[Photos: Robyn Lee]

We at Serious Eats have a soft spot in our hearts for carrot cake. And there's no better season for it—it's got those winter spices kicking around, sure, but it's also bright with the promise of carrots and fruits and spring freshness to come.

While we all could agree to love carrot cake, none of us felt we had a definitive favorite. So it was time for another Serious Eats taste test. We fanned out over the boroughs, picked up carrot cakes from every corner of New York—over a 29.6 mile geographic spread, to be exact—and assembled our panel for a carrot-cake tasteoff.

The sweet surprises, the too-sweet surprises, and our favorite carrot cake in New York, in the slideshow above.

Not Quite What We'd Hoped For
Carrot Top Pastries
Little Pie Company
Good Enough To Eat

Best for the Sweet Tooth:
Cake Man Raven

Well-Regarded and Pretty Darn Good:
Lloyd's Carrot Cake

Fancy and Frosting-y
Black Hound

For Crazy-Moist Fans:
Billy's Bakery

Classic, If Not Quite Perfect:
Two Little Red Hens

Artisinal Delight:
Murray's Cheese

And the Winner: Amy's Bread

"This tastes homemade, in a way the others don't." "On the lighter side, despite all the spice." "A frosting that actually tastes like cream cheese!" Our tasters were almost all united in their praise of the carrot cake from Amy's Bread, which had a straightforward taste—carrot, spice, cream cheese—that many of the others lacked. Not a unanimous pick—but one we can all be happy with.

Amy's Bread: multiple locations (map); $4.65/slice

Check out what our tasters thought of each cake in the slideshow above »

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