Secret Ingredient Copycat Cheesecake Factory Carrot Cake

If you’re a fan of the Cheesecake Factory Carrot Cake Cheesecake, you’re going to love this copycat recipe that you can make at home.

This delicious dessert combines the best of both worlds: the moist, flavorful carrot cake and the rich, creamy cream cheese frosting.

The best part? This easy recipe uses ingredients you probably already have in your pantry and fridge.

Plus an added secret ingredient that will blow your mind. No fresh carrots in this rich dessert. This creamy cheesecake features a jar of carrot baby food, and it’s the best thing ever! 

Tips for making carrot cake:

• Before starting to bake, make sure all ingredients, especially the eggs and butter, are at room temperature.
• Use a springform pan to quickly release and prevent the cake from sticking to the sides.
• To avoid overmixing the batter, fold in the walnuts, coconut, etc., using a large spoon or spatula. 
• Bake the cake on the lowest oven rack to prevent it from getting too dark on top.
• Let the cake cool completely before frosting it to prevent the frosting from melting or sliding off.
• Substitute half of the oil with unsweetened applesauce or mashed bananas for a healthier version.
• To make the cake gluten-free, use a gluten-free flour blend instead of regular flour.

Equipment to make your copycat carrot cake:

• (3) 6″ cake pans
• 2 large mixing or batter bowls
• Electric mixer
• Rubber spatula
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Whisk
• Parchment paper (I used precut parchment paper rounds for the cake pans and pre-cut rectangles to make the chocolate candy carrots)
• Cooling rack
• Offset spatula for spreading the frosting
• Piping bags
• Wilton star tip

Ingredients for the Copycat Cheesecake Factory Carrot Cake:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 12 oz carrot baby food (3, 4-oz packages)
• 1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, + additional for decorating
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup drained, crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 granny smith apple, cored, peeled, and shredded

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 4-6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

For the candy carrot embellishments:

• Wilton green candy melts
• Wilton orange candy melts

Instructions on how to make carrot cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray your 6″ baking pans with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.  You can also use a two 9-inch springform pan.

2. Combine the all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon and sift into a large batter bowl. Whisk together until well combined.

3. Add eggs, oil, and vanilla. The mixture will be thick.

4. Add the baby food carrots and mix to combine. 

5. With a spatula, fold in walnuts, raisins, shredded apple, coconut, and crushed pineapple. 

6. Equal parts of the carrot cake batter should be poured into the prepared pans. I let the batter sit in the cake pans for 10 minutes.

7. Bake on the bottom rack of your oven for 40 minutes and the edges have pulled away from the sides of the cake pan. 

8. Remove from oven and invert onto a cooling rack, peeling back the parchment paper. Let cool for at least two hours.

Cream Cheese Icing

Combine the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Beat until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the chocolate candy carrot embellishments on top of the cake

Melt green and orange candy melts in separate bowls. Fill separate piping bags with each color. Snip ends and squiggle green tops and orange carrots on parchment paper. Let harden for about 10 minutes, and then embellish the top and sides of the carrot cake. 

To assemble the cake, use a thin knife to spread a thick layer of frosting on the first layer. Repeat with the second and third layers. Frost the entire cake. Use the chopped walnuts on the top of the cake.

Insert a star tip into a piping bag and fill it with 1 cup of cream cheese frosting. Pipe rosettes onto the top and do a shell border on the bottom of the cake.

Variations:

• Make individual cupcakes instead of a full cake for easy portion control and serving. Reduce baking time in accordance to the cupcake size.
• Experiment with different types of frosting, such as brown sugar cream cheese frosting or maple cream cheese frosting. 
• Add crushed pineapple to make a pineapple cream cheese frosting for a tangy twist or regular cream cheese frosting for a classic flavor. Or add a splash of pineapple juice to the frosting for an added zing.

This recipe is truly one of a kind and will make you feel like you have your own bakery right in your own kitchen! This isn’t any regular carrot cake, it has a very rich and elegant feel to it, and the combination of carrot cake with the tangy cream cheese frosting is the perfect choice.

We love this dessert as a wonderful recipe for special occasions like Easter dinner, but it will also become a family tradition for special times – like when a college student visits home or you need to make a special treat for family and friends! 

If you are looking for more tried and tested recipes, make sure to check out these other She Shared favorite recipes: No-Bake Lemon Pie, Brownie Peanut Butter Tart, Strawberry Angel Food Cake.