I had so many people asking me for this recipe I just had to make a blog post for it!
I still have people emailing me and sending me notes on facebook to say “That carrot cake was the best I’ve ever tried!”
But don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself!
Quite possibly the easiest recipe to mix too, since there is no mixer required!
Even the cream cheese icing can be done by hand since vegan cream cheese is so much easier to cream smooth than it’s animal counterpart!
This is my go-to recipe whenever I want to impress the masses.
Isn’t that odd? Whoever would have thought a carrot cake would be a vegan converter! LOL
Vegan Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Serves: 1- 7" Cake
Ingredients
- Vegetable Oil ¾ cup (177ml)
- All Purpose Flour 1¼ cup (157g)
- Cake Flour ½ cup (60g)
- Baking Powder 1 teaspoon (4g)
- Baking Soda 1 teaspoon (4g)
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Ground Cinnamon 1¾ teaspoons
- Brown Sugar ½ cup (105g)
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Ground Flax Seeds 3 Tablespoons (24g)
- Hot Water 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1½ teaspoons (7ml)
- Carrots 4 medium (approx 2 cups 250g)
- Granny Smith Apple 1 medium peeled approx ¾ cup
- Orange Zest from ¼ large orange approx 1 teaspoon
- Toasted Walnuts ¾ cup plus more for garnish *optional
Instructions
- Combine the flax with the hot water and let stand to thicken
- In a large bowl combine the sugars with the oil, vanilla extract and the flax mixture, whisk smooth
- Add the orange zest
- Then sift together all of the dry ingredients directly into the bowl and whisk smooth
- Add the grated carrots and apple and the nuts then mix smooth
- Pour batter into greased cake pans and bake immediately at 350°F in a preheated oven for approximately 25-40 minutes depending on the size of your pans. Bake Until they are Done
- Cool cakes while you prepare the Cream Cheese Icing recipe below and then assemble cake as shown in the video
Notes
You can freeze un-iced carrot cake layers wrapped well for up to 1 month
Iced cake must be kept refrigerated but may stay at room temperature for up to 3 hours max
Iced cake must be kept refrigerated but may stay at room temperature for up to 3 hours max
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE ICING
Vegan Cream Cheese Icing
Serves: 4 cups
Ingredients
- Vegan Cream Cheese 2 Tubs (2cups) (454g)
- Vegan Butter 1 stick (½ cup) (112g)
- Confectioner's Sugar 2 cups (240g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
- Vegan Buttercream 1 cup *optional
Instructions
- Smooth cream cheese and butter with a spatula by hand *vegan cream cheese can get runny if you over mix it so it is better to mix this recipe by hand
- Add sifted confectioners sugar, blend on low just to combine
- Add extract then add optional vegan buttercream icing
- Mix smooth
Hi! I am not vegan though I want to bake this cake for my grass eating friends 🙂 I subscribed to your channel and truly love it. I’m just curious how vegan cream cheese tastes like. Does the taste resemble real cream cheese? Just don’t want to buy it and throw it away.
And coud you please share with us a recipe that contains no sugar or less sugar. Healthy cakes for chidren, please… Thank you!
HI ! Thanks! I hope you try it, it is one of my most popular cakes among my non vegan friends! In baking the cream cheese works and tastes just like regular cream cheese. I prefer tofutti brand for recipes.
You can use a different sugar here in the cake recipe since the method for mixing is just combining the wet to the dry ingredients it doesn’t affect the results, so if you wanted to use a diabetic sugar or agave or maple syrup you can
hi again! I baked the base today just to try how I like it. And I must say it’s really good. I reduced the amount of sugar. The only thing it seems to me a little bit too oily. Being a European I use ml. I checked how much oil my cup contains and it’s 215 ml, not 240 as it’s said in the recipe. But still can I use let’s say 180 ml of oil? Does this affect the results? But the rest is just perfect! I will definitely bake it for my vegan friends and my family probably many times. Thank you!
Hey thanks for the feedback. Hmmmm, when I google the standard conversion for ml in 1 cup it says 237.
Since I am not familiar with ml as a measure here in the USA I have relied on google for that information, but wow 215 vs 237 (or the rounded up 240) is a BIG difference!
I will say yes to going to 180ml however that brings the USA volume measure to ¾ cup instead of 1 cup. I have made this recipe several times with the US volume measure of 1 cup with no problems, but I think if you do a heavy 180ml you will be fine! thanks again!
(and PS yes I understand that UK folks think American desserts are overloaded with sugar! LOL I guess we are a sugary bunch over here!)
Is the icing “strong” enough to make rosettes on a cake? I want to make a vegan red velvet and then cover it with rosettes.
yes it is pipable
Haw many layers does this recipe make?
3 7″ or 2- 8″
Hi Gretchen!
I made the cream cheese frosting and for some reason it came out extremely runny. I followed the ingredients and directions exactly and I’m wondering what could have went wrong!
Vegan cream cheese is very touchy, if you over mix it – it can get really runny. I will add that note to the recipe directions
What do you think about subbing out of the oil for vegan brown butter? Since the water is boiled out it should be a direct replacement? Browning miyoko’s butter works amazing btw
yes!!!
I made this cake for Easter. I was initially skeptical once I saw how thick the batter was and how little went into each pan (I 1.5x the recipe for 8″ pans, so there was a little less batter in each than the recipe calls for). Totally unnecessary worry because the cakes baked up great!
I left the nuts out of the batter since my nana doesn’t like them. I did put nuts (I used pecans) in between the layers of half of the cake and decorated the top of that half with pecans. That was the first half to disappear. Everyone *loved* the cake. They expect vegan desserts from me by this point, but they are constantly surprised how good they are, so they check after tasting them anyway. Thanks for that, Gretchen!!
P.S.: I don’t know if there is a place you take recipe requests, but I’d love a vegan Nilla wafer recipe (or maybe just an entire vegan banana pudding recipe). I can’t find vegan vanilla wafers anywhere, and I’d love to be able to make this Southern staple for all of the summer events coming up!
hey awesome and thank you for the feedback! It really helps other who may be skeptical to try recipes when they hear of others success so THANK YOU!
I have noted your request 🙂
This cake looks amazing, I would love to bake it but unfortunately we don’t have “cake flour” here in Australia, or at least I can’t find anything that would be a substitute. I tend to skip recipes that call for “cake flour” but this looks so nice, I was wondering if it could be left out, or failing that, is there anything els you could suggest using. As for measuring cups, I was lucky enough to find imperial measures that are the exact volume for US standards. Our cup is 250 ml which is 10ml more than the US equivalent and our Tbsp is 20 ml which is 5 ml more than the US standard.
Thank you again for a truly lovely recipe.
HI Thanks yes you can use all AP (Plain flour) CLICK HERE for more
Stick to the weights I provide here
Hey there! I am also gluten free. What ratio of gluten free flour can I use instead of the APF and cake flour?
Thanks SO much!
Hiiii, While I am not GF baker, I have been told that my recipes work great with a 1:1 GF blend
Hi Gretchen! Can I add ginger and nutmeg to this recipe? If so how much would you recommend? I’m thinking of making this for my mother in law who will be having her surgery next week. She loves spiced carrot cake and I wanted to surprise her with it. Thanks so much! I made the key lime sheet cake btw and it was scrumptious 🙂
Hey awesome thanks! And yes! Spices can be adjusted majorly or minor-ly to your liking! I would probably add ½ tsp gi8nger ¼ nutmeg
I’ve made this cake a few time and everyone always loves it! Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe!! Wondering how many cupcakes one recipe would yield?
YAY! I think you can get 24 cupcakes, just fill liners slightly more than half full
Hi Gretchen, thank you so much for this recipe. I didn’t make the cake this time but the cream cheese frosting blew me away. I used homemade cultured cream cheese and butter but the quantities and ratios were absolutely perfect. I’m making more ingredients purely so I can make the frosting again and will try it with the carrot cake this time 😃
Oh wow! Great to know! I have not had success using homemade butter/cream cheese in recipes! Would love to know what you used!! 🙂
Hi Gretchen. I made the cultured cream cheese from the Non Dairy Evolution cookbook by Skye Michael Conroy and it’s ready to go. I’ll be making the carrot cake tomorrow! I’m so excited!
The star thing wouldn’t let me choose 5 stars above and I can’t edit it 😔
Hi wondering if I could use chia seeds instead of flax?
yes!
Omg Gretchen!! I baked this delicious cake for my nonvegan husband’s birthday 2 days ago. I was so shocked with the results. I love carrot cake , this cake is by far the most delicious cake ever!! Came out so moist and soft. The flavors pop out with every bite. Cream cheese icing was so perfect not overpowering but just just
Such a delicious cake! My husband was over the moon with it. Now 2 days later the flavors are settled and tastes ever much better! I can’t wait to share with my nonvegan family. Thank you for this recipe
You are the baking Goddess
YAY! awesome! thank you for this great review!