Vegan Carrot Cake

This is the best Vegan Carrot Cake recipe ever! A healthy, fluffy, moist carrot cake cake to celebrate Easter. It’s refined sugar-free, with a healthy coconut cream frosting that matches carrot cake spices so well.

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I am passionate about creating the easiest vegan baked goods like Vegan Pancakes, 2-Ingredient Donuts, or Vegan Waffles, which taste amazing and make you feel good but don’t keep you for hours on end in the kitchen.

That’s why I created this vegan sheet pan carrot cake. It’s so much easier to put together than classic layer cakes. Plus, it requires less frosting, making the cake healthier! This recipe is inspired by my famous vegan carrot cake cupcakes to create a light, fluffy, ultra-moist cake texture.

We always make carrot cake everything for Easter. It’s part of our family traditions. I can’t remember a year when we haven’t made my Carrot Cake Energy Balls, Carrot Cake Overnight Oats, Carrot Cake Banana Bread, or Carrot Cake Pancakes. It’s a combination of flavors that can be turned into everything. But nothing beats a classic vegan carrot cake.

I’ve made this cake recipe so many times that I have managed to turn what is arguably a complicated recipe into a super easy one! You will love its taste and how easy it is to make, I can guarantee that!

Ingredients and Substitutions

• All-Purpose Flour, or you can also try white spelt or white whole wheat flour for a healthier alternative. My tip is not to use oat flour or almond flour. These options won’t work well. For a gluten-free option, use an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
• Spices – There’s no tasty carrot cake without spices, and the perfect blend is a combination of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.
• Baking Powder and baking soda to give the cake the best fluffy texture.
• Coconut Sugar is my favorite refined sugar-free sweetener for carrot cake. It has a caramel flavor that goes so well with the carrot cake spices. But feel free to use brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar.
• Unsweetened Applesauce is the secret ingredient to creating ultra-moist vegan carrot cake or vegan chocolate cupcakes. The applesauce doesn’t add flavors, but the moisture and fluffy texture it delivers is the best. You can swap for mashed banana if you like, but it will add a banana flavor to the cake and make the crumb a bit more packed.
• Fresh Carrots – I am taking a shortcut in this recipe. I know all carrot cake recipes peel and grate carrots, but I don’t. Trim the edges of the carrots, wash them well, then cut them into rough slices. Then, I process the carrots with the sugar and liquid ingredients, giving the cake the most beautiful orange color and simplifying the recipe. My tip, if you don’t have a food processor, is to grate the carrots. The recipe works very well this way.
• Soy Milk or any plant-based milk you love, but I found soy milk a game-changer to provide a moist crumb. Feel free to try almond milk, oat milk, or coconut milk.
• Avocado Oil is the healthiest oil to bake with but again, use any vegetable oil you have at home. The cake works with canola oil, melted coconut oil, or melted plant-based butter.
• Vanilla Extract – for flavor

How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake

This recipe is a tweaked version of my original vegan carrot cake. I thought it was too complicated, with too many steps, so I’ve worked tirelessly to come up with the simplest alternative.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 13-inch cake pan with parchment paper and lightly grease paper with cooking oil spray. If you prefer a round cake, grease two 9- or 8-inch round cake pans.
2. Line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper and grease well. Set it aside.

3. In a food processor, add the pieces of carrots.

4. Then, add oil, nondairy milk, applesauce, coconut sugar, and vanilla extract to the food processor.

5. Process on medium-high speed until the carrots are pulsed into small bits and pieces. Stop, set aside.
6. In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour and spices. Pour the liquid ingredients from the previous step into the bowl and use a silicone spatula to bring the ingredients together.

7. Fold in the chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, or raisins if you like. Stir to incorporate.
8. Pour the cake batter in an even layer in the pan, or divide it into two pans for a layer of carrot cake.

9. Bake in the center rack of the oven for 25 minutes to 30 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Your baking time depends on the size of the pan, the thinner the cake layer is the faster the cake bake in the center.

Frosting

Let the cake cool down in the pan for 10 minutes, then on a cooling rack at room temperature for an hour. You can also wrap the cooled carrot cake with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge overnight to frost the next day.

Feel free to use any frosting from my list below,

• Vegan Coconut Cream Frosting I picked the coconut cream frosting, it’s light creamy and perfect for single-layer cakes.
• Vegan vanilla frosting – This frosting is a vegan buttercream frosting made with vegan butter and powdered sugar. It resembles a vegan cream cheese frosting recipe with a firm texture that goes well for layers of cakes.
• Cashew frosting is creamy and healthy, perfect for single layer cakes as it’s a bit too run to assemble layer cakes.

Decorating The Cake

It’s up to you but you can decorate the top of the vegan carrot cake with some:

• Chopped walnuts
• Chopped pecans
• Vegan sprinkles
• Grated carrots
• Shredded coconut

Frequently Asked Questions

More Vegan Cake Recipes

If you love this vegan carrot cake recipe you may also want to try some of these other yummy vegan cake recipes:

Vegan Olive Oil Cake

Vegan Coffee Cake

Vegan Strawberry Cake

Vegan Bundt Cake

Vanilla Crazy Cake

Vegan Birthday Cake

Vegan Carrot Cake

This easy Vegan Carrot Cake recipe is the best healthy, fluffy, moist cake to celebrate Easter or any other occasion. It's refined sugar-free, with a healthy coconut cream frosting that matches carrot cake spices so well.

4.87 from 15 votes

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Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 30 minutes mins

cool down: 1 hour hr

Total Time: 1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 16 slices

Calories: 201 kcal

Author: Carine Claudepierre

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

• ▢ 2 ⅓ cups All-Purpose Flour - (note 1)
• ▢ 1 cup Coconut Sugar - (note 2)
• ▢ 3 teaspoons Cinnamon
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Fresh Ginger
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Salt
• ▢ 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• ▢ 1 cup Soy Milk - (note 3)
• ▢ ½ cup Avocado Oil - (note 4)
• ▢ ½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce - (note 5)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• ▢ 7 oz. Carrot - trimmed, washed, unpeeled equivalent 2 cups grated carrots
• ▢ ½ cup Chopped Walnuts - or pecans (optional)

Frosting

• ▢ 1 batch Coconut Cream Frosting

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 13-inch sheet pan or two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper. Grease the pan(s) with oil on the sides and bottom, parchment paper included. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a food processor, add pieces of unpeeled carrots, applesauce, soy milk, coconut sugar, avocado oil, and vanilla extract and blend on medium-high speed until the carrots are pulsed into bits and pieces.
• Stir the wet ingredients to the dry then fold in nuts if desired.
• Combine, scraping down the sides to bring all the ingredients together, forming a smooth batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan in an even layer, or divide the batter evenly in half to fill the two round pans.
• Bake in the center rack of your oven for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool down for 10 minutes in the pan at room temperature, then cool on a rack completely, about 1-2 hours, before adding any frosting.
• Meanwhile, prepare your vegan coconut frosting recipe.
• Use a cookie dough scoop to release frosting on different parts of the cooled cake. Then, use a silicone spatula to spread the frosting evenly on top of the cake. Sprinkle chopped walnuts to decorate.
• Place the cake for 1 hour in the fridge to set the frosting and blend flavors.

Notes

Note 1: You can swap flour for all-purpose gluten-free flour, but the cake texture might be a bit more dense. You can also swap for white spelt flour or white wholewheat flour.

Note 2: Use any granulated sweetener like brown sugar, sugar, or sugar-free sweeteners like erythritol.

Note 3: You can swap soy milk for coconut milk, oat milk, or almond milk.

Note 4: Any vegetable oil, like canola oil, olive oil, or melted plant-based butter, can be used instead of avocado oil.

Note 5: You can also use the same amount of mashed banana.

No food processor option: grate the carrots and measure 2 cups.  Stir in a bowl with the same ingredients I added to the food processor. Then, stir these wet ingredients in the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Storage: This vegan carrot cake must be stored in an airtight box in the fridge for up to 4 days. To keep it longer, freeze the vegan carrot cake slices in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw the cake at room temperature 6 hours before or overnight in the fridge.

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Nutrition

Serving: 1slice (no frosting) | Calories: 201kcal | Carbohydrates: 26.3g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9.7g | Saturated Fat: 1.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5.2g | Sodium: 329.5mg | Potassium: 104.5mg | Fiber: 1.4g | Sugar: 8.4g | Vitamin A: 2134.1IU | Vitamin B12: 0.2µg | Vitamin C: 1.9mg | Vitamin D: 0.2µg | Calcium: 79.4mg | Iron: 1.2mg | Magnesium: 12.1mg | Phosphorus: 53.8mg | Zinc: 0.3mg