Why You Shouldn't Buy Pre-Shredded Carrots For Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is the perfect blend of sweet carrot flavors and warm spices combined with creamy cream cheese frosting. Its tender and moist crumb and perfect melt-in-your-mouth texture makes this cake delightfully moreish. The best part about carrot cake is that it's appropriate for any skill level — in fact, grating the carrots is probably the hardest part. Which is why you might think a pre-shredded pack is a smart hack. But think again.

Sandy Folsom, School Director at the Wilton Sweet Studio, tells the Takeout that you should avoid using pre-shredded carrots in carrot cake recipes. "Pre-shredded carrots do not contain the same moisture level as freshly grated, so [they] could leave your cake on the drier side," she says. "As carrot cake is already a dense cake, you want to make sure that you balance out that denseness with the proper amount of moisture." Pre-shredded carrots are often shredded in bigger pieces and dried out to last longer, which is why you risk being left with a tougher cake.

Whether you're grating carrots or creating the delicious mistake that is peeled carrot cake, Sandy Folsom advises that the fresh version of this veggie will give your carrot cake plenty of moisture and flavor. "You'll want to select carrots that are fresh, bright orange, and sturdy," she notes. Fresh carrots consist of 86 to 95% water, so it's not surprising that they're partly responsible for this cake's tenderness. All of their moisture soaks into the cake as it bakes. You can also control the thickness of your carrots when grating them yourself: Thinner pieces distribute and cook more evenly in the cake.

Pre-shredded carrots just can't compete with the earthy, sweet taste of fresh carrots (that sweetness intensifies when cooked) and the flavor complexity they add to your cake. They can be flavorless at best and bitter at worst due to the processing method. So save your pre-shredded pack as the secret ingredient for a quick and easy homemade stir-fry or meatloaf, and use fresh carrots for a moist and flavorful carrot cake.