Vegan Carrot Cake

Our vegan carrot cake is easy to make with simple ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.

It's packed with flavor, with just the right amount of moistness. Unlike most carrot cake recipes, ours does not contain a ton of sugar or oil. Try it, and you'll never bake any other carrot cake again!

On this page:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Variations
• More vegan cake recipes
• Storage
• Recipe

Carrots

Whole carrots, to be grated at home. Pre-grated carrots are too dry to make an excellent and moist carrot cake.

Flour

Use half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. The whole wheat flour helps to absorb some of the moisture of the carrots.

To make it gluten-free, you can replace all-purpose flour with 1 to 1 gluten-free flour for baking.

Cinnamon, nutmeg, and freshly grated ginger

Three spices that we love in carrot cake.

Baking powder

It helps the cake rise and makes it a little lighter. This vegan carrot cake recipe does not need baking soda or apple cider vinegar.

Salt

Use just a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor of the other ingredients.

Brown Sugar

We like to use brown cane sugar to add the right amount of moisture and sweetness.

If you don’t want to use regular sugar, you can use coconut sugar or date paste. If you do so, keep in mind that the cake will be less sweet, moister, and with a more natural taste.

Milk

Almond milk is our favorite in carrot cake, but any other plant milk would work.

Oil

We use sunflower seed oil or canola oil. You can replace sunflower oil with any other neutral vegetable oil. Unrefined vegetable oils are marginally healthier but will make your cake taste bad, so we don't recommend them.

You could replace oil with melted coconut oil or vegan butter, but be mindful that they often contain saturated fats and palm oil.

Vanilla extract

Optional, although always welcome.

Walnuts

Optional, but we recommend adding some chopped walnuts. You can replace walnuts with pecan nuts.

Raisins

Optional, but they add some natural sweetness to the cake, allowing us to reduce the amount of sugar.

Vegan cream cheese frosting

We make vegan cream cheese frosting by whisking together dairy-free cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon zest or lime zest.

Note: different countries have different brands of dairy-free cream cheese. In the US some good ones are Kite Hill, Daya, or store brands like Aldi and Trader Joe's.

Grate the carrots

The first step is to preheat the oven to 340F or 140C, then wash, grate and peel the carrots. 

The best way to clean carrots is to scrape them with a knife rather than peeling them with a vegetable peeler.

This way is faster, and you’ll waste a lot fewer carrots. Once scraped, grate the carrots through the small holes of a box grater.

You'll need about 300 grams or 2½ cups of finely grated carrots.

I like to grate the carrots finely so that they will almost melt with the cake batter, and you won’t end up eating big pieces of carrot in the cake. 

This way, they’ll also release moisture more evenly. 

I’d recommend grating the carrots yourself rather than purchasing pre-grated carrots. The store-bought carrots are too dry, and your carrot cake won’t be as moist as it should be. 

Once the carrots are grated, set them aside and prepare the cake batter. 

Make the cake batter.

To a large mixing bowl, add 2 cups of flour. I like to use half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. 

The whole wheat flour helps absorb the excess moisture from the carrots and gives the cake a rustic texture.

Then add the spices. I put 3 teaspoons of cinnamon and about half a teaspoon of grated nutmeg. Finally, add 16 grams or 1 full tablespoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt.

Whisk the dry ingredients until combined, then set the bowl aside and prepare the wet ingredients.

To a bowl, add 180 grams or ¾ cup of milk. I like to use almond milk because it is light and adds a delicate nutty flavor to the cake. 

Now add 70 grams or ⅓ cup of vegetable oil, choose a neutral one like sunflower oil, then add 150 grams or ¾ cup of sugar. 

This amount of sugar is lower than most carrot cake recipes, so if you want your cake sweeter, you can add a full cup or 200 grams of sugar. We like ours with less sugar.

I tried to make this cake with several types of sweetener, and my favorite was brown sugar for taste and texture.

Now add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and about a teaspoon or two of freshly grated ginger, which I think complements the cinnamon and nutmeg perfectly.

Mix the liquids well with a whisk, then in the same bowl, add the dry ingredients.

Fold the batter with a spatula until the ingredients are just combined, without overmixing. 

Overmixing the cake batter will activate the flour gluten and make your cake denser and less fluffy, so try to mix as little as possible.

Add the grated carrots.

Add in the grated carrots, and give it another quick mix.

Then add 50 grams or half a cup of crushed walnuts and 50 grams or ¼ cup of raisins. 

These two ingredients are optional but add a nice touch of natural sweetness and healthy fats. 

Don't worry if the batter seems too thick; the carrots contain lots of water that will come out while baking, making the cake super soft and moist.

Bake the vegan carrot cake

Once the ingredients are combined, transfer the cake batter to a prepared pan lined with parchment paper. 

You can use a round one, a squared one, or a rectangular one. You can even use a muffin pan if you like. 

Here we use a rectangular baking dish that is 28 x 18 cm or 11” x 7”, but we also tried using a 23cm or 9” round one.

Bake in the oven at 340F or 170C for about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.

And now the hardest part of making carrot cake. We must wait for the cake to cool down completely before eating it or applying any frosting. 

Let the cake cool on a baking rack for at least three hours. This time will allow the excess moisture in the carrots to escape and a light, soft crumb to form. 

If you don’t wait, the cake will be too moist to be enjoyable. I like to take the cake out of the baking dish to speed up cooling.

Make the frosting

In the meantime, we can prepare the cream cheese frosting. This is optional, but I’ll show you how to make it anyway, as it’s pretty delicious.

To a bowl, add 9 ounces (250 grams) of dairy-free cream cheese. There are a lot of brands available these days, so pick the one you like and that you find in your local supermarket. 

Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar; then, I like to add the grated zest of half a lemon or lime and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. 

Combine the ingredients, then when you have a smooth cream, take the carrot cake out of the baking dish and liberally apply the frosting on top of the cake.

Since dairy-free cream cheese usually has little to no saturated fats, and there’s no butter added to this frosting, it tends to melt faster than regular cream cheese frosting. 

So if you don’t apply it immediately, you’ve got to keep it in the refrigerator.

You can top the frosting with some walnut pieces and with some grated lemon zest.

To serve the cake, you can cut it into small squares. Use a bread knife to cut carrot cake.

Quick carrot cake with orange juice

Follow our Italian carrot cake recipe and try a surprisingly easy and refreshing orangy carrot cake.

Carrot cake cupcakes

Follow our instructions for carrot cake muffins, and try this dessert in new shapes and sizes.

Carrot cake donuts

Aren't they cute? You just need donut molds. We prefer to use our Italian carrot cake recipe for these little ones.

We enjoy a plant-based treat every now and then as part of a balanced diet. If you're curious about more vegan cake recipes, check out these colorful ideas:

• Coffee cake with hazelnut filling
• 8-ingredient apple cake
• Vegan lemon cake
• Lemon blueberry loaf
• Vanilla cake (layer cake)
• Vegan brownie cake
• Chocolate strawberry cake with layers

Or try any of these 43 plant-based dessert recipes.

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