Delicious and moist vegan carrot cake. This simple recipe is plant-based (dairy-free, egg-free), gluten-free, and easy to make! It has a sugar-free icing which is furthermore keto-friendly. A healthy carrot cake is perfect for Easter but can be enjoyed on any other day.
What’s your favorite cake? I have a few favorites and carrot cake is definitely one of them. Not only is a vegan carrot cake delicious, but it’s also quite healthy and my recipe is even gluten-free. Carrots contain lots of beta-carotene which is a powerful antioxidant and so good for us. Carrots make the cake moist, they add a nice orange color and some sweetness.
Do you know anyone who doesn’t like a delicious carrot cake? I love it when it’s a little under-baked and super gooey! This gluten-free carrot cake stays fresh and soft in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, maybe even longer, but I always end up eating it sooner, haha.
Carrot Cake Ingredients
You don’t need a food processor or blender to make this vegan carrot cake. All you need is a large bowl, a grater (for the carrots), and the following main ingredients:
- Gluten-free flour mix: I used a combination of white rice flour, tapioca flour, and coconut flour. You can use brown rice flour instead of white rice flour. Sorghum flour might work as well. If you don’t have tapioca flour, you could use cornstarch or arrowroot flour. I wouldn’t recommend subbing the coconut flour.
- Ground almonds (almond flour): You can use any other ground nuts (e.g. hazelnuts, cashews, walnuts, etc.) instead of ground almonds. Use desiccated coconut for a nut-free version.
- Spice mix: I chose cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. They add a wonderful flavor to the carrot cake.
- Carrots: They should be finely grated.
- Canned coconut milk: You can use full-fat coconut milk (can shaken) or lite coconut milk. If you don’t like the taste of coconut, I would suggest using your favorite plant-based milk with the addition of 3 tablespoons of oil.
- Maple syrup: Any other liquid sweetener like brown rice syrup, agave syrup, etc. is fine.
- Coconut oil: Can be replaced with canola oil.
- Chia eggs: Great as an egg replacement. You will need to mix ground chia seeds and water. Ground flax seeds should be fine too.
- Sugar-free frosting: For the frosting, I simply mixed powdered Erythritol (you can use icing sugar) with a little lime juice and plant-based milk.
A complete list of ingredients with measurements and nutrition facts (carrot cake calories etc.) is in the printable recipe card below.
How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake?
STEP 1: Make the chia “eggs” first. Simply mix the ground chia seeds and water with a whisk in a small bowl, set aside for 5 minutes. Also, finely grate the carrots. Line a loaf pan (or use an 8-inch springform) with parchment paper or grease it with a little coconut oil. My loaf pan measures 8x4x3 inches (20x10x7.5 cm). Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
STEP 2: Add all dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir with a whisk until there are no lumps. Then, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the mixture is combined.
STEP 3: Finally, add the carrots and mix everything with a spatula. Transfer the batter to the lined loaf pan.
STEP 4: Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes. The cake is ready when it has some cracks on top and a toothpick, inserted into the center, comes out clean (some attached crumbs are fine). If you use a small loaf pan, that is deep the baking time might be even 60 minutes. If you use a shallow pan the cake might be done after 40 minutes.
STEP 5: Once the cake has completely cooled, process the Erythritol in an electric spice/coffee grinder until it’s very fine like icing sugar. Put it into a small bowl and add dairy-free milk and lime juice (or lemon juice). Mix with a whisk until the icing is smooth. If it’s too thick, add a few drops of lime/lemon juice. If it’s too thin, add more of the Erythritol. Spread the icing on the carrot cake and decorate with nuts or seeds.
Tips And Variations
Make carrot cake muffins: You can make carrot cake muffins instead of a loaf. Simply add the batter to a muffin pan with paper liners. Bake for only 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. You can also use a bundt cake pan to make a carrot bundt cake.
Storing: Store cake leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can also freeze the carrot cake and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Frosting: If you want a creamy frosting, simply use vegan cream cheese mixed with powdered sugar/Erythritol and a little lime juice. You can also decorate the cake with marzipan.
Should you give this vegan carrot cake recipe a try, please leave a comment and rating below, and don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with @elavegan and #elavegan because I would love to see it! ????
Check out my other vegan carrot recipes:
Vegan Carrot Cake (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup (160 g) white rice flour (see notes)
- 1/2 scant cup (50 g) tapioca flour (see notes)
- 1/4 cup (33 g) coconut flour (see notes)
- 1/2 cup (45 g) ground almonds (see notes)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- spices to taste (see notes)
Wet ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups (375 g) finely grated carrots
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) coconut milk canned (lite or full-fat) (see notes)
- 1/3 cup (110 g) maple syrup or agave syrup
- 2 tbsp (28 g) coconut oil melted (*see notes)
- 2 chia eggs (2 tbsp ground chia seeds + 6 tbsp water) (see notes)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
- 1/3 cup (70 g) Erythritol or icing sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp (21 g) plant-based milk canned (use less if you use icing sugar)
- 2 1/2 tsp lime juice or lemon juice
Instructions
- I recommend measuring the ingredients in grams on a kitchen scale. Also, watch the video in the blog post for easy visual instructions.
- Line a loaf pan (or use an 8-inch springform) with parchment paper or grease it with a little oil/vegan butter. My loaf pan measures 8x4x3 inches (20x10x7.5 cm). Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- To make the chia "eggs", simply mix the ground chia seeds and water with a whisk in a small bowl, set aside for 5 minutes. Also, finely grate the carrots. If they release a lot of liquid, lightly squeeze them out.
- Meanwhile, add all dry ingredients to a large mixing big bowl and stir until there are no lumps. Then add the wet ingredients (except the grated carrots) to the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk.
- Next, add the grated carrots to the bowl and stir with a spatula until the mixture is combined. Transfer the batter to the lined loaf pan.
- Bake in the oven for about 45-60 minutes. It can take longer (e.g. if using a small loaf pan) or shorter, depending on the size/depth of the baking pan. The cake is ready when a toothpick, inserted into the center of the cake, comes out clean (some attached crumbs are fine). Let it cool.
- To make the icing, process the Erythritol in an electric spice/coffee grinder until it's very fine like icing sugar. Mix all icing ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk. If the icing is too thick, add more milk. If it's too thin, add more powdered Erythritol (or icing sugar). Smooth the icing on the cake, decorate with chopped nuts or seeds of choice. Enjoy! Read the recipe notes below.
Notes
- Coconut flour: I wouldn't recommend subbing, however, if you want to use a different flour then you need to use more. Coconut flour is very absorbent, therefore, you would need to use at least 1/2 a cup of a different flour instead of coconut flour.
- White rice flour: You can use brown rice flour instead. Sorghum flour might work as well. Also, regular flour or spelt flour should be fine.
- Tapioca flour: You could use cornstarch or arrowroot flour.
- Ground almonds (almond flour): You can use any other ground nuts (e.g. hazelnuts, cashews, walnuts, etc.) instead of ground almonds. Use desiccated coconut for a nut-free version.
- Canned coconut milk: If you don't like the taste of coconut, I would suggest using your favorite plant-based milk with the addition of 3 tablespoons oil.
- Maple syrup: Any other liquid sweetener like brown rice syrup, agave syrup, etc. is fine.
- Coconut oil: Can be replaced with canola oil.
- Chia eggs: Flax eggs should be fine too.
- Check the step-by-step photos above in the blog post.
- 2 tsp of cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
- Optional spices: Nutmeg, cloves to taste
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Equipment
If you are using Pinterest, feel free to pin the following photo:
I just made this following your recipe exactly and it turned out fabulous! This is a very good recipe. I baked it for 40 minutes in a large loaf pan. I will make this again soon as the loaf is almost gone lol.
That’s good to hear, Samantha! Thanks for your great feedback. 🙂
Hi
your recipes are my go to ones now quite regularly…they are all highly effective…i pinned this one under my art board in pinterest
Aww, thanks so much for your compliment! 🙂
New favourite carrot cake recipe!
Delicious texture and flavour, I used a paket of premixed lebkuchen spice I had sitting around and it worked great for flavour 🙂 Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Elle, that’s a great idea with the Lebkuchen spice! I bet it was so yummy. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Looks yummy. For the ground almonds, can we use blanched almond flour? Or does it have to ground almonds including the skin?
Thanks
Yes, blanched almond flour is perfect! 🙂
Great recipe but I didn’t follow it exactly so mine turned out very dense. I made a lot of subs Such as using a combo of Millet, Amaranth, chickpea, and Pecan flour with a bit of potato starch. I upped the spices (added all spice) and golden raisins. The cake had amazing flavor ! I probably just needed to add more liquid. Or maybe my baking powder was Old. Do you have any experience cooking with soda water? Would it react with something in the recipe to create fluffiness maybe?
Hi Kara! I am glad the flavor was amazing. I only used soda water in pancakes and waffles and it turned out great. 🙂
Hello,
I have made your lemon and your carrot cake recipies for the first time and even tough the taste was great I I had the same problem with both cakes. On the outside they were perfect but in the inside I think they were raw since the inside looks and feels like play dough (play dough) and it”s not good when you eat it. I did try leaving it more time to cook but it still didn’t work and the cake wasn’t fluffy.
I would greatly appreciate your advice and help. Thank you!
Hi Valeria, which mold did you use? Was it maybe small and deep? Did you lightly squeeze out the carrots before adding them to the batter? I never had this issue with the lemon cake because my pan is wide and not deep at all. I would recommend giving it a try with a round 8-inch cake pan. Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi Ela! I was not sure if I should leave my comment here as I’d played with your recipe so much I’m not sure if it’s still the same cake we’re talking about 😉 But it rose nicely in the oven and tastes very good, so perhaps the substitutes I used will help others in case they lack some ingredients 🙂
So the changes I made are:
rice flour – I used a mix of buckwheat flour, oat flour and cornstarch
tapioca flour – I used potato starch
ground almonds – I used chickpea flour
375 g grated carrots – I had only 200g carrots so I added 1 ripe banana
maple syrup – I used 9 tbsp erythritol mixed with 1/3 cup of water
coconut oil – I used peanut butter
coconut milk – I used 1 tbsp coconut milk powder mixed with ½ cup water
1 tbsp lime juice – I used apple cider vinegar
I blended all the wet ingredients in a blender (along with sugar+water, peanut butter and banana) and then mixed it with the dry and added the carrot. I baked it 45 minutes and made the icing using, again, apple cider vinegar in place of lemon as I didn’t have any.
The cake tastes very good – it’s rich, moist and lightly sweet.
Thank you Ela for this recipe and inspiration 🙂
Sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing your substitutes. 🙂
If I don’t mind egg, can I use it? In what proportion of the flax eggs?
Hello Ela, maybe You’ve already clarified this, sorry if you did 🙂 Can I use buckwheat flour intead of rice?
Thank you
Hello Oriana, I never tried buckwheat in this recipe. It might work fine but I cannot promise it. 🙂
Hi. Do you think it would work with tapioca and arrowroot flour only? That is what I have on
hand.. I’m trying to make a bday cake for my husband.. tyia
No, that won’t work, unfortunately!
I will never use another carrot cake recipe again! My husband has a severe dairy/egg intolerance and has had to give up almost all desserts, including his favorite – carrot cake! I have tried SO SO SO many vegan carrot cake recipes and they have never come out close to the real thing. This one is moist, sweet but not too sweet AND I felt like it didn’t give me the nasty bloating feeling like regular cake would. The only thing I did for my recipe was take a couple of paper towels and squeeze out some of the excess liquid that my carrots had. I noticed my carrots were pretty moist and I saw a comment on here that mentioned their cake had come out too moist.. I lightly squeezed the carrots to get some of the excess liquid off but didn’t completely dry them out. LITERALLY PERFECT!! I will be making this cake again next month for my husband’s birthday.
Wow, that’s awesome, Kay! Thank you so much for your helpful comment. I appreciate it a lot and I wish I could pin your comment at the top of this page (which is unfortunately not possible). So happy you and your husband enjoyed the cake. 🙂
I have never tried carrot cake before, and I have to say this cake literally blew me away.
For someone new to baking, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to master it, but directions were perfect and easy to follow and like all your recipes… DELICIOUS!
Thank you for your magic
So glad you loved the cake, Chaya! Thanks so much for your great feedback. 🙂