Irresistibly moist and secretly healthy carrot cake… This recipe is so good, you’re going to want to eat it again for breakfast the next morning!
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I am the girl who eats carrot cake all year.
If you haven’t tried my recipe yet for Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes, that post continues to be one of the most popular recipes on my blog…
So I guess I’m not the only one who eats carrot cake year-round!
Since the carrot cake cupcakes have been so popular, I knew I wanted to get an actual healthy carrot cake recipe up on the blog this year.
With Easter less than a week away, today seems like the perfect time to share this moist and incredibly delicious healthy carrot cake, loaded with sweet cinnamon and carrots.
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!
The carrot cake above is topped with my Cream Cheese Greek Yogurt Frosting – which I even successfully made vegan!
It also tastes amazing topped with melted coconut butter (one of my favorite ways to eat carrot cake), or the cake is so perfectly spiced and flavorful that you might want to simply eat it unfrosted.
Above – watch me make the healthy carrot cake
The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Carrot Cake.
Healthy Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 1 packed cup shredded carrot (200g)
- 1/2 cup applesauce (120g)
- 1/3 cup oil, or sub applesauce only if you don’t mind a gummy texture (60g)
- 2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups spelt, white, or Bob’s gf flour (180g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup sugar, xylitol, or evaporated cane juice (65g)
- 1/16 tsp uncut stevia OR 2 additional tbsp sugar
- optional shredded coconut or chopped walnuts
- optional 1/2 cup raisins
Instructions
- *For a double layer cake, simply double all ingredients and bake in two pans.Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line an 8-inch square or round pan with parchment. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients and let sit at least 10 minutes or fridge overnight. In a separate bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients. Pour wet into dry, then stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Pour into the prepared pan, and smooth down evenly. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. The carrot cake tastes much sweeter and better-textured the day after it’s made, and leftovers can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or even sliced and frozen. I frosted the cake with about 1/2 cup of the frosting recipe linked under the second photo in this post – If using a preservative-free frosting like the one I used, it’s best to frost directly before serving.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Easter Recipes:
Thanks Katie – I make a cake most days and carrot has been on my list for a while, so I’ll enjoy this. Just wondering… when you say : “[t]he carrot cake above is topped with my Cream Cheese Greek Yogurt Frosting – which I even successfully made vegan!” does this mean you are no longer vegan?
She said that she DID make it vegan, not that she didn’t.
Yes, that’s why I ask – surely if she’s vegan there would be no need to state this?
This caught my eye and curiosity as well!
Sorry for the confusion. I specifically mentioned the vegan part not because I am no longer vegan, but because many people reading this post and not familiar with my blog might not realize that when I say “Greek yogurt” frosting, it is actually suitable for vegans 🙂
I made this for my grandmas birthday and it was beautiful 😍
This looks so unbelievable delicious, would love to try it right now!!
I love carrot cake <3
Happy Easter to you!
Jenny
Carrot cake is the best! Love that you made it both healthier and vegan.
Thank you so so so much for this recipe! I have made your cupcakes before but really wanted a more “fancy” recipe for Easter Sunday dessert. I looked at a few other carrot cake recipes online but didn’t know the authors too well and didn’t know how they’d turn out. I am always afraid to try something out from a random blogger online, which is why I keep coming back to your recipes again and again. 🙂
Carrot or zucchini, I’m in love with these healthy cakes!
Carrot cake is my favorite dessert. So excited to try this–what amount of coconut and/or walnuts would you recommend adding? Thanks!
I would probably start with 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts. With the coconut, a 1/2 cup would work!
What is 1/2 cup applesauce (120g) not sure what that is ?
Hi Katie! Thanks for the recipe – I am a huge sucker for carrot-anything! Just a quick question. Would it be possible to use honey as the sweetener? I’m not sure if this would change the texture of the cake, since it would be added liquid! Please let me know. Thanks! xo
I would love to know about using maple syrup too!
I’ve not tried, but please report back if you experiment by playing around with the liquid amounts 🙂
I used agave, would have used maple but I was out. I didn’t have to change any part of the recipe. Used same amount of sweetener as recommended and it came out great, nice and moist.I would probably double cinnamon next time but thats just me. Thanks for the recipe!
yay thank you for reporting back on agave!! making this recipe now with agave and spelt flour, wish me luck!
This was wonderful! I used all whole wheat flour, oil as called for in the recipe. I also added an egg to the batter and substituted the sugar with maple syrup in the same amount as called for. Everyone loved it!
This recipe is litterally what i’ve been waiting for, defenitly gonna try this for easter but I eat carrot cake all year round anyway as well 🙂
WHY do you do this to me Katie?!?!? It sounds sooooo gooood. I didn’t even know I wanted carrot cake. Ummm.
Hi! I would love to try this for Easter. But I’ve never made carrot cake before and have always wondered how fine I need to grate the carrot. I only have one size on my food processor and I’m worried that’s too coarse. Could I chop it fine with the spinning blade, or would that throw the texture off too?
Whatever your food processor can do should be fine. Here is an example of something that could work, and you can go finer than this as well: https://lett-trim.today/2008/05/28/bugs-bunny-would-be-proud/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Great! Thank you so much!!