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.
YUM! Just made this cake last night and as a self proclaimed carrot cake aficionado, I give this 10/10. I used half spelt flour, a quarter almond flour, and a quarter oat flour. I also added in 3 flax eggs. I used half the recommended coconut oil and substituted the other half for coconut yogurt. I also used coconut sugar in place of cane sugar. I was hoping this cake wouldn’t be as dense and moist as other recipes I’ve tried, and it wasn’t! I also added walnuts and raisins to taste. For the frosting I reduced the lemon juice and added some lemon zest.
Hi Krishma, yay, I’m so glad it met your expectations 🙂
Great recipe, stores in the fridge well and it’s delicious. I made the frosting a little differently since I happened to already have some almonds soaking in the fridge. Almonds worked well.
If you happen to have apple cider vinegar I highly recommend it instead of lemon. It made the frosting taste just like cream cheese.
This was a hit with my omni family! I made the cake as called for but replaced 1/4 cup of the water for pineapple juice, and added 3 tbsp crushed pineapple and 1/2 cup chopped pecans. I ended up using a vegan frosting from the grocery store and made the batter into mini cupcakes (baked for 18 minutes). Next time I’ll make the frosting from this recipe.
I’m so glad your family loved the cake!!
Wow what a delicious cake!
I did have some trouble whilst baking it – one area of the cake was just not cooking through. Probably baked it for an hour all up. Areas that were already cooked began to burn so I covered the cake with foil. This helped cook it through but made it moist and dense – a little doughy too. However it is delicious nevertheless and texture is similar to store bought banana bread.
I didn’t have any apple sauce on me so I peeled and blitzed one apple with a dash of water in my blender. Perhaps made the cake mixture too runny, hence my baking issue. Not sure.
I made the frosting with one cup of cashews and almonds and it tastes delicious – just like cream cheese. I’m amazed! Will definitely make this again.
Note I’m not vegan neither is my dad who tried it – we both loved it.
The cake looks delicious and I’d like to give it a try, but I’m a bit confused as far as the conversion of cups to grams is concerned (I only use grams in recipes and always convert cups to grams). For example, a cup of all purpose flour equals to 125 grams, whereas a cup of spelt flour equals to little over 100 grams -so how come 2 1/4 cups of both equal to 256 grams????
I made this for a party and PEOPLE LOVED IT. The thing with baking is that I cannot taste the final product until the event itself, so it is also a surprise for me. And boy was I amazed! I felt like a dweeb praising the cake I brought myself, but ultimately it’s the recipe’s success so THANK YOU! 🙂 It’s super simple to make so this is definitely my go-to recipe from now on. I used a coconut cream frosting though, and it works very well!
Hi Irene, I’m SO happy to hear that everyone (including yourself) loved it!! Thank you for the wonderful feedback!
Great recipe! Came here to post that I reduced the sugar a lot and regretted it. Added a lot of icing sugar to the frosting to try to make up for it — the frosting is delicious! Thank you!
ha, thanks for your feedback, glad you enjoyed the recipe with the extra frosting!
Hi there! I just wanted to let you know how much I ADORE this recipe –– I’ve already made it three times this fall! In fact, I loved it so much I decided to feature it in my recent roundup of recipes using seasonal October produce.
If you think your followers would enjoy reading it, I’d love if you’d give the article a share. Just trying to spread the goodness that is seasonal eating. Thanks again for all you create!
What other nut would you recommend either than macadamian?
Hi Sarah – use cashews in place of the macadamias. Hope that helps!
I made it yesterday and took 1/2 amount of each ingredient, so it was a small cake but OMG was it tasty and eaten in an instant, so full size next time 🙂 I added some raisins soaked in liquour because that’s the way we like
Hi Vera, I’m so glad you enjoyed the cake 🙂
Surely this is yummy. My whole family love it very much, So we make it again and again.
Hi, I made your Vegan carrot cake with frosting 3 times in 3 weeks already ; it’s a real hit with everyone! For me, the cake is not pleasant to eat straight from the fridge as it is dense and wet.. so I was wondering what would happen if I do not refrigerate it at all, would the frosting go bad or sour? Thanks in advance for your reply 🙂
Hi Christina – I’m so glad everyone likes the cake! If you’re eating it within a day or so, I think it would be fine to not put in the fridge. Otherwise, I think the frosting will get watery at room temp. You could leave the cake out separate from the frosting if you like?
Hi Jeanine, that’s a great idea to keep the cake and frosting separate.. which is exactly what I will do next time I make it for me 🙂
This week I made it for my friend at work and everyone loved it so much they said that they prefer it than a traditional butter & cream version and now they all want it for their upcoming birthdays! 🙂
Let me know if that works better! Ha ha, I’m glad it’s a hit with your coworkers :)_
This looks amazing. I will be making this on the weekend to share with our non-vegan family.
A couple of questions….
1) Should I melt the coconut oil before making the frosting or does it matter?
2) What is sprinkled/crumbled over top in the picture?
Thank you!
Hi Brad, the coconut oil does not have to be melted – it’ll blend fine either way.
Crushed pecans are sprinkled on top
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Hi! Can macadamia nuts be substituted with something else? Thanks!
I made this today. It came out okay. I think I used too much grated carrots. I think it’s a fabulous recipe! Question, will this freeze well? Thanks!
I made this cake and the only I ingredient I was missing was applesauce, so I decided to make it without and instead put a tablespoon of water in. It turned out fantastic!! I also added a little more lemon to the frosting 🙂
Hi! The almond milk used for the frosting has to be unsweetened? Or can it be vanilla flavoured? Thank you!
Hi SOl, it can be vanilla flavored – either one – it won’t make too much of a difference.
I made two cakes of this for a cultural kitchen where I volunteer and it was a hit. I thought it was delicious too and it came out really well even in an old gas oven!
This looks lovely. Thank you! I’m wondering if it’s possible to leave out the sugar and use stevia instead (or dried fruit). Could you please give me some advice on if I need to adjust the flour or another ingredient’s measurements?
Hi Polly, I’m not sure that would work – Stevia isn’t an exact replacement for sugar in baking so it would likely throw off the texture. I think some readers have cut the sugar in half with good results but I haven’t personally tried.
Hi, I was simply wondering if the circles with a line in the middle for measurement means
one half?
I want to make this for my husband on Wednesday for his 61st birthday.
Thanks,
robin m
Hi Robin, I don’t see the circles you’re referring to. I’m so sorry, maybe it’s a difference between internet browsers? If you email me a screenshot (jd@loveandlemons.com), I can possibly troubleshoot what you’re seeing!