This gluten-free vegan carrot cake recipe is hands down incredible! Takes 15 minutes to prep, uses simple ingredients and has the perfect texture.
It's easy to make a moist droolworthy cake when you follow the right recipe! You will not believe this carrot cake has no butter, oil, eggs, dairy or gluten!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.
This recipe was originally published on 3/24/16
We are carrot cake obsessed and this easy recipe did not disappoint! The hardest part (read I'm lazy) is grating those carrots. So grate a lot, and save them because you will want this over and over again, especially if making my carrot cake smoothie or carrot cake overnight oats.
It seems that veggie filled desserts are something I excel in. My chocolate zucchini cake (which is also vegan and gluten-free) is a HUGE hit with my readers! And after the success of this carrot cake, I can't decide which I like best!
Ingredients
The flavor in this recipe for vegan carrot cake is insanely amazing. With a pillowy soft texture and perfectly moist middle, good luck having only one slice!
The basis of this cake is mostly whole foods. I tested and trialed different combinations of things to get the perfect flavor and texture that you'd find in a regular carrot cake, just a vegan and gluten free version! Here's what I ended up with:
- Gluten-free flour blend - oat flour and almond flour are used in place of all purpose flour to keep this carrot cake recipe gluten free.
- Sugar - this is a cake recipe after all! And in this case cane sugar tastes best. You can use coconut sugar instead but it will give you a deeper flavor that won’t be as sweet.
- Baking powder - essential for the chemistry of the cake, don't skip it!
- Spices - a blend of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves are used to create the classic carrot cake flavors. Adjust the seasonings to your flavor preferences. Even sprinkle in a little nutmeg if you prefer!
- Applesauce - this helps to make the cake moist, while also giving it a natural sweetness.
- Milk - use any milk you want, but canned coconut milk has more fat than others so it will make this cake much more moist and sticky. Make sure to select a dairy free milk to keep the cake vegan.
- Apple cider vinegar - another important ingredient necessary for the chemistry of the cake.
- Grated carrots - grate your own carrots, about 2 medium-sized carrots, with a box grater, or with an attachment on a food processor.
- Optional chopped nuts - if you use the nuts know your cake will be a little more sticky and moist due to the fat content of the nuts so you may want to add less milk.
- Optional toppings - see below for ideas, including my cream cheese frosting recipe.
How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake
As I mentioned, the hardest part about making this vegan and gluten free carrot cake is grating those dang carrots. Once that's done, here's what you'll need to do:
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Pour into an 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan.
- Bake.
- Decorate as desired (or don't!) and enjoy!
Serving suggestions
This cake is scrumptious as is. It is, after all, the very best vegan carrot cake recipe ever. But even the best recipes can benefit from some extra flavor or a pretty presentation.
Try the following:
- Frosting! The classic frosting for carrot cake is Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting or vanilla.
- If you're frosting the cake, make sure to let it cool completely first. I like to make the frosting fresh while the cake is baking.
- Add some shredded coconut on top of the frosting.
- Spread some homemade Coconut Butter on a warm slice of unfrosted cake.
Also, I don't know about you, but when it comes to cake I need something to wash it down with. And my go to is Silk Cashew milk, creamy and thirst quenching and complements this vegan gluten-free carrot cake perfectly!
NOTE: You can print the FULL recipe with all ingredients & detailed instructions below!
Preparation Tips
- You can cut out the ginger and cloves and just use more cinnamon if you prefer.
- Watch the fat content of the milk you use, you don't want it too high or the cake will be too sticky and moist.
- To grate the carrots, you can use a handheld cheese grater. But better yet, if you have food processor with a grating attachment be sure to use that to save yourself the effort!
- When you're grating the carrots, grate a few extra and make No Bake Carrot Energy Balls with the leftovers!
Baking Tips
- When making carrot cake with oat flour and almond flour you need accuracy measuring for the right texture, which is why I include precise weights.
- If you don’t have a scale, then you can purchase this fairly inexpensive one.
- If you prefer to measure, then measure the flours by scooping your measuring cup into the flour versus spooning it into it. This is how I measured when getting my weights.
- This cake is finicky due to the moisture the carrots give. Make sure to look at the notes in the recipe before you bake!
- This recipe makes 10 gluten free carrot cake cupcakes! Just pour the batter evenly into a prepared muffin tin and bake.
- You'll need to reduce the baking time though to around 25 minutes, but keep checking until a toothpick comes out clean.
Storage tips
Whether you want to make this gluten free carrot cake recipe ahead of time, or (less likely) need to store leftovers, here's what to do:
- Vegan Carrot Cake will stay fresh if sealed in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
- You can also keep it in an airtight container for up to a week in the refrigerator.
- If you want to save this even longer, wrap the cake well in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer safe airtight container and freeze up to three months.
Common Questions
What makes something healthy, cake, cookies or salad for that matter, is what you put inside of it. If the ingredients are mostly whole foods, and foods that you'd eat on a regular basis, then heck yes it's healthy!
A couple adjustments from traditional cake make this gluten free dairy free cake recipe on the healthier side. Regular white flour was replaced by a gluten-free combo I made up of oat and almond. While gluten-free doesn't make something healthy, the oat and almond flour are nutrient rich. Also, the fat from the butter was replaced by the almond flour.
Either using a cheese grater (watch those fingers!) or with a grating attachment on a food processor.
Dairy free Cream Cheese Frosting is used to frost this carrot cake. However, you can use vanilla or any other flavor you like.
Store carrot cake in an airtight container either on the counter, in the refrigerator, or in the freezer.
Carrot cake will last at room temp for 2-3 days, in the fridge for up to a week, and in the freezer for 3 months.
Yes, you can freeze carrot cake! Wrap the cake in plastic wrap then store in an airtight freezer safe container.
Carrot cake can be too crumbly for a number of reasons. One reason is already solved in this recipe, carrots can sometimes affect the gluten in cake mix which can make it crumbly. But, since this carrot cake is gluten free naturally, you shouldn't have that problem.
Also, make sure to accurately measure your ingredients (see tips), and not over mix or over bake your cake.
More Vegan Cake Recipes
This carrot cake recipe isn't the only gluten free vegan cake up my sleeve! Check out these other plant based cakes:
Incredible Vegan Carrot Cake (Gluten-Free)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup oat flour
- ¾ cup almond flour
- 1 cup cane sugar , see note
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon , see note
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger , optional (see note)
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves , optional (see note)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
- ¼ cup cashew milk , or other dairy free milk of choice (see note)
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups grated carrots , about 2 large carrots
- ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans , optional (see note)
To top, optional:
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F/ 175 C.
- Put flours, sugar, baking powder, seasonings and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to mix and break up any clumps.
- Make a little well in the middle and add in the apple sauce, milk and vinegar.
- Mix again to combine and get a smooth batter.
- Fold in the carrots and nuts.
- Pour into a square or round cake pan (8 or 9 inches will work). Bake for about 35 minutes, start checking at 32, a toothpick should come out clean with a few crumbs on it. If you are making cupcakes start checking at 25 minutes. My cupcakes took around 28-30.
- Frost or eat as is!
Notes
- I trialed these with many different sugars and cane sugar gave the best flavor. You can use coconut sugar but it will give you a deeper flavor that won’t be as sweet.
- You can add another ¼ cup of sugar if you want it sweeter especially if you don't use frosting.
- You can cut out the ginger and cloves and use more cinnamon if you want to cut down ingredients and simplify.
- You can use any milk you want but canned coconut milk has more fat than others so it will make this cake much more moist and sticky.
- Nuts are optional, if you use them your cake will be more moist due to the fat so you may want to use 1 tablespoon less milk.
- This makes ONE layer of cake. If you want a multi-layer cake make sure to multiply the recipe by however many layers you are making.
- This can be made as 10 cupcakes. To make these as cupcakes bake between 25-30 minutes, start check at 25.
- Nutrition info does not include the frosting and or nuts.
- Servings are based on a square pan and cutting it into 16 square pieces.
Recipe by Veggies Don’t Bite, visit our site for more great plant-based recipes.
Nutrition
Nutrition and metric information should be considered an estimate.
Jo
If I cut the sugar down drastically, would it affect the cake badly ..I like carrot cake but don’t like it sweet ..thanks x
Sophia DeSantis
Hi Jo! I do believe it would affect the end result in both flavor and texture. Because I have not tested this without most of the sugar I can't say for sure. Sorry!
Linda Marie
Hi Sophia, my hubby and I ran across your delicious-looking recipe as we were searching for a special dessert to make for Valentine's Day next Wed. I will be making it, but I have one question. Do you think I could replace the cane sugar with date sugar? If you don't think it would work, I will go with the cane; however, I am trying my best to to stay away from sugar :). A little bit in the cake won't kill me, but I'd prefer the date. I'll report back after I make the cake next week. Thank you so much for testing the cake out so many times to get to that perfect plant-based carrot cake - one of our favs!
Sophia DeSantis
Hi Linda! I do think you can use the date sugar in this. Date sugar tends to suck in more moisture and dry baked goods out a bit, however carrot cake has a lot of moisture from the carrots (and the nuts if you use them) so I actually think this will work out ok. Since I haven't tried it, I am not sure if you will need to reduce the flour to account for the date sugar drying it out but I would try it as is first. Let me know how it goes!
Linda Wilson
Thank you for the good information, Sophia! I'll try the cake with date sugar and report back next week!
Sophia DeSantis
Sounds great!
Linda Wilson
The cake was delicious with the substitution of date sugar! Even though I doubled the applesauce (to be on the safe side), you probably don't need to do that. The cake was super-moist as a result, but my husband and daughter absolutely loved it. The also raved about the cashew icing! A huge hit all around - thank you so much, Sophia!!
Sophia DeSantis
Yay! So happy to hear Linda! Yes, you definitely don't need to double the apple sauce.
Ernest
Hello!
I tried the doubled option to get two layers. The result is very tasty. Heavy and maybe a tad too sweet, but tasty!
The problem is that it stayed too gluey in the middle. Only the sides and the top was airy enough despite baking it much longer than the recommended 35 minutes. After the initial 35 mins, I reset the timer multiple times to an extra 5-10 minutes and checked repeatedly for readiness, so I'm not sure what was the total time (estimated ~1h). At some point, I couldn't believe it needed that much longer than the recommended time, so I stopped baking, even though the sticks had some crumbs on them. Sides and top were nice, crunchy and brown, but the middle turned out to be very stodgy.
I followed the recipe 1:1 and added all optional ingredients. The only change was that I made the oat flour myself from oats in a high-speed blender.
I want to try the recipe again, but I'm unsure what should I change. Should I bake the two layers separately? Maybe less apple sauce... or should I mix the dough much more to get some more air in? It's not an easy dough to mix : ) I would greatly appreciate any tips!
Sophia DeSantis
Hi Ernest! Thanks for getting in touch, happy to try and help! A few things, making your own oat flour may have affected the recipe a little bit. If it isn't super fine, it could affect the texture. This should not be a hard batter to mix, so that may be the reason for that. The moisture in the carrots allows for easy mixing once you add them and as you combine the carrots into the batter it becomes smooth and moist. The heaviness again is probably from the homemade oat flour. The store bought is really super fine, and this will affect how light and fluffy it is. Also, if you look at the notes (which is stated after the optional nuts addition) it says you need to reduce the milk because nuts have a lot of fat which will give the cake much more moisture. I am curious what kind of milk you used as well. I state in the notes that milks with high fat will also give this more moisture and make it sticky. I am guessing all these things are why the result was not cooked in the center as much as the sides. This is what happened to me when I trialed this recipe and was creating it. Generally, the more fat then the more moisture it has and then the center is not quite light and fluffy. Which would be why you needed it cooked longer. The carrots may have affected it as well, if you grated them too thick or washed them before grating so there was water mixed in a little. Lots of reasons that you got that extra moisture! Also, because you had two cakes in there, it may have affected your baking time. It really depends on your oven, it doesn't affect me much when I double but sometimes it does depending on what I am baking, if the pans are the same size and if I have the same amount of batter in each. I wish I could have been there to see everything and give you a better answer but hope all this helps! Feel free to email me for more support!
Jo
I absolutely loved this carrot cake! It's perfectly sweet without being too much. Thanks for a great recipe!
Sophia DeSantis
So happy you liked it!! It's a go to for us as well!
Daniel
~440 grams of dry ingredients and only about ~70 grams of wet ingredients? How are we supposed to get a smooth batter?! Mine didn't even mix together, I had to add much more milk for it to combine. Am I getting something wrong?
Sophia DeSantis
Hi Daniel, I made this recipe at least 25 times when I created it so I know it works. The apple sauce, milk, vinegar and carrots all count as wet ingredients. Carrots give off a LOT of moisture so if you added more milk then I am guessing your baked result was really wet and/or gummy. If you look at the post and the photos of the batter, it is plenty moist. Since I wasn't there to watch you make it, I am not sure what went wrong. Mistakes can be made, maybe you accidentally added to much flour because you miscounted when measuring, or too little liquid, again I am not sure as I wasn't there. But I am sure this recipe works if made exactly as is. Once you add the carrots and start to mix it the batter gets quite wet because of the moisture they give off. Sorry it didn't work for you but if you want to try it again, follow as is and double check your measurements as you go! Good luck!
Lisa
Wondering if you have a substitute recommendation for almond flour as I have a sensitivity to almonds. Thanks!
Sophia DeSantis
Hi Lisa! Unfortunately the almond flour is key to the texture of this recipe. Vegan and gluten free baking is a science so once you sub a major ingredient like that, it changes the whole recipe. Almond flour gives whole food fat to this, and a lot of moisture. So that's why I don't use or need butter or oil. You could try with another nut based flour? But it may not give the same result because the fat content is different between nuts. Wish I could have an easy sub for this one but a whole new recipe would need to be tested.
Steffanie
Could pure maple syrup be used for sweetener? (I just don't do granulated sugar.) And if so, would there need to be a little less milk to adjust for the extra liquid? Thanks.
Sophia DeSantis
Hi Steffanie! I have not tested this with maple syrup, so I honestly couldn't tell you how it would work. It would definitely not be as sweet and the texture would change. With baking, especially baking that is gluten free and plant based, it's an exact science. So it would be a whole new round of testing to find the perfect ratios of liquid to dry to make maple syrup work. Because carrots have a lot of liquid you would need to reduce the milk, maybe apple sauce too. But then you are messing with the reaction between ingredients that those give to the end result. So it would take a lot of trial and error to figure it out. If you want to start with that and see what happens go for it! I just would hate for you to waste ingredients.
Aly
Hi there! This looks awesome!
Any recommendations for replacing almond flour? I was thinking all oat might make it too dry and rice flies may make it crumbly? (Unfortunately can’t do nut flours, coconut flour or anything with xantham gum).
Thank you so much to anyone for any thoughts,
Aly
Aly
*That should say rice flour, not flies. Not sure what rice flies might do to the recipe. 😂😂
Sophia DeSantis
Haha!!! Definitely don't use rice flies, those would not be a good sub. LOL! Bummer about the nut flours, unfortunately the almond flour is what gives this recipe it's moisture without any added oils or butter (I use it a lot for this reason as my main goal is a good gluten free baked good with whole food ingredients), so replacing it will be tricky and honestly would probably change a lot of the recipe. Vegan and gluten-free baking is a science and when you change one thing you most likely need to change others. You can try using sunflower seed flour (or finely grind the seeds) but the flavor will probably be affected. Or you could try another flour and try adding some butter or oil. I wish I could be more helpful but I tested this more times than I can count with different ingredients and this was the best end result. It's extra tricky because of the moisture the carrots give as well. If you try something that works let me know!
Laura
Best gluten free carrot cake for sure! I did cut down on the sugar by 1/4 cup and it was still tasty. I did my own cream cheese frosting recipe with coconut also. Thank you so much!
veggiesdontbite
Thank you so much Laura! I am so happy you liked it!
Ben Balester
My family loved this recipe. We agree it’s our favorite to date. Wonderful consistency. I may need to use finer side of grater next time though.
We pretty much raced to the last piece. I chilled the frosting in refrigerator and freezer so we could eat it sooner. Delicious frosting too (may put it on my toothbrush). Plan ahead, and be patient, to soak those cashews.
Intention was to make some for friends an neighbors....next time.
Thank you Sophia!
veggiesdontbite
Awesome Ben! So happy you guys liked it!!
Lena
Family loved it - even without the frosting!
Also super nice author!
veggiesdontbite
Thanks Lena!
Tanya
Excellent!! I made it with coconut sugar instead of cane sugar since that’s what I had on hand and still enjoyed it! I put the Vegan cream cheese frosting (recipe also on this website) on top. Even my non-plant-based eating friends/family really liked it!
veggiesdontbite
I am thrilled you liked it! Especially all your non plant based guests!
Isabel
The carrot cake delicious!!! Thank You for the recipe!!!💖🌼💖
veggiesdontbite
Yay! I am thrilled you liked it Isabel!
tia
Hello,
I halved the recipe and mine came out really dry and sticky
what did i do wrong?
veggiesdontbite
Hi Tia! Sorry to hear it didn't come out right. I'm a little confused how it could be dry yet sticky. Carrot cake, if anything, is usually too moist. There are many reasons why this didn't work. If you halved it, did you still bake it in the same size pan or did you use a smaller one? Also did you weigh the flours or use measuring cups? The moisture in the carrots can be finicky so you want to make sure that they aren't super wet. Same with the apple sauce. Was it a really wet one? Also did you use the walnuts/pecans? I'd love to try and help figure out what happened!
Barbara Bonar
Hi,
This recipe looks amazing! What size cake pan did you use for the two-layer cake photos?
And, you stated this recipe can work as muffins as well, which sounds super for my family. Would I double the recipe to make 12 muffins?
Thanks so much!
veggiesdontbite
Thanks Barbara! I just added it to the instructions. It should have been in there! 8 or 9 inches should work. As for muffins, you shouldn't need to double it. You can probably get about 10 muffins here, maybe more, depending on how much you fill them. They may take less time to cook however so start watching early. Let me know how it goes!