10 Store-Bought Carrot Cakes, Ranked Worst To Best

I come from a big family of carrot cake lovers, so I've been forced by proxy to eat a lot of it in my life, both the store-bought and the home-baked version. Granted, there's not much to hate about carrot cake, which has been around since the Middle Ages. Clearly, it has wide appeal. Just as clearly, folks have been trying to sneak vegetables into their cake mix for a long time.

Why is carrot cake so lovable? Lots of reasons, really — it's moist, it's filling. You can tell there's food value in there, because when you eat it (or at least, when I do) you don't feel nearly as sick as with a slice of white birthday cake. You can make a delicious basic carrot cake fairly easily, or you can dress it up with schmancy ingredients like caramelized walnuts. The sky is really the limit — or at least, your creativity is. For this reason, there's a lot of variation in carrot cake that you find at the store. I would argue that it tends to vary more than, say, a bakery chocolate cake or apple pie, both of which have pretty immutable ingredients and prep methods.

Carrot cake, on the other hand, comes in so many different versions: cream cheese frosting versus butter-heavy icing; dense and moist versus light and crumbly cake; heavy on the raisins and pineapples versus, "Hey, aren't there supposed to be pineapples in here?" It goes without saying that a taste test was required, so here are 10 store-bought versions ranked worst to best.

Our taste test (as they often do) involved one husband, one mother, one small boy, and one small girl, as well as yours truly. You can see the full methodology by heading to the last slide, but in general, our goal was to taste the cakes and then give our opinion about various factors as well as an overall score out of 5 points. Using this last category, Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed brand carrot cake absolutely bombed at 2.4 points. Taking a quick look at the other categories, it didn't fare any better.

The extreme Easter bunny-like cuteness of Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed carrot cake is literally all it has going for it. Well, that might be a tad harsh. The decorations are also charming, and the cake is petit in an adorable way, while still being generous enough to feed eight people. But that's the end of the list, benefits-wise. This cake was not good.

Where to begin? The cake was dry, for one, and tasted more like pumpkin spice mix than it did like carrots. It had few to no visible chunks of carrot, nuts, pineapple, or raisins. Its frosting tasted nothing like your standard cream cheese frosting, but was obviously a whipped mixture of cheap butter and sugar with a bit of vanilla flavoring. It had a toothiness to it that one simply doesn't expect of even the crummiest cream cheese frosting, and we were not having it.

My grandmother worked at Fred Meyer for decades, so I have warm and fuzzy feelings about the store. Unfortunately, their Private Selection brand did not live up to my memories. This carrot cake was not nearly as bad as Walmart's, true. It scored a 3.6 as opposed to their abysmal 2.4, but still — it wasn't good.

A big part of the problem was the frosting, which was stingy. Given how gross it was, though, this might almost have been a point in the cake's favor. The mother made a note that simply said, "What frosting?" while the small boy gave the frosting an all-time low ranking of 1 out of 5. Yikes. The rest of us were gentler on the frosting, but in general, it scored lower than the cake did, which is not the case with any of our other contenders.

Its appearance was another point against it. Although we had the budget to get a whole cake, we opted for just a slice because it didn't look appealing even in the bakery case. The full cake was kind of boring looking, while the slice was obviously light on frosting from the get-go. Give this one a miss.

Bakery Fresh is a Kroger brand, and Kroger owns Fred Meyer, so we weren't surprised to find it when we hit the latter store. Unfortunately, we were surprised by the fact that it was pretty nasty. It seems to be a pattern that if you're going to make a really crappy cake, then you better at least make it look cute. This was tied for cutest cake with Walmart, which is really just kind of sad. The world is already a hard place; can't we get a cake that's both adorable and tasty? Is that too much to ask?

Yes, yes, it is. The husband, small girl, and I gave it fairly low ratings across the board, ranging between 2s and 4s. The small boy and mother were a bit more impressed, but still not enough to drag up the score all that much. The flavor of the cake and frosting was bland, and the consistency was a bit dry and strange.

Although Bakery Fresh earned exactly the same overall score as Private Selection at 3.6, we did rank it a little bit higher owing to the giant leveling up in cuteness. If you compare the two pictures, you can see that one is an unadorned slice while the other looks pretty enough for a dessert banquet at the king's house. Does the king have houses? If so, this cake would fit right in there looks-wise, but we hope he has better taste than to order it.

Now, if you're familiar with Albertson's, you wouldn't think they would really have anything to offer that could beat out any other cake purveyor. Their stores are perpetually dingy, their bakery department does little to endear itself to the shopper, and the cake comes in a classless plastic package with a clear top and a big ugly sticker. It was surprising to me, therefore, that they ranked in the middle rather than at the tail end.

Yet it's a pretty decent middling piece of cake, weighing in at 3.8 out of 5 overall. It got a decent frosting report, with everyone scoring it between 4 and 5 on that front. The cake pulled it down somewhat, where it generally scored lower other than the small boy's perpetual enthusiasm for all things crumb. Take this with a grain of salt, though, as he likes cake more than frosting. (I know ... where did he even come from?) On the whole, this was not a terrible cake, which is good since we accidentally ate two of them. Read on.

Take a close look at the cake in this picture versus the one in the picture above. Now look again. Notice the identical packaging and sticker colors, the interchangeable font, and the exact same color of cake. Know why? Because as it turns out, these cakes are exactly the same. As it also turns out, which we didn't realize before conducting certain taste tests, Albertson's actually bought Safeway back in 2015. So, you know, some things do have easy answers, I guess.

That said, it's a bit surprising that one cake could be measurably better than the other, scoring a 4.2 as opposed to Albertson's 3.8. This might be down to age. It's possible one cake was made more recently than the other, which could either mean a) it was better tasting because it was fresher, or b) it was better tasting because it was older, and the flavors had more time to marry. The packaging certainly won't be offering any clues, given that both cakes have the same packaged-on and sell-by dates.

If there's a bottom line, it's that there's almost certainly no way to guarantee whether Safeway or Albertson's will have a better carrot cake on any given day. You might as well just head to whatever store is closest and pick your poison, which in either case, wasn't half bad. Note that I did not see a whole carrot cake at either place, which doesn't mean they never have them, only that you shouldn't count on it.

The carrot cupcakes from Schwartz Brothers got mostly positive reviews from everyone except me. I gave it 3 out of 5 across the board, whereas others vacillated between 4s and 5s with the rare 3 from the small boy. That's a pretty big dis, though, as his overall impression of every single cake we tried was, "Five stars! Give me more!" For me, it just lacked flavor and the frosting was bizarre, a bit off in flavor.

It's worth noting that the frosting scored higher than the cake, flavor, and overall effect on almost everyone's ranking, though. So again, I was the odd person out. Everyone except me gave it a 5 out of 5 and, despite serious warning that she needed to break the habit and play by the rules, the mother ranked it even higher than 5. (What can I say? She's the matriarch.) This did not factor into the final results, and she was roundly dismissed as a Cheating Cheaterson.

Overall, the cake got a 4.4, with my poor ranking being the main thing pulling it down. It tied with Trader Joe's carrot cupcakes, up next, which I decided should beat out Schwartz Brothers because we all liked the TJ's version, including me. On the other hand, if you're looking to take a cute present or potluck contribution to someone's house, you might opt for these. They were packaged much more cutely in a brown bakery box with a clear window, whereas the TJ's version came in plastic. Plus, the TJ's frosting lacked the cute swirl you see in the photo above.

Typically Trader Joe's has yummy baked goods. You can almost always rely on them for their breads, pies, and cakes, both in their fresh bakery area and in the frozen section. Indeed, many of their frozen cakes are old favorites in our family, including their Chocolate Ganache Torte. (Seriously, I know this is an article about carrot cake, but try it sometime. Just make sure to let it defrost all the way without letting it warm up; the fridge is ideal.) Anyway, we were excited to try their carrot cupcakes — so excited that we forgot to take a picture first, hence the empty cupcake wrappers underneath the lone remaining cupcake that we thankfully remembered to save at the last minute.

Our optimism was not misplaced. The carrot cake itself was delicious, earning a 4.4 overall. It had a nice, light crumb while somehow still being super moist. Opinions differed slightly on the overall effect. The mother thought it had a slightly strange aftertaste, while the husband and both little ones were irritated at the chintzy frosting amount. However, it was good cream cheese frosting, lacking that overwhelming butter-like hardness, and the cake was sweet enough to make up for the stingy icing.

Unfortunately, the Trader Joe's I went to did not have their mini sheet carrot cake. This is too bad, since the Trader Joe's mini sheet cakes are in general pretty tasty. While I can't vouch for the carrot cake version personally, I have had the chocolate and it's great. (Yes, chocolate is my fave).

All right, now we're getting to the really good stuff. We had high hopes for Rubicon's carrot cake, and we were not disappointed. Its version just looks good. It's a beautiful round little cake with a pretty swirled frosting top and a nice thick layer of nuts and crumbs around the outside. They say you eat with your eyes first, and it was a lovely experience before we even stuck a fork into it.

Our initial impressions were backed up by the hearty 4.5 it earned from all. The frosting rating was even higher than average, at a golden 5 out of 5. It was that good. The cake itself earned 4s and 5s, with the flavor and the overall ranking just as positive. You could proudly serve this to guests or take it to a gathering and everyone would be delighted.

On a related note, we ended up being served Rubicon's lemon cake at a party that same day. Although we did not whip out our scorecards at the cousins' house, we did sample it with an eye to the brand's potential overall, and we were sufficiently pleased with the flavor and frosting. The cake was nice and lemony, with the same cute finishing touches as its carrot brethren. In general, I'd say you can trust this brand. And that's before you hear about the Rubicon cupcakes, coming up shortly.

Although it was by far the most unassuming of the carrot cakes tested, the Whole Foods slice was almost the yummiest one in the bunch, with an overall score of 4.6. Honestly, I would have been furious if it wasn't good, though, given that the tiny slice (all of which is pictured in the photo above) cost $4.99. That's an outrageous amount for a smidge of cake that's barely twice the size of the fork you'll use to eat it. The serving amount either caters to dieters or Whole Foods is just that happy to take advantage of your purse. We're guessing the latter, as the not-so-healthy-these-days chain has a pizza bar worthy of Manhattan, so they don't seem to be watching anyone's waistline.

Shrinkflation complaints aside, this was a darn good cake. It was moist, crumbly, and full of delightful little chunks, such as raisins and nuts. As the mother pointed out, it wasn't overly spiced, which was a problem with some of the cheaper cakes we tried, nor was it too saccharine. Instead, it had a balanced carrot-to-sweetener ratio, a delicious frosting, and a good amount of the latter. We would recommend this one to anyone in need of a personal fix on a busy day, but don't plan to share it. If you really want more, buy the whole cake.

And now, for our winner! If you're going to try just one version of store-bought carrot cake, make it the Rubicon cupcakes. Although these were very similar to the Rubicon cake in ingredients, they ended up tasting quite different owing to several variations. It was these differences that earned the cupcakes a 4.75 out of 5, with a full 5 for frosting (just like the cake version).

For one thing, the cake and cupcakes exhibited different moisture levels. For me personally, the cupcakes were a bit less dense and saturated than the cake. Although other people love tons of moisture, preferring their carrot cakes to be closer to fruit cake in nature, that's not for me. As such, I loved the slightly less caramelized nature of the crumb in the cupcakes. For another, there was a different finish on the outside of the cake and the top of the cupcakes. While the ingredients in the crumble were clearly the same, it was more of a garnish on the cupcakes, which was nice as I don't like a lot of it. People mostly agreed on this point.

In the end, however, the defining difference between the cake and the cupcakes was probably the icing-to-cake ratio. The cupcakes had cream cheese frosting on the top, as you'd expect, but they were also filled with a gooey center of extra frosting. Um, yes please. Given that this particular icing recipe was the pinnacle of excellence, we pretty much couldn't get enough of it, so make this your gold standard for store-bought carrot cakes.

Typically, as we do when ranking peanut butter or natural peanut butter, we use a single-blind methodology around here. That means I dole out the options and others taste them without knowing the brand, then rank them for a fairly impartial final result. However, since it's only so possible to maintain good research controls when you're taste-testing store-bought cake, and since each cake looks different from the others, we gave up on any kind of blind approach. Instead, everyone knew what cake they were getting.

Partially this was because the family helped me source the carrot cakes at the store. Trust me, it is harder than it seems to acquire 10 different carrot cakes, even in the bustling Portland metropolitan area, so we had to hit eight different stores to come up with this selection. It wasn't possible for me to leave the kids behind for every trip. However, I also felt a blind taste test would do carrot cake a disservice. Unlike peanut butter, cake is about beauty as much as it is about taste, so presentation really does matter; I just didn't have it in me to cut our contenders into tiny indistinguishable pieces.

Specifically, we had four categories: frosting, cake, flavor, and overall positive impression. The final category is what we used to determine the official rankings, with the other categories used as a tiebreaker when necessary (which it was in two cases). We felt it was important to divide the frosting and cake into separate categories because cream cheese frosting has such a cult following. Its presence often makes or breaks the final result, so where salient, I've reported on that as well.