• Home
  • About
  • Recipe Index

Cookie Madness

menu icon
go to homepage
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipe Index
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipe Index
×
Home » Carrot Cakes

Buttermilk Glazed Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Modified: Mar 28, 2025 · Published: Jun 27, 2019 by Anna · This post may contain affiliate links · 2 Comments

Jump to Recipe

I'm probably the last baker on the block to try this buttermilk glazed carrot cake, but now that I have I can attest that it is very good, and I'll most likely make it again despite my initial skepticism towards a carrot cake with both a glaze and an excellent cream cheese frosting. Also, it's usually made as a layer cake but I had great success baking it in a 9x13 inch pan.

Jump to Recipe
Southern Living Carrot Cake with Buttermilk Glaze baked in a 9x13 inch pan.

Originally from Southern Living, this is a 9x13 inch carrot cake recipe that starts out like "the usual" carrot cake, but calls for an extra step of pouring a glaze over it that sinks in as it cools. As you can guess, this makes the cake extra moist -- though not mushy, which was my concern.

Buttermilk Glaze

The cake calls for common carrot cake measures -- 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar etc. and only ¾ cup of oil. Then while the cake bakes, you boil a mixture of sugar, baking soda, buttermilk, corn syrup and butter until it turns a golden brown. This golden brown buttermilk glaze is poured over the cake adding extra moisture plus extra flavor from the butter and buttermilk.

Making the buttermilk glaze for the old Southern Living carrot cake that calls for glaze and frosting.

Baking Soda in the Glaze

The baking soda is an interesting addition to the glaze.  It makes it soft and foamy as it boils, and I suppose it helps it turn brown.  Make sure to boil the syrup until it turns brown to help boil away the baking soda flavor.

Mmm, Cream Cheese Icing. I Mean Frosting

The cream cheese frosting on this cake (I will forever interchange the word icing and frosting, unfortunately) is a really good one if you like fluffy and not too cheesy tasting cream cheese frostings. The weird cream cheese measurements, young Grasshopper, are from a time when cream cheese came in 3 oz packages. It was common to use an 8 oz block and a 3 oz block.

Pan Size

Here's a photo of the finished cake. The recipe fits a 9x13 inch pan, but I've also made it in slightly smaller disposable pans which are perfect for potlucks. You can also halve the recipe and use an 8-inch square pan.

Buttermilk Glazed Carrot Cake in a disposable pan with a fluffy not too cheesy cream cheese frosting.

A Day of Rest

It's also important to give the cake about a day to rest before frosting.  Several people who made the original recipe said the cake was a little too soft on day 1, but fabulous on day 2.  I've only tried it on day 2 so I'll take their word for it.

  • Peanut Butter Bar Cookies
  • Chocolate Carrot Brownies
  • Sour Cream Carrot Cake
  • The Best Chocolate Chip Bars!
  • Carrot Walnut Muffins

Recipe

9x13 Inch Carrot Cake with Buttermilk Glaze

Anna
9x13 Inch Carrot Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 42 minutes mins
Total Time 52 minutes mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12 pieces

Ingredients
 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (270 grams)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 cups sugar (390 grams)
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup buttermilk (170 grams)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups grated carrots (280 grams)
  • 8 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained well
  • 3 ½ ounces sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 cup chopped pecans, toast before chopping

Buttermilk Glaze

  • 1 cup sugar (200 grams)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ cup buttermilk (114 grams)
  • ½ cup butter, unsalted or salted (114 grams)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt, can omit if using salted butter
  • 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (20 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Icing

  • 1 ½ sticks butter, softened (use salted or add a pinch of salt) (170 grams)
  • 11 ounces cream cheese, softened (308 grams)
  • 1 pound powdered sugar (3 ¾ cups)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
  • Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar for about 2 minutes or until thick and yellow. Drizzle in the vegetable oil, then add the vanilla.
  • Stir in the buttermilk and flour mixture alternately until blended.
  • Fold in carrots, pineapple, coconut and pecans.
  • Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 degrees f for 42 minutes total, covering loosely with foil after the first 30 minutes..
  • Remove from oven. Make the buttermilk glaze (you can start while the cake is baking).

Buttermilk Glaze

  • Bring sugar, baking soda, buttermilk, butter and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat (I use a 3 ½ quart saucepan). Boil, stirring almost constantly, for 4 minutes or until mixture darkens to a golden brown.
  • Remove from heat, let cool slightly, then stir in vanilla. Pour glaze over the cake.
  • Allow the cake to cool for several hours, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
  • The next day, make the cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Beat first cream cheese and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy.
  • Stir in vanilla. Frost the cake and use any remaining frosting to pipe a border.
Keyword Buttermilk Glaze, Carrot Cake
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

More Carrot Cakes category on Cookie Madness

  • Buckwheat Carrot Cake Slice with Cream Cheese Maple Frosting
    Buckwheat Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Mrs. Fields' Carrot Cake recipe with three sticks of butter and cream cheese frosting
    Mrs. Fields' Carrot Cake
  • Tahini Carrot Cake
    Tahini Carrot Cake in an 8 Inch Square Pan
  • Carrot Cake Category on Cookie Madness
    Divorce Cake With Honey

Comments

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *






  1. Sonya says

    June 27, 2019 at 10:41 pm

    Sounds delicious!!!!!

  2. Sue says

    June 27, 2019 at 8:00 am

    Sounds like a great make ahead recipe!

Peanut Butter Fudge Jumbles recipe baked in a 9-inch square Pampered Chef stoneware pan.

Hello!

I'm Anna, and welcome to Cookie Madness. To learn more about me, check the About page.

About

Footer

About

Privacy

Contact

    Cookie Madness is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.

    © All rights reserved. Do not copy, distribute, or reproduce without permission.