salt
median 0.6% · 29% use none
Salt balances the sweet frosting to come.
Each dot is up to 11 recipes. range 0 to 3% · those that use some, mostly 0.3 to 1.8%
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Salt. 29% of recipes use no salt, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 0.3 to 1.8% of the flour weight.
- Spice. The middle half of recipes use 0.7 to 2.7% of the flour weight in spice, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 4.0 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on egg and carrot: egg 60 to 80%, carrot 88 to 132% for the middle half.
Around the world
251 of the recipes come in 5 languages with enough of each to compare: English 132, French 45, Dutch 26, German 25, Italian 23.
- Italian recipes use 37% less sugar than English ones (84% against 135% of the flour weight) and 46% less fat (46% against 87%); most use no spice (69%, against 5% of English recipes).
- German recipes use 40% less sugar than English ones (80% against 135% of the flour weight) and under a third as much salt (0.1% against 1.2%); most use no spice (60%, against 5% of English recipes).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “best” (14) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
The most-reviewed recipes
55 carrot cake recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 205, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (55)the rest (205)middle half of all
Carrotthe most-reviewed recipes 117% vs the rest 106%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 102% vs the rest 107%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 75% vs the rest 78%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 71% vs the rest 67%
Spicethe most-reviewed recipes 1.6% vs the rest 2%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 5% vs the rest 4.8%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 0.8% vs the rest 0.4%
Most reviewed
- Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 10,434 ratings
- Torta di carote · chiarapassion.com · Italian4.2 from 3,222 ratings
- Carrot Cake Recipe for Healthy Heart · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 2,715 ratings
- Carrot cake · leukerecepten.nl · Dutch4.0 from 2,663 ratings
- Carrot cake au thermomix · cookomix.com · French4.8 from 1,249 ratings
Oven temperature and time
229 of 260 recipes state an oven temperature, and 88% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 31 do not say.
- 350°F203 recipes
- 325°F9 recipes
- 375°F6 recipes
- 300°F5 recipes
- 340°F2 recipes
- 400°F2 recipes
245 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 40 minutes and the middle half bake 33 to 50 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 40 to 50 minutes, with 63 of the 221 recipes that state both.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical cake
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Easy Carrot Cake · thereciperebel.comcarrot 113% · sugar 116%
- Carrot Cake · chefsavvy.comcarrot 88% · sugar 134%
- Carrot Cake Loaf · chefsavvy.comcarrot 88% · sugar 134%
- Carrot Cake Sheet Cake Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.comcarrot 120% · sugar 159%
- Carrot cake, la ricetta originale della torta di carote americana! · ricettedalmondo.itcarrot 100% · sugar 83%
Most carrot
- koude carrotcake van Alison Roman · deliciousmagazine.nlcarrot 250% · sugar 86%
- Cake aux carottes : la meilleure recette · marmiton.orgcarrot 200% · sugar 100%
- Carrot cake au thermomix · cookomix.comcarrot 200% · sugar 215%
Least carrot
- Carrot cake diététique · cuisineaz.comcarrot 31% · sugar 70%
- Wortelcake met walnoot en kokos · keukenliefde.nlcarrot 32% · sugar 63%
- Carrot-Cake-Whoopies · kuechengoetter.decarrot 39% · sugar 133%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 9ptitchef.com
- 9tasteofhome.com
- 8cuisineaz.com
- 712tomatoes.com
- 7marmiton.org
- 7nigella.com
- 5baketotheroots.de
- 5bbcgoodfood.com
- 5chefsimon.com
- 5crazyforcrust.com
- 5cucchiaio.it
- 5cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr
In 7 languages: English 132, French 45, Dutch 26, German 25, Italian 23, Spanish 6, Portuguese 3. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 119 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
96% of the 3,185 ingredient lines got a weight. 32% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 362 were left out: 242 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (fat 72, sugar 63, carrot 49, egg 27, leavening 24, spice 5, salt 2), 45 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 38 with a title that names a different dish, 18 duplicates of other pages, 12 made from a boxed mix, 6 too many lines without an amount, and 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.