The BEST vegan gluten-free carrot cake recipe! Perfectly moist and fluffy, deliciously soft but sturdy enough to layer with lush dairy-free cream cheese frosting. This is the only easter dessert you need!
It’s no secret that I LOVE carrot cake. It’s no secret that I’ve shared a handful of carrot cake recipes around here in years passed. If you know me in real life, it’s no secret that carrot cake is usually my bday cake request. So testing this recipe wasn’t too much of a chore, but I did test and re-test and re-re-test the heck out of it to find the ULTIMATE vegan gluten-free carrot cake recipe. And THIS is it.
Baking The Best Vegan Gluten-Free Carrot Cake
This recipe isn’t complicated, no crazy ingredients involved if your pantry is stocked for healthier baking. But there are a few tips and tricks to guarantee your cake comes out sweet, soft, and with that impeccable crumb. And most important of them all is measuring as accurately as possible (preferably by weight!) and not making any substitutions except for the few listed below.
Carrot Cake Ingredients
- Flours. This is the most high maintenance part of the whole recipe, because yes we are using three different gluten-free flours: gluten-free all purpose, almond, and coconut. I know I know, a little bit annoying. But trust me they all compliment each other perfectly, the texture will be worth it.
- Baking powder and baking soda. Both is best, if you just have powder you’ll be okay.
- Spices. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Salt.
- Brown sugar and cane sugar. Or white sugar is fine. You can try it with coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar, but it will make the cake a little more squishy and less soft/fluffy.
- Avocado oil. Or another neutral flavored oil, coconut is not the best here but it will work in a pinch. Melted dairy-free butter will work just as well, 1/2 cup is equal to one stick.
- Almond milk. Or whatever non-dairy (or dairy even) milk you prefer.
- Apple cider vinegar. White vinegar or lemon juice will work okay too.
- Vanilla extract.
- Carrots. Finely grated (I like to use my food processor for this!) and with some of the moisture pressed/squeezed out in a paper towel
- Walnuts. Finely chopped and totally optional.
Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting
Just like a dairy-based classic cream cheese frosting but with vegan butter and vegan cream cheese. Powdered sugar, a touch of vanilla and salt, cream it all together and you’ll have a very silky and delicious compliment to your carrot cake. I do recommend chilling it briefly (an hour or so) if you plan to stack your cakes, if not you can use it right away.
Tips For The Perfect Carrot Cake
- Measure your ingredients by weight. I cannot cannot CANNOT recommend this enough. Its the most accurate way to go, and you’ll have no measuring cups to have to clean after.
- Baking pan size. I baked mine in 3 6-inch cake pans. This creates the perfect size and thickness for a triple layer cake. You could also do 2 8-inch cake pans for a double layer, slightly bigger cake. Or a 9×13″ sheet cake would be okay too.
- Don’t underbake. Start with 40 minutes at 350°F, and then gently touch the middle of one of the cakes to test for doneness. If it feel soft at all, add another 5 minutes. It should feel springy when gently pressed.
- Cooling the cakes. After baking, cool the cakes in the pan for about 15 minutes before flipping onto a cooling rack. Then let them cool COMPLETELY before frosting, or even wrap and chill overnight for easier frosting.
More Carrot Cake Recipes You’ll Love
The ULTIMATE Vegan Gluten-Free Carrot Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Category: cakes
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
The BEST vegan gluten-free carrot cake recipe! Perfectly moist and fluffy, deliciously soft but sturdy enough to layer with lush dairy-free cream cheese frosting. This is the only easter dessert you need!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (310g) gluten-free flour
- 1/2 cups (56g) almond flour
- 2 tbsp (15g) coconut flour (or more gluten-free flour)
- 3 tsps baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (150g) cane sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) light brown sugar*
- 1/2 cup (108g) avocado oil**
- 1 cup (240g) almond milk
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup (150g) grated carrots***
- 3/4 cup (75g) chopped walnuts (optional)
Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8oz vegan cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup vegan butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 3 6-inch round cake pans.
- Stir apple cider vinegar into the almond milk and set aside 5 minutes. Add vanilla extract.
- In a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients for the cake. Mix until combined.
- With the mixer running, stream in the oil.
- Stream in the almond milk mixture. Keep mixing until batter is just combined.
- Fold in grated carrots (I recommend grating ahead of time and spreading out between two paper towels to soak out some of the excess water) and walnuts.
- Divide into the 3 pans. Bake 40-42 minutes.
- Cool 15 minutes, then flip onto a cooling rack and cool cakes completely.
For the frosting:
- Cream together butter and cream cheese on medium high speed.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix on low until powdered sugar is mostly mixed in. Then turn to high speed briefly, mixing to a light fluffy frosting with no lumps remaining.
- If it seems a bit soft, add 1/2 cup more powdered sugar and/or chill for an hour or so before assembling your cake.
To assemble:
- Slice the tops off of each cake (chilling cakes overnight makes this easier) to create a flat surface.
- Layer the cakes with a thick layer of frosting in between. Use an offset spatula to cover the sides of the cake.
- Sprinkle the top with chopped pecans, coconut, sprinkles, etc.
- Slice and enjoy.
Notes
*You can use coconut sugar, but it won’t be as fluffy
**You can use melted dairy-free butter or another natural flavored oil
***Grate these carrots first before prepping the batter, and lay them out on a towel with another towel on top to press out/absorb excess moisture
Keywords: vegan, gluten free, dairy free, cream cheese frosting, healthy, spring, easter, healthy
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