A delicious carrot bundt cake recipe with a vegan gluten-free batter (sweetened only with Medjool dates!) and topped with a dreamy lemon cream cheese glaze. An easy and healthier easter baking treat!


SPONSORED BY NATURAL DELIGHTS
It isn’t easter without carrot cake, so for a holiday themed with the cutest springtime creatures why not make the cutest mini carrot cakes we possibly can? And for a holiday also defined by eating chocolate before 9am (at least in my childhood), why not make a healthier, less sugar-filled carrot cake for a little balance too?
These mini carrot bundt cakes are moist and super fluffy, filled with warm spices and toasty walnuts for a little crunch, with an easy to prep batter that also bakes up beautiful as cupcakes, and best of all they are refined sugar free sweetened only with Medjool dates (but you’d never guess from tasting them!) Stop at just the cake for more of a muffin experience, or drizzle with the dreamiest lemon cream cheese glaze for ultimate show-stopping easter dessert table status.
How To: Vegan Gluten-Free Mini Carrot Cakes
These little cakes are easy to prep, quicker to bake than a full-size cake, and both vegan and gluten-free!
Carrot Bundt Cake Ingredients
- Natural Delights Pitted Medjool Dates. Starting with the star of this recipe – my favorite Medjool dates and all the sweetness this cake recipe needs. The freshest and tastiest Medjool dates, these are the only brand I will bake with. And best of all, Natural Delights gifts us with extra time too by selling them already pitted so all you have to do is toss them in the blender and get to baking.
- Water. The other half of the date paste equation, slightly warm water is best for easiest blending.
- Almond milk. Or whatever non-dairy milk you prefer, at room temperature.
- Apple cider vinegar. Or lemon juice will work too, the acidic nature of either mixes with the almond milk to create vegan “buttermilk”.
- Vanilla extract. A necessary flavor component of any proper carrot cake recipe.
- Dairy-free butter. Melted, so you don’t have to remember to take it out of the fridge to soften ahead of time. You can sub with a neutral flavored oil like avocado oil.
- Flours. We are using a combination of gluten-free flour, almond flour, and coconut flour. Trust me, the combination of these three is vegan gluten-free baking GOLD. I haven’t tested with any others, and I really do not recommend making any substitutions if you want the best egg and gluten free texture.
- Spices. We are using a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Just cinnamon and ginger will be okay if you want to scale it back.
- Baking powder and baking soda. Because they work even better together.
- Salt.
- Grated carrots. I like to use my food processor to grate, definitely the fastest method.
- Chopped walnuts. Optional, if you are a no-nuts-in-my-carrot-cake-please kind of person then skip ’em!


Prepping The Carrot Cake Batter
I like to use a stand mixer to make the batter, it’s definitely the laziest method. But a hand mixer will be fine too. You will also need a high speed blender to make the date paste. Here is the ideal order for preparing the batter…
- Step 1: Grate the carrots and spread on a paper towel/press with another paper towel to remove some of the extra moisture.
- Step 2: Add vinegar to almond milk and set aside.
- Step 3: Blend dates and water to make a date paste, then add almond milk to the blender. The extra moisture will help it blend smoother and pour out of the blender easier.
- Step 4: Mix the dry ingredients, either by hand with a whisk or with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer.
- Step 5: Add wet to dry, add melted butter, fold in carrot and walnuts.
At this point you should have a fairly thick but very well combined batter. You can either spoon or pipe into the bundt pans, but make sure you smooth the tops. Or if you don’t own mini bundt pans, bake as cupcakes instead (baking time will be about the same).
Making The Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
Don’t let the “cream cheese” part confuse you, this glaze is completely dairy-free. We start by vigorously whisking dairy-free cream cheese with a little bit of lemon juice and a little bit of vanilla until smooth. Then add in the powdered sugar, in two parts to avoid making a mess. Keep whisking until smooth and thick. If it’s too thick, add a little more lemon juice. If it’s too thin, add a little more sugar. You want it to be drizzle-able but a very slowwwwwww drizzle. Make sure the cakes are COMPLETELY cool before adding the glaze, otherwise it will melt right off the cakes.
If you’d prefer not to use powdered sugar, try THIS frosting recipe instead.


More Healthy Easter Recipes You’ll Love
- Peanut Butter Eggs (Medjool date sweetened!)
- Grain-Free Vegan Carrot Cake
- Tahini Almond Butter Eggs
- Vegan Strawberry Crumb Cake




Healthy Carrot Bundt Cakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 mini bundt cakes 1x
- Category: cakes
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
A delicious carrot bundt cake recipe with a vegan gluten-free batter (sweetened only with Medjool dates!) and topped with a dreamy lemon cream cheese glaze. An easy and healthier easter baking treat!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200g) Natural Delights Pitted Medjool Dates (use FOF20 for 20% off!)
- 3/4 cup (240g) warm water
- 1/2 cup (120g) almond milk
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (113g or 1 stick) dairy-free butter, melted (or avocado oil)
- 1 3/4 cups (217g) gluten-free flour*
- 1/3 cup (37g) almond flour
- 3 tbsp (22g) coconut flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (100g) grated carrots**
- Optional: 1/2 cup (50g) chopped walnuts (optional)
Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze***
- 1 1/2 cup (180g) powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp (30g) dairy-free cream cheese
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Stir apple cider vinegar into almond milk, and set aside 5 minutes. Then add vanilla extract.
- Melt the dairy-free butter and set aside to cool slightly.
- Blend pitted Medjool dates with water. Add the almond milk mixture and blend until smooth.
- In a stand mixer, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Mix briefly to just combine.
- Add the date paste mixture. Mix on low speed for 15 seconds, then slowly stream in the melted butter with the mixer still running.
- Mix another 15 seconds or so on medium speed to a thick batter.
- Add carrots and walnuts, and mix briefly on low to just combine.
- Spoon into 6 well-greased mini bundt pans (as spaced out as possible).
- Place on a baking sheet and bake 30 minutes at 350°F.
- Cool 10 minutes, then flip out of the pans onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
For the glaze:
- Whisk together all the ingredients. It will be quite thick, you can add an addition 1/2 tbsp lemon juice if necessary.
- Drizzle over the cooled cakes, and allow 10-15 minutes for glaze to set before serving.
Notes
*Tested with King Arthur Measure For Measure Flour
**I recommend grating ahead of time and spreading out between two paper towels to soak out some of the excess water
***Or for a cashew-based option, use THIS recipe
Keywords: vegan, gluten free, fluffy, cream cheese, glaze, easter, healthy, baking, carrot cake
These look so good. I do not have the small bundt pans, could I make into muffins or small pan like an 8×8″ pan?
They will work just fine in a muffin pan too!
Hello Natalie – thank you for this fantastic sounding recipe. I note that in your instructions, that you do not recommend substitution for the flours that are called for.
I am unable to eat almonds, in this case, would you suggest that I not try to make this recipe, rather than using another “flour” ? It is not so easy to find great vegan and gluten free recipes. Thank you.
Another nut flour would work as a sub if there is a nut you can eat, but no other grain based flour is going to have the same fat content as almond flour so may result in a drier cake and less ideal crumb!
Thank you for the quick reply Natalie. That makes sense. Substitutions are tricky, and your guidance is greatly appreciated!
It is a relatively small amount so you could certainly experiment, but I just can’t guarantee the results!
Such a unique recipe! I rarely see date-sweetened carrot cake and the flavor and texture combo seems amazing! The photos have totally sold me! Something so perfect about little Bundts for easter =)
★★★★★
Dates are so moist as are carrots, so it’s a little bit tricky to get a non-mushy cake but once that’s taken care of the flavors, really do mesh so well😋😋
Hi Natalie! I’m super excited to try this recipe but I have some already-made date paste (the kind that’s sold in a soft brick.) Could I use that instead, and if so how much would I need instead of dates+water?
Hi Sarah ! It’s hard for me to say exactly since I haven’t tested with that date paste/block, but my best rec would be –
about 300g of that in place of the dates and blend it with about 1/2 cup water to get a similar consistency to what I had. Good luck!
I ended up adding a bit more water as my date paste was quite thick, and also just a tiny squeeze of lemon juice to the batter. It turned out great, thank you!
That sounds wonderful, I am so happy you enjoyed them!!
I followed the recipe exactly but mine turned out dry and really didn’t taste that well. I’m wondering why?
Oh no! Did you measure by weight or volume? And what did it taste like? Not sweet enough? Or?
i measured by volume, and yes, not very sweet
the batter was very thick, and i put the batter in my pan that has
12 mini bundt portions
maybe i didn’t use enough dates, or maybe cooked to long for my oven
not sure, but i wanna try again
I have alot of batter left, but not sure if i should bake them
in the tins again
Hmm how big are you bundt pans? Because I only got 6 and definitely didn’t have any batter leftover. And how thick/pourable was your batter?
Measuring by weight is always most accurate, especially for ingredients like dates, so that could definitely be part of the issue too!