I make this vegan carrot cake recipe for Jack's birthday each year. Moist, cinnamon-spiced, and slathered in frosting, it's perfect for celebrations.
This vegan carrot cake recipe is a riff on my mom’s traditional recipe. That cake is Jack’s all-time favorite dessert, so she makes it whenever she comes to visit. Then, I make it again for Jack’s birthday. This year, instead of making her recipe as written, I adapted it to make a vegan carrot cake instead!
My mom’s recipe calls for applesauce, which makes her cake super moist and light. Using applesauce, you can actually veganize carrot cake relatively easily. Along with the shredded carrots, it adds enough moisture to eliminate the need for flax eggs or other unconventional ingredients. As a result, the cake batter comes together with pantry ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, sugar, and melted coconut oil.
The results are fantastic. The cake is moist, tender, and filled with warm, spiced flavor from cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. Enjoy it on its own, or take it to the next level by slathering it in rich, creamy vegan frosting. Even Jack – a total carrot cake traditionalist – fell for this vegan carrot cake recipe. I think you’ll love it too!
Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe Tips
- Grate your carrots finely. Finely grated carrots meld seamlessly into the cake, while larger pieces create a chunkier, less uniform texture. For tender, cohesive cake slices, grate the carrots on the small holes of a box grater or on the smallest setting of the grating attachment on your food processor.
- Don’t overmix! This rule applies to baked goods across the board. Mix your batter until just combined – and not any longer – or your cake will be dense.
- Let the cake cool completely before you frost it. The hardest part! Make sure your cake is at room temperature before you slather on the frosting. Otherwise, the frosting will melt.
Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe Variations
- Let’s talk frosting. The frosting recipe below is a cream cheese-like blend of macadamia nuts, cashews, lemon juice, coconut oil, and almond milk. Instead of using powdered sugar, I sweeten it naturally with maple syrup. I love this frosting, but you do need a high-speed blender to get it really smooth and creamy. If you don’t have one, or if you prefer a more traditional vegan cream cheese frosting, find one here.
- Or skip the frosting! This vegan carrot cake is delicious plain. We also love it with a dollop of coconut whipped cream.
- Add a mix-in. If you like your cake with raisins, chopped walnuts, or pecans, gently fold 1/2 cup into the cake batter when you add the carrots.
- Or sprinkle something on top. Sprinkle the frosted cake with chopped toasted pecans or walnuts for crunch, or use shredded coconut for extra warm, buttery flavor. Yum!
More Favorite Vegan Desserts
If you love this vegan carrot cake recipe, try one of these vegan treats next:
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Healthy Banana Bread
- Banana Muffins
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Then, check out this post for 30+ vegan dessert recipes!
Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2¼ cups flour, half spelt or whole wheat, half all-purpose
- 3 teaspoons baking powder*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup applesauce
- 1 cup almond milk or oat milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup cane sugar
- ½ cup melted coconut oil or canola oil
- 2 cups grated carrots
Frosting**
- ½ cup raw macadamia nuts, soaked, drained, and rinsed
- ½ cup raw cashews, soaked, drained, and rinsed
- ¼ cup almond milk or oat milk
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the applesauce, almond milk, vanilla, sugar, and oil.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the carrots.
- Transfer to the prepared baking dish and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before frosting.
- Make the frosting: In a high-speed blender, place the macadamia nuts, cashews, almond milk, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt. Blend until very smooth, for 1 to 2 minutes or more, scraping down the sides occasionally. You can add an extra tablespoon of almond milk if necessary to get your blade moving.
- Store frosted cake in the fridge.
Hello!
This looks delicious and i’m dying to make it. But can I use something else instead of sugar and maple syrup or can I just leave these two out? I like bananas is that okay?
Hi May, I really can’t say if bananas would work as a sugar replacement without trying it (they’re not the same consistency so it wouldn’t be an equal 1 to 1 swap). I don’t think it would work to leave all sugars out because it is a dessert, so it’s going to need some sweetness!
Love the sound of this — especially the vegan frosting! Will have to try this for sure!
I’d love to share this post on my blog in a post where I share my favorite recipe finds of the week. Would it be ok to grab a photo from this post (with link back to your post of course)? Just wanted to double check : )
Hello! Looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it! Just one question… is there anything I can use instead of applesauce? It’s not easy to get that over here. Thanks!
Thanks! If you’re not vegan, you can use yogurt in place of the applesauce.
Uh, thanks for the quick response! I’m vegan though… any ideas about what I can use instead? Thanks!
I’m not exactly sure – I haven’t tested another replacement. More almond milk might work, but it also might change the texture of the cake.
I just made it with marmalade and it was delicious
I live overseas and finding unsweetened, healthy applesauce is also either very difficult — or very expensive!! I started making my own. It’s soooo simple (assuming you can get apples! 🙂
8 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1-1/4 c. (300 mL) water
1/2 c. (125 mL) sugar or honey (depending on vegan or not. Also, I’ve lessened/omitted as my families tastes have changed)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Simmer over medium-low heat until apples are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. OR put in slow cooker on high for 3-4 hours.
Thank you K! It sounds pretty easy to make, I will give it a try! 🙂
Carrot cake is the best! Especially when it’s vegan and topped with such a lovely frosting 🙂
Cake is in the oven!! Got macadamias but no cashews in the house – what about almonds or peanuts or walnuts or hazelnuts???? Making this for my son’s birthday and the frosting sounds delicious.
That frosting looks divine, so creamy and delicious! And I’m always up for carrot cake ( have never tried a vegan version before, only gluten-free).
I really hope my food processor survives this because I want to try the frosting as soon as I get home! 🙂
What food processor do you have, or can you recommend a good one?
Thanks!
Xo Vicki
Hi Vicky,
I use a Vitamix Blender for creamy frostings (like this), soups, and cashew-based sauces. I have a mini cuisinart that I use for pesto’s and other recipes that don’t have to be as smooth. Hope that helps!
So excited to bake this on Saturday! Just curious what you topped the frosting with at the end?
Thanks so much!
crushed pecans!
Hello! Thanks for wonderful recipe, but before I get to cooking, please tell me what is a cup. I live in the grams world but ounces will do as well. Thanks!
Hi Li, here’s a link to a conversion chart: http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml
this frosting. oh em gee! have to try!
Oh my gosh, this sounds amazing! Love that macadamia nut frosting. Carrot cake is my jam, so I’ll definitely be trying this!
My son is allergic to cashews. Does it work to double the macadamias?
Hi Morgan, We tried it with all macadamia nuts initially and it didn’t really work. If you guys do dairy, you can replace the cashews with mascarpone cheese.
This looks amazing! And healthy. Thank you! I can’t wait to try this icing.
This frosting sounds great – love the idea of using maple syrup!
Oh my gosh, this looks absolutely incredible! I love your recipe, and especially the frosting! So neat and healthy.
Thank you for this recipe. Allthough i’m not vegan i try to cook or bake vegan recipes every now and then. And this frosting sounds so delicious.
Have a great week!
This looks amazing. If only my oven would work right now..! Need a new one, now!
YUM! I just love veggies in cakes.
This looks delicious. I was wondering if i can substitute the flour wirgluten free flour
Hi there,
How delicious looking! I had the best vegan carrot cake when I visited Seattle last year and have been dreaming about replicating it ever since, will definitely have to try out this recipe, looks fabulous.
Just a quick question – could I use all spelt flour?
Hi Louise, you could – it’s a little less light, but still delicious (I’ve done it that way many times before).
Hi, would half or all cake flour work to lighten it?
I have been craving carrot cake recently and this is just the recipe I needed to get cooking! Thanks for posting a delicious vegan recipe for one of my absolute favorite foods!