Surprise Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Frosting

Surprise Carrot Cake for Easter! A delicious and lightened up carrot cake filled with chocolate Easter eggs!

Easter is just around the corner, and this year I made a 4 layer Surprise Carrot Cake! It was so fun to decorate with all the little Easter eggs. Cut your cake open and you will find coconut and chocolate covered almonds inside. And maybe the Easter bunny will even appear!

I think the thing I love most about Easter is that it means the warm weather is right around the corner! Read on to see how I made and assembled this easy surprise carrot cake.

Love baking and want to truly take your healthy baking up a notch? Read my full No Discard Sourdough Starter Guide for Beginners! You can use sourdough starter in everything from cookies to cakes, breads, and so much more!

Surprise Carrot Cake Ingredients:

• White wheat flour has a higher content of fiber and protein than all-purpose flour. You may notice your cake has a bit of a "heartier" taste. If you decide that you want a standard cake, you can easily substitute all-purpose flour for a 1:1 ratio in this recipe.

• Avocado oil has a very mild flavor and is filled with monounsaturated fats. Make sure you are buying pure avocado oil. Many manufacturers will mix the avocado oil with different ingredients to cut down on the cost.

• I used vegan butter in place of dairy butter. It is made from plant derived oils and ingredients. If you don't have any dairy sensitivities, you can easily substitute regular butter in for a 1:1 ratio.

• The eggs I used were from a local farmer! If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you will know I am a big supporter of the local movement.

• The Florida Crystals® Organic Raw Cane Sugar is mill-made, unrefined, and non GMO. I try to buy USA local products, like the Florida Crystals® in this recipe! And speaking of environmentally friendly, Florida Crystals® Sugar is made with a zero waste process that uses 100% of each sugar cane stalk!

HOW TO MAKE MY CANDY SURPRISE EASTER CARROT CAKE

STEP 1: prepare the carrot cake batter

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To keep the cakes from sticking in the pan, grease and flour them. I used a little extra avocado oil and white wheat flour in mine:

In a medium sized bowl, sift all of your dry ingredients together:

• 4 cups white wheat flour
• 2 cups Florida Crystals® Organic Raw Cane Sugar
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

In a separate bowl, mix together your wet ingredients:

• 6 cups shredded carrots ~8 carrots
• 1 ½ cups avocado oil
• 8 eggs

Mix your dry ingredients into the wet ones. Make sure to completely mix it. This is a large recipe and you want to make sure the leavening agents are totally incorporated.

Divide the carrot cake batter evenly between your 4 cake tins. You definitely want a tall carrot cake so there is enough room to fill it with Easter candy!

If you only have 2 cake tins, I would suggest dividing the batter in half first. Pour half the batter into a separate bowl. Then, divide that batter between the two cake tins. You will only be baking two at a time anyway!

Bake two of the cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Depending on the type of oven you have, you may notice a shorter cook time. So keep an eye on your cake once it hits the 20 minute mark!

Carefully remove your cakes from the tins. Place them on a wire rack to speed up the cooling time.

STEP 2: make the cinnamon frosting

While the cake is baking, you can prepare your frosting. I find that letting the butter sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours really helps to get a creamy texture.

Whip the butter with 1-2 tablespoons of the coconut milk and the vanilla. Then, gradually beat in the 6 cups Florida Crystals® Organic Powdered Raw Cane Sugar. You may need more or less Florida Crystals® Organic Powdered Raw Cane Sugar depending on how much milk you use.

STEP 3: cut and fill your cake with Easter candy!

Now we are getting into the fun part! Assembling the Easter surprise carrot cake! Cutting the whole in the cake is relatively easy. You just need to be very careful picking it up after you have cut it. If there is too much weight on one side, your cake may rip in half!

Cut a circle in the center of your cake. I did not measure mine, but if you want to be exact, you can use a drinking glass or a small bowl to get a perfect circle.

Use this cake to place on top of two more cakes and cut them the same size:

But wait! Don't throw away the centers! You can make a cute tiny cake with the centers:

STEP 4: decorate your cake!

Finally we get to my favorite part, decorating your candy filled Easter cake!!

Place one of the cut layers down and add frosting. Do the same with the next two:

First, to make it a true surprise carrot cake, you will fill it with the chocolate covered almonds and coconut! I used some colorful chocolate covered almonds to make it more of a Easter cake. But, you can stick with the kind you prefer!

Add your top, and uncut layer.

You may notice gaps, this is okay because you will fill them with frosting!

Now, you can add more frosting to cover up the cake! Decorate the outside with some Easter colored mini dark chocolate eggs!

And finally, the moment we have been waiting for: cutting the cake to reveal the surprise!!

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we did! Happy Easter and Spring!

More Healthy Baked Dessert Recipes you're going to love!

• Lemon Poppy Seed Donuts
• Blue Marble Donuts
• Pink Cinnamon Rolls
• Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
• Almond Flour Funfetti Cupcakes
• Healthy Strawberry Poptarts
• Healthy Zucchini Cake with Avocado Frosting
• Twix Bars with Date Caramel
• Healthy Sweet Potato Brownies
• Healthy Pumpkin Brownies

Disclosure: A very special thank you to Florida Crystals® for providing the sugars shown above sponsoring this post! And thank you to all my readers for supporting companies like Florida Crystals® that keep The Hint of Rosemary going!

If you try this Healthy Surprise Cake Recipe, please let me know your thoughts by leaving a rating and comment below! Ready for more? Subscribe to my newsletter or follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube!

Surprise Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Frosting

This classic carrot cake has a new twist, made with creamy dairy-free cinnamon buttercream frosting. 4 layers of delicious moist carrot cake. Inside you will find a surprise of chocolate covered almonds and shredded coconut.

5 from 4 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 1 hour hr

decorating time 1 hour hr

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16 people

Calories 540 kcal

Equipment

• 4 9" cake tins

Ingredients

  

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For the cake:

• 8 eggs
• 4 cups white wheat flour
• 2 cups Florida Crystals® Organic Raw Cane Sugar
• 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 cups shredded carrots ~8 carrots
• 1 ½ cups avocado oil

For the frosting:

• 1 cup vegan butter room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 cups Florida Crystals® Organic Powdered Raw Cane Sugar
• 4-8 tablespoon full fat coconut milk sub any other milk
• 1-2 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional

Toppings/fillings:

• 2 cups chocolate dipped almonds *can use colorful ones for easter!
• 1 cup shredded coconut

Instructions

 

For the cake:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 4 9” cake pans. I used about ½ tablespoon of avocado oil to grease mine and 1 tablespoon of white wheat flour.
• In a large bowl, sift the flour, Florida Crystals® Organic Raw Cane Sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.
• In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, carrot, and oil.
• Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until combined.
• Pour the batter evenly between the four prepared pans.
• Bake 2 cakes at a time for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. It is best to rotate them ½ way through cooking to ensure it bakes evenly. Do the same with the next 2 cakes.
• Allow the cakes to cool before removing them from the pans. I cooled mine on wire racks so that they would cool quickly.

For the frosting:

• To prepare your frosting: beat the vegan butter, vanilla, cinnamon and 2 tablespoon of coconut milk with a hand held mixer. Slowly beat in the Florida Crystals® Organic Powdered Raw Cane to a light and fluffy texture. Add more coconut milk as needed to get the consistency you want.

To decorate the cake:

• Place 1 layer down. Add frosting to the top. Do the same with the next 2 layers.
• Next, cut out a circle in the middle of the cake. Fill it with the chocolate covered almonds and the shredded coconut.
• Spread frosting on the top ring only. Place the 4th layer on top.
• Spread the rest of your frosting on the top and sides of your cake.
• Decorate with your toppings!

Notes

Find the Florida Crystals® Organic Powdered Raw Cane Sugar and Florida Crystals® Organic Raw Cane Sugar that I used right on their website. 

If you like a thicker layer of frosting, double this frosting recipe. This was more than enough for mine, but depending on how even the tops of your cakes are, you may want to use more. 

While you can easily make this entire recipe, you can also make it in 2 separate batches. I find that if you only have 2 cake tins, and smaller bowls, this works very well. 

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice carrot cake (1 of 16)000Calories: 540kcalCarbohydrates: 50gProtein: 6gFat: 33gSaturated Fat: 6.9gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 300mgFiber: 3gSugar: 25g

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