This homemade vegan carrot cake recipe is soft, moist, and irresistibly delicious, with thick vegan cream cheese frosting in each bite!
The best vegan carrot cake
If you are looking for a show stopping vegan Easter dessert guaranteed to impress both vegans and omnivores, this is absolutely the recipe you should try.
Dairy free, egg free, and so easy to make, the sweet and flavorful cake comes out perfectly every single time.
Whether you are vegan or not, it may just become your go to carrot cake recipe for years to come!
Also try the popular Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Plant based carrot cake for special occasions
You will want to make the recipe not just for Easter, but for birthday parties, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas too.
Do not be surprised if this cake starts showing up in your dreams.
The classic taste will remind you of a traditional carrot cake you might find at an upscale restaurant or bakery.
And yet it is secretly healthy at the same time, with no dairy and no eggs required.
The vegan carrot cake recipe is also packed with a full cup of shredded carrot, making it ultra moist and soft, without all the extra fat.
If desired, you can add raisins, pineapple, or crushed walnuts to the batter.
Readers also love these Healthy Blueberry Muffins
How to make vegan carrot cake
Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and line an eight inch round or square pan with parchment paper.
If you are doubling the recipe for a double layer carrot cake, prepare two pans instead of one. A doubled recipe will also fit into one 9×13 pan.
To make the carrot cake from scratch, whisk together the first five ingredients, and let the mixture sit for at least 10 minutes, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
Stir all remaining ingredients into the liquid to form a cake batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth down with a spatula or spoon.
Bake on the oven center rack for thirty minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean.
Baking tip: I recommend loosely covering the carrot cake once it is cool and letting it sit overnight on the counter. If you can wait, the recipe tastes sweeter and has a lighter texture the next day.
After a day, refrigerate any leftover cake for three to four days. Or slice and freeze in an airtight container for up to three months. Thaw frozen carrot cake before serving.
Looking for a handheld option? Make Carrot Cake Bars
Ingredients
This simple vegan cake recipe calls for just a few basic ingredients.
You will need shredded carrot, applesauce or pineapple, optional oil, white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, flour, pure vanilla extract, cinnamon, baking soda, sugar, and a pinch of salt.
Carrots – Start with fresh peeled carrots, and discard the stems. Feel free to use white, purple, yellow, or orange carrots, or a combination.
Flour – Spelt flour, oat flour, white all purpose flour, and some brands of gluten free flour yield the best results.
I have not experimented with substituting pastry or whole wheat flour, almond flour, or coconut flour. However, the box below includes a keto option if you prefer a low carb and flourless carrot cake.
Applesauce – This ingredient adds moisture and natural sweetness, allowing you cut back on the oil and sugar without sacrificing taste.
If you are out of applesauce or love the combination of pineapple and carrot cake, swap the applesauce for crushed pineapple. Mashed banana is another great substitution if you wish to try a fun flavor variation.
Sugar – Go with regular white sugar or unrefined coconut sugar. Or for an added sugar free vegan carrot cake, use an equal amount of granulated xylitol or erythritol.
Cinnamon – The vegan dessert is perfectly spiced with one and a half teaspoons of ground cinnamon.
Want to turn it into a carrot spice cake? Add a pinch of nutmeg, cloves, and powdered ginger for a carrot spice cake.
Carrot cake frosting options
Let’s be real. One of the best parts of carrot cake is the frosting!
My favorite way to serve the dairy free carrot cake is with the homemade vegan cream cheese frosting recipe directly under the photo below.
The plant based dessert is also great topped with homemade or store bought vegan vanilla frosting, Coconut Butter, or Coconut Whipped Cream.
To save time, you do have the option to take a shortcut and use packaged frosting instead of the frosting recipe below.
Surprisingly, both Duncan Hines Creamy Home Style Cream Cheese Frosting and Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Cream Cheese Flavored Frosting are accidentally vegan.
I am not saying these packaged icings are healthy frosting options, but if you are in a hurry, they work in a pinch.
Or go a different route entirely and top each slice with Vegan Lemon Curd.
Vegan cream cheese frosting
- 8 ounces plant based cream cheese (such as Tofutti brand or Trader Joe’s vegan) or homemade Vegan Cream Cheese
- 4 ounces plant based butter (such as Melt Organic or Earth Balance)
- 2 cups powdered sugar or sugar free alternative
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional nondairy milk if needed
Beat room temperature cream cheese with the butter in a stand mixer, food processor, with hand beaters, or by hand. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract, whipping until smooth.
Add the milk a teaspoon at a time if you desire a thinner icing.
For reference, this recipe yields about two cups of frosting, and I used half a cup of frosting on each of the layers of the egg free carrot cake in the pictures.
Leftover frosting? Make these Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Vegan carrot cake recipe video
Above, watch the step by step video showing how to make the recipe.
Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup shredded carrot (200g)
- 1/2 cup applesauce or crushed pineapple
- 1/4 cup oil or additional applesauce for fat free
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups flour (Here's a Keto Carrot Cake)
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup sugar or packed coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup raisins (optional)
- 1 handful shredded coconut, crushed walnuts or pecans (optional)
Instructions
- *The recipe works with all purpose, spelt, oat, or some brands of gluten free flour.Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line an 8-inch square or round pan with parchment. (If doubling the recipe, use two 8-inch pans or one 9×13.) In a mixing bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients and let sit at least 10 minutes or refrigerate overnight. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Pour into the pan, and smooth down. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. If you can wait, I like to loosely cover once cool and let it sit overnight, because the cake tastes sweeter and has a lighter texture the next day! Leftovers can then be refrigerated 3-4 days or sliced and frozen.The vegan cream cheese frosting recipe I used for this cake is written out above. And if you are a visual person, be sure to check out the video above that shows how to make the vegan carrot cake.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Vegan Easter Recipes
Vegan Cheesecake or Keto Cheesecake
(Or this almond flour Keto Cake)
Made it for Easter dessert and it was the best vegan carrot cake I’ve ever had! This is my first year as a vegan so I still remember what real cake tastes like and some other vegan dessert recipes I’ve found online have left me wanting. Not this one! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!!!
Will the Vegan Carrot Cake recipe work with the same amount of coconut flour instead or will the ratio vary? Also, any tips on how to convert my whipped cream cheese to a frosting for the cake that can be sweetened with Monkfruit-Maple Syrup?
Unfortunately, coconut flour can almost never be subbed in an equal amount in baked good recipes, and we doubt it would work here (although we haven’t tried). Katie doesn’t have a coconut flour carrot cake recipe, but she DOES have one with almond flour if you happen to have that flour on hand: https://lett-trim.today/keto-carrot-cake/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi. This carrot cake is so flavorful! I made it gluten free using King Arthur All Purpose gluten free flour blend. My only issue was the cake turned out a bit dry. The first time I baked it I did 31 minutes. The second time around I baked it for 28 minutes and it was still on the drier side. The batter was very thick, but not dry. I used the applesauce and oil and other ingredients as stated. Do you think it is a matter of baking it for even less time or adding extra moisture with more applesauce or oil? Thank you!
Maria. Would it be a too hot oven? Try 10 degrees lower. Or possibly you used Convection bake? And it should be regular bake.
It could be you have too much flour. Possibly you need to fluff up before scooping or seive your flour, then spoon into cup and level.
And try adding 1 T more of oil.
can i use brown sugar?
FANTASTIC, and easy to make. That’s all I can say!
My husband usually doesn’t like carrot cake but he loved it when I made this one last weekend. I didn’t frost it, and it tasted more breakfast-y than dessert-y. For flour, I used 1/3 regular, 1/3 wholegrain spelt, and 1/3 sprouted wheat, and it worked well.
Thank you so much for trying it!
This cake is soooo delicious!! Wasn’t too sweet or cream cheesy.
We had friends over that generally never try vegan foods and they devoured the entire cake!! So glad I made a double layer!! Will definitely be a new house favorite!! 😍
❤❤
Can I substitute whole wheat flour?
The results will be much denser but you might still like them… If you experiment, be sure to report back!
Absolutely delicious!!!
I absolutely loved this carrot cake Katie!! I’ve made it twice already, the first time being for my brother’s weddings and everyone who tried it really loved it! I loved it so much that I made it again yesterday and now there is only one small piece left 😀 i do have one question though, for the nutrition facts, is the icing included? Thanks again so much for this great recipe, by far the best vegan carrot cake I have had! <3
Hiiii, love the recipe with oat flour so good. But the frosting. Why does hers look like normal frosting and mine looks all separate-y and it’s super thin could definitely not be piped and hold a shape! Tastes great and works good enough but how do I get it so pretty? Lol
Honestly though amazing cake my friend has requested I make it for her wedding, weird looking frosting and all! haha
Oh I made it using the homemade cream cheese recipe, btw!
This was my first time baking a vegan cake, and what couldn’t be better than carrot cake. This was absolutely delicious. I made a homemade cream cheese frosting, but that was not vegan. I stored the cake in the frig, but do recommend that you let it come to room temperature before eating. It tasted better at room temperature versus cold right out of the frig. I put in 1/3 cup of chopped black walnuts in the batter; didn’t to the raisins. I would definitely make this again, and next time plan to do vegan frosting. Great dessert if you are looking to go plant based.
Can I use coconut flour instead?
Most likely not for this one. She does have a keto carrot cake that uses almond flour (still not coconut flour) though if that might work for you: https://lett-trim.today/keto-carrot-cake/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Sooooo good! Made frosting useing your homemade cashew cream cheese recipe and coconut oil. Used coconut sugar and grape seed oil for the cake, delicious soft and fudgey yet fluffy texture. Best carrot cake, can’t wait to make again!
Thank you so much for making it! 🙂
Fabulous recipe! No one would know its a vegan. I made this for a co-worker’s birthday (she’s vegan) and it was a huge hit with everyone! I appreciate that your recipes are not packed with obscure, hard to find ingredients and for including ingredient options. I had extra vegan cream cheese icing, so now debating which to make first: the Apple Bread or the Easy Cinnamon Rolls!
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Hi, how would you store this cake if I need it for a later instead of a couple days?
Leftover slices can definitely be sliced and frozen!
Can the cake be made 2 weeks ahead and then freeze? I would just thaw it out in the refrigerator a day or 2 before decorating?
We would think so, but we have never tried doing it before slicing. Be sure to report back if you try it!