Why Walmart's Store-Bought Carrot Cake Is Far From Your Best Option

Unlike today's trendiest desserts, like pumpkin spice mini sheet cakes or berry chantilly cream cakes, carrot cake can't shake its old-fashioned reputation — or the stigma of its dubious categorization as a "healthier" dessert option. And yet, in spite of the cake's inclusion of nutrient-rich vegetables and the fact that carrot cake has been around since the Middle Ages, it is an enduringly popular treat that's commonly found at wedding celebrations, birthday parties, and backyard barbecues alike.

If you're a fan of the nutty, spiced, sweet dessert but don't have time to make the perfect carrot cake at home, you'll be pleased to learn that you can probably source 10 different varieties, all of which are readily available at your various local grocery stores. Chowhound did just that for our ranking of the best and worst store-bought carrot cakes.

With so much room for variation in the recipe: nuts versus absolutely no nuts, sliced pineapple versus raisins, cream cheese frosting versus buttercream, or a dense crumb versus an airy texture, we were determined to find the best of the best — and perhaps more to the point, the worst of the worst. Unfortunately, we found it with Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed Carrot Cake. Marked down for its flavor, frosting, and consistency, Walmart's carrot cake would only have scored well if a cake tasting was somehow more about looks than taste.

The good news is Walmart's carrot cake is as cute as a button, so it's perfect if you're staging an elaborate Easter-themed photoshoot that will last for hours. Plus, despite its small size, you can easily provide dessert for a crowd of eight without being stingy. The bad news is, you probably shouldn't actually serve this particular cake, if you want to maintain your reputation as a host, that is.

As noted in our ranking, Walmart's carrot cake tastes less like the dessert traditions of yore and more like powder-dry pumpkin pie spice mix. With no carrots, nuts, pineapple, raisins, or cream cheese frosting to be found, this is perhaps the carrot cake for carrot cake detractors (though we might point you to better, non-carrot cake store-bought options, like Trader Joe's mini sheet cake). And sadly, if you acquired this cake just to get a hit of delicious frosting, Walmart's cheap butter-and-sugar icing will let you down — and take a while to chew through.

If you already have this carrot cake on hand and are trying to salvage a sad dessert situation, we'd recommend serving your slices with milky coffee or strong breakfast tea for a tea-and-biscuits take. Or, to add moisture to your cake, try painting a thin layer of Cointreau or Grand Marnier on one exposed side of your slice of cake. Of course, if you just want really good carrot cake, opt for our top option instead: Rubicon Carrot Cupcakes.