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:
Could you give me any suggestions for replacing the applesauce in this recipe? I can’t have apples. 🙁
I considered replacing it with mashed banana, but I don’t want it to give the cake a banana flavor.
I often used pumpkin purée instead of apple sauce and it works! =)
I made this tonight for supper. 😉 I used gluten free flour and coconut oil. My 4 kids and husband loved it!! I’m hoping to have some left over to try it tomorrow. This was delicious. I’ve tried other recipes from your site and so far all of them turned out amazing! Thank you, Katie!! 😀
I made this for an Easter party and it was a hit! I think I overcooked it a tad, but the frosting was delicious and masked that well. I had never put Greek yogurt in frosting, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I added walnuts, coconut, and raisins, and they all tasted great!
hi! I just have one question.. what do you use vinegar for? I noticed it is present in many recipes. in Italy it is not really used in desserts so I was wondering what it is for. Could I omit it?
by the way I love your blog!
I’ve substituted vinegar with lemon juice several times and it seemed to work
Can you substitute the applesauce with anything else?
Katie, do you think oat flour has a good chance of working for this?
When I made this the it was crumbly not at all like a .batter. is an ingredient missing?
Hi Katie,
I noticed there is a new pop-up advertisement asking people to sign up for emails. I already get emails and I am hoping there is a way to stop that pop-up from coming up for people that already get emails since it is a bit bothersome. It comes up about every 5 minutes, and I’m usually on your site for much longer than that, so it comes up several times while I’m browsing. Thanks!
I tried this recipe and my cake turned out really uhh gummy? Like it’s not like a cake at all more like a chewy texture and there isn’t the crumbs normally seen in cakes it’s just paste-y in the middle can anyone tell me what I did wrong? T.T
Unfortunately because I wasn’t there to see, it’s really impossible to know what might have happened. What flour did you use, what oil what sugar? Did you make any changes to the recipe at all? Any specifics might also help. Thanks 🙂
Sorry, have never tried… Be sure to report back if you do! Either applesauce will work.