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.
This cake was a huge hit, soooooo good!! I added walnuts and raisins on top.
yummy, thanks !!
I’m so glad you liked it!
Hi! Instead of the apple sauce what can i use ?
thank you 🙂
This cake is delicious!! My family loved it! They were asking me to make it again as they were finishing the last of it! I left out the apple sauce, only because I didn’t have any, and I doubled up on the cashews, again only because I didn’t have any macadamia nuts at home. I will be making this again that’s for sure! Thank you
Non-Vegan review: This cake is yummy! I made it for my vegan daughter’s birthday. (She’s been craving carrot cake for sooo long.) I followed this recipe EXACTLY, and it was PERFECT! (I hate reviewers who alter recipes, then complain it’s bad…hmmm…wonder why?) The cake itself is really good (I might even add walnuts next time…but hold the raisins, bleh!) Without eggs, I was hesitant that it would be flat — but no, that’s not the case. The frosting doesn’t taste ‘nutty’ as you’d expect. Since I’m not a vegetarian/vegan: I think the cake would be really yummy with regular cream cheese frosting. 🙂
My two cents:
– I bought new baking powder, to make sure it was really fresh.
– A one-pound bag of baby carrots goes a looong way. I shredded the carrots fine shred, rather than the coarse shred.
– Even at room temp, the coconut oil/applesauce/milk mixture congealed. (My a/c’s too cold?) I zapped it in the microwave for a minute, and it was ok.
– I made the frosting in a VitaMix. Two minutes on high started to steam (Whoops! Forgot it can make hot soup. Choose the ‘smoothie’ setting.) I added the extra milk, which I wouldn’t do again, because the frosting was a bit runny.
I made cupcakes:
– I used a 1/4 c. (2″ diameter) cookie scoop for the batter.
– Baked at 350 for 22 minutes.
I’m so glad you liked it!! Thank you for all your helpful & thoughtful notes 🙂
The cake part is excellent! I am not a huge fan of the frosting though. Not sure if it is the macadamia nuts or what. I like macadamia nuts, but the taste of the frosting was just a little off to me. Possibly an acquired taste. Any suggestions for another alternative to keep it vegan?
Hi Scott – you can make the frosting recipe in this post and just use vegan cream cheese (ie, the Daiya brand is pretty good): http://www.loveandlemons.com/healthy-carrot-cake/
I just made this cake but had to add applesauce and water in order to be able to beat it. I measured the dry ingredients properly but the half cup of oil and other small liquid amounts were nowhere near enough to make a moist cake. With vegan company arriving, this is a dreadful recipe.
Hi and Greetings from the UK. Big thanks for the amazing recipe. A question a could I substitute the coconut oil for perhaps Rapeseed oil or light extra virgin oil?
Thanks.
Hi Nina, yes either of those oil substitutions should be fine…
Although the coconut oil is best for the frosting…
I made this on Friday.. Flavours were amazing but was so dense and the frosting was far too runny (made in vitamin)- where am I going wrong??!!
Claire
Hi Claire – if you soaked your cashews, did you drain them well before adding to the blender? The cake is a little on the dense side, although you might want to make sure your baking powder is fresh, since this is vegan, it’s the only ingredient that helps the cake rise.
Amazing!! Have made this several times and its turned out every single time! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe :)!!!
Made this cake for my vegan roommates birthday and it was a huge hit! Followed the cake recipe exactly other than adding in golden raisins. We loved the taste of the frosting although I soaked the nuts overnight so it was pretty runny. We just drizzled it over the slices of cake right before it was served and it was fine. My first time using soaked nuts, but won’t be my last! Great recipes!
I just made this yesterday… It’s already half gone. I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all-purpose flour and used a little more than a 1/2 cup of sugar and it is THE BOMB. I used 1/8 maple syrup in the frosting as well and I think that’s why I keep eating it, is because it is not overly sweet and more like a sweet bread/cake thing which is how I like it. It is incredibly dense and my non-vegan parents love it also! This is one of my favorite vegan desserts by far!
Hi Jenna – I’m so glad you loved it!
Hi!
This looks amazing and looks like it will be perfect for my dad who loves carrot cake but wants to be healthy (so nix on the cream cheese frosting!) I just wanted to know if if there is any way I can substitute the coconut oil in the frosting? Or if I can maybe leave it out? Will it effect the frosting badly?
Hi May, sorry for my slow reply! I find that the frosting is a little richer with the coconut oil – I suppose you could leave it out, it might just not be as creamy…
Just wanted to contribute to all the good comments to confirm that this recipe is great! The cake rose really well, not a heavy cake at all, yet nice and moist. I even made cupcakes by reducing the cooking time to about 20 mins, and they were beautiful. Thanks!
I just made this recipe for my birthday and I am vegan who has attempted many vegan cakes and this has been by far one of the best recipes that does not require odd ingredients such as egg replacements or anything like that! Loved it so much! I did not change a thing on the recipe and did it all accordingly, it turned out wonderfully and the frosting took no time at all! Can’t wait to buy your book very impressed! I have posted a photo of my creation on my Instagram page @thecranberryclub if you wish to check it out!
Much love x
Just made this cake for my dad’s birthday! (with another frosting) It was superb! He will be enjoying it for the rest of the week! 🙂 Thank you!
Super Delicious…I used oat flour and gluten free flour mix. I also thought I wanted a tangier frosting as well so I grated lemon rind in my frosting along with extra lemon juice. I also added toasted walnuts and raisins. The frosting was a first for me. I learned a lot from making this recipe.
I enjoyed making it…I really wanted it, so I worked for it! No one else who tasted it enjoyed it as much as I did!…and that’s why everything I bake is what I like! 🙂 Thank you for sharing a great recipe that people can tweak in so many ways to make their own and enjoy!
I want to make this cake tomorrow. But I was wondering if I could make it without the frosting? Don’t have the ingredients .
Hopefully the cake is still good and tasty
I like it without the frosting! Hope you do too 🙂
Is it just me or are the carrots somehow oxidizing to a greenish color? Every time I make this I ask myself what is green that I put in the recipe? Am I doing something wrong?
Hi Nina, that’s so weird, someone just wrote me say that their carrot cookies (another recipe) also turned green – I’ve made both recipes a gajillion times (and so have others) and this is the first I’m hearing about this green thing. When I googled it I found this helpful answer: http://www.thekitchn.com/food-science-when-good-carrots-52210 Maybe try reducing the baking soda by 1/4 teaspoon?
I’m super excited to make this cake for Mother’s Day. Couple questions…How long does the cake and frosting stay fresh? Can it be made a day ahead? Thanks!!
Hi Meg, yep, you can make it the day before just be sure to store it in the fridge. It will last 3-4 days in the fridge, but it starts to look a little less pretty over time so I think making it 1 day before mother’s day is a great plan.
Hello and thank you for the recipe! I’m going to bake this tomorrow for my boyfriend’s birthday.
Could you specify if by “vanilla” you meant Vanilla extract, or did you use a powder/paste?
Thank you!
Hi Nadine – vanilla extract (I’ll fix that to be more clear!)