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.
Made this for my husband’s bday BC my 2 yo is allergic to egg and dairy. My hb loved it and my son LOVED it! So moist.
Thank you!
yay, I’m so glad you all loved it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
This is the best carrot cake EVER!! I baked it this weekend and even my non-vegan friends ate two slices! Thanks for this recipe . . . looking at your book now!
Yay, so glad you and your non-vegan friends loved it!!
Hi!
I’m going to make this cake for my birthday cake this weekend. Has anyone made this cake into (2) 8″ rounds and used the frosting inside & out? My first, and novice-baker guess is to double the recipe, but I wonder if that will mean some will get discarded because it will be too much. macadamia nuts and cashews are expensive, I’d hate to see them go to waste.
Thanks for the help!
Hi Teresa,
I haven’t tried making this as a 2-layer cake – it’s very moist so I think it might work best in a sheet pan..
Can this be made with Oat, quinoa or chickpea flour? I can’t have any “white” things such as flour, pasta, refined sugar etc. Also, can you use something besides the cane sugar?
Hi Jennifer, I haven’t had success with oat flour in this recipe (it becomes too dense and crumbly), and I worry chickpea flour would also make it too dense. You might want to check out these carrot cookies which don’t use white flours and use maple syrup as a sweetener – they’re so good! http://www.loveandlemons.com/carrot-quinoa-oatmeal-breakfast-cookies/
I absolutely loved this recipe! You are a baking genius! I am not really a cake
person but this is soooooooooo good! This was by far the best cake I’ve ever had and deffinatly one of the best desserts in the world? I love the frosting it was sooo good! My non vegan family and friends loved it as well. I made this cake twice in one week and almost every one I served it to comment on how they liked the frosting better than the traditional cream cheese frosting for carrot cake. Also serval people asked for the recipe. The spicing is perfect as well as the nice moist texture? Overall thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. I am so grateful to be able to share your creative work of art with my family. I loved this recipe sooooo much. It truly is to die for.
Hi Kaley! So sorry for my slow reply, I’m so glad you and your family and friends loved the cake!
It’s fine. Thank you so much!
I MADE THIS!!
Here are the substitutions I did:
– 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose and 3/4 cups of whole wheat
– Didn’t have nutmeg, so I subbed 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice (was afraid it might be too spicy, but probably would have been okay with another 1/4 tsp)
– Used a little over 1/2 cup of sugar for the cake
– Used half the amount of oil and added an additional 1/4 cup of applesauce
– Baked using a 9″ round pan (for a little over 40 minutes at 350)
– Subbed cashews for macadamias
– Used less coconut oil in the frosting
Overall I thought it was really good, even with my crazy substitutions. Not too sweet obviously, and it was still very moist aside from the top looking dry. My timing wasn’t very good on the frosting, so it didn’t have enough time to chill properly. I used a magic bullet and after a while it definitely got smooth. I thought the frosting still tasted amazing, especially with a good vanilla, but letting it get cold would have been even better.
One thing I was confused on was whether or not I should measure the cashews after they had soaked or while they were still raw. In the end I decided it didn’t matter and I just used what I had which was a little more than a cup after soaking. It was a really thin frosting but I’m guessing the chilling would have helped with that.
If I were to make this again I’d probably try using a carrot puree just to get more carrot into it. For the frosting I’d let it chill and also play around with trying to get it to be more tart.
This was a delicious cake and my non-vegan family loved it. I’m sorry I didn’t exactly follow the recipe, I’m sure the original was great too! Thanks for the post!
Hi Jennifer! Glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing your modifications 🙂
I measure the cashews before soaking, as you did. Chilling would definitely help, it thickens a bit in the fridge (also, I just like the way it tastes cold). If your blender blade can handle it, you could start with less almond milk and add more as needed for the blade to move. (The less liquid, the thicker it will be). Definitely add more lemon juice (or even lemon zest), to taste, to make it tangier…
Can I use almond flour instead of spelt glour?
Thanks!
Hi Jaime, I’m afraid it would make it to dense since almond flour has a lot more fat than regular flours (and since this cake with all of the carrots is pretty moist as it is).
D E L I C I O U S !
Hey,
I made this yesterday, really really loved it!
I have a question: would it be ok to use extra virgin olive oil instead – I mean in both the cake and the frosting?
Instead of coconut oil I meant…
hi victoria,
can I used cashews milk, instead almond breeze,because realy hard to fine one in my place
thank u
yes, but I would make sure it’s not too thick (homemade nut milks are usually thicker than the store-bought almond milk). Regular milk (skim milk) works too, but is obviously not vegan.
good day
okay thank u for the idea,i realy like vegan carroy cake ,even Im not a vegan,
regard,from island of god,bali
and sorry how about the macadamia nuts,what kind of nut I can used instead of macadamia nuts,can be almond or any other nuts?
you can replace the macadamia nuts with cashews
I followed the recipe and added crushed pineapple. Didn’t turn out too well. I recommend sticking to the recipe and not changing it.
Hi! I’m getting ready to try out this recipe for a friend. I’ve haven’t baked with nuts very much before, so I just learned about the soaking nuts process. Do you recommend drying/dehyrdrating them in the oven after soaking/rinsing/draining them or can I go ahead and make the frosting immediately after soaking?
Hi Victoria, don’t dry or dehydrate – soak the raw cashews, then use a strainer or colander to drain and rinse them – then blend! Soaking helps them get creamier while you blend. If you’re using a vitamix (or similar), you can get away with less soaking time. If you’re using a less powerful blender, the longer the soak time (ie, overnight) the better. It’s important that the cashews are raw so that their flavor is neutral and the end result doesn’t end up tasting like cashews. Hope this helps!!
Thank you! Same for the macadamia nuts, right??
yep, you can soak them together.
I made this cake tonight, and it was fantastic! I cooked it for 30 minutes and soaked the nuts overnight. The frosting was to die for, and the cake was rich and moist. This is going in my quiver of delicious desert cake recipes! Thanks whoever came up with the recipe!
Hi Andrew! I’m so glad you liked it – thanks for coming back to let me know!
I just finished making this cake sans frosting and it is soooo delicious you can’t even tell its vegan it’s so moist and rises so well. I added a 1/2 cup of walnuts to the top instead of frosting but this recipe is DEFINITLEY a winner!!
Can the macadamia frosting be made ahead of time and put in the freezer to be used when needed?
Hi Erika, I don’t think this would freeze well, but you can store it in the fridge for up to about 4 days. Some water might separate, give it a stir before using.
Thank you Jeanine! The frosting came out delicious! It really is like a cream cheese frosting but nuttier! :). I haven’t made the cake yet but will be making it tonight for my sons first birthday. I’ll be using a low GI sugar in place of regular cane sugar and hope it turns out well. Fingers crossed, toes too!
Hi Erika – I’m so glad you like the frosting! Hope the cake went well 🙂
I’ve been craving carrot cake for months now but I’ve recently have become vegan so I was searching the internet for a solid recipe. I stumbled upon this one and I thought it was worth a shot. Let me tell you, BEST carrot cake I’ve had in my life. You cannot even tell it’s vegan–even my roommates couldn’t believe it.
I’m eating a slice as I speak. Fantastic recipe! I will definitely be looking at your other recipes in the future.
Yes! So glad you liked it 🙂
Want to make this for my son’s birthday, can I use cake flour? Also, can I add pecans to the batter? I have 9 inch round cake pans, are there any adjustments that I need to make?
Hi Wyzenna, yes you can use cake flour and I think a few pecans would be delicious. I haven’t made this as a layer cake, but others’ in the comments have seemed to have had success. It’s a pretty moist, dense, cake that I usually make as a sheet cake. I would just make sure to check and adjust the baking time to account for the change in pan size. I hope that helps!
Hi, could I use all spelt flour for this cake or do you need to have a mix with regular wheat flour?
Hi, could I use all spelt flour for this cake or do you need to have a mix with regular wheat flour?
THIS WAS AMAZING! I made the frosting in a food processor and although it didn’t come out as creamy as your picture it was still SUPER tasty. This was my first vegan cake and I will definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing! :))
Hi!! Making this amazing cake. BUT i bought toasted and salted macadamia nuts and now I cant go fetch raw ones 🙁 Is it possible to use them, like also soaked?
Thank u!!
Hi Renata – if you got extra cashews – you could double the cashews and skip the macadamia nuts (using the same total amount of nuts). I don’t think salted toasted ones will be sweet and soft enough for this frosting 🙁
Hi!
Tomorrow Im baking this carrot cake recipe and Im super excited! I love it, its my favourite flavour and the best part its guilt-free! I was wondering if i could substitute the spelt flour for quinoa flour?
Hi Belen,
I haven’t had great experiences with quinoa flour – it’s very different from wheat-based flours so I don’t think it would be a great swap here. (I’d suggest finding recipes that specifically call for quinoa flour).
Ive just eaten almost the half of the cake! It is delicious and my family members think it too! I used 3/4 of quinoa flour, 2/3 of kiwicha flour and 2/3 of oatmeal and it did work! It took more time to bake (more less an hour intotal) but totally worth it!!!