Here it is! The most delicious cake we’ve ever made. This recipe is not as simple as most of our recipes are, but is quite easy to make considering it’s a cake, especially if you don’t add any topping.
I’m trying to avoid oil because I prefer to use less processed fats like coconut milk, which is basically water and coconut meat. To make oil, you need to remove the fiber and other great nutrients that are good for your health. Anyways, you can use any other plant milk and add oil or any other healthy fat you want.
I want to share with you some pictures of the process: the shredded carrots, the batter before baking, the cake before adding the toppings, the cake with the frosting and last but not least, the best carrot cake we’ve ever tried!
It’s super easy to make healthy sweets and desserts. At the beginning, it can be challenging because we’re used to bake using white flour, white sugar, eggs and dairy, but you just need to learn how to cook using other healthy ingredients, that’s all. I know this is not a recipe you should make every single day, but at least I know I’m taking care of my gorgeous body while I’m enjoying this amazing treat.
Tips:
- Feel free to use any other type of flour or sweetener, although maybe you’ll need to add more or less (take a look at the picture of our batter).
- Use any kind of vinegar you want or even some lemon juice.
- As this is an oil-free recipe, I recommend you to use coconut milk or at least a plant milk with a high fat content.
- Raisins, walnuts and cinnamon powder are optional ingredients as well.
Vegan Carrot Cake (Gluten Free)
- Prep: 15 mins
- Cook: 30 mins
- Total: 45 mins
- 8 1x
- Dessert
- Vegan, American
Servings 8 1x
This amazing vegan carrot cake is made with healthy ingredients and is also gluten and oil free. You can enjoy this treat and take care of your body.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour (70 g)
- 3/4 cup oat flour (85 g)*
- 1/2 cup cane sugar (100 g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 2 tbsp flax seeds + 6 tbsp water
- 1 cup shredded carrots (150 g)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup full fat coconut milk (180 g)
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (40 g)
- 1/3 cup raisins (50 g)
- Vegan cashew frosting (optional)
- More chopped walnuts and raisins on top (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 390ºF or 200ºC.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl (the brown rice flour, oat flour, sugar, baking soda and cinnamon powder).
- To make the flax eggs, just blend the flax seeds and the water in a blender. Transfer to a jar or a bowl and let stand for at least 5 minutes to get a thick consistency.
- We peeled, chopped and blended the carrots in a food processor, but you can also use a blender or a grater.
- Add the flax eggs, shredded carrots, vinegar and coconut milk to the bowl and mix until well combined.
- Then add the walnuts and the raisins and stir.
- Grease the cake pan with some oil (coconut oil is my favorite one). If you use a non-stick pan, you can omit this step. We usually place a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan to avoid using oil. We used a 8 2/3 ” or 22 cm pan in diameter.
- Pour the batter into the pan.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until it’s fully cooked.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down completely.
- We added some vegan cashew frosting, chopped walnuts and raisins on top.
Notes
* We blended rolled or instant oats in a blender.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8 of the recipe with no toppings
- Calories: 236
- Sugar: 17.1 g
- Sodium: 175 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 2.9 g
- Protein: 4.1 g
Hi, I need to replace the oat flour with something else gf, do you think quinoa flakes would work? Thank you!
Hi! Feel free to use any kind of gf flour 🙂
Hi Losune,
Can I replace lemon instead of apple cider vinegar. and what is the reason why ACV is used, as it is commonly used to food. Thank you for the recipe, I love your blog
Hi Lily! Thanks 🙂 Feel free to use lemon instead! We use ACV because baking soda needs an acidic ingredient to create the rising reaction.
I made this with the cashew frosting yesterday for Easter and it was a hit! The cake was somewhat dense but not heavy. Everybody in my household loved it and it’s really not labour intensive. The night before I combined the dry ingredients and soaked the cashews so it was pretty easy to get it in the oven the next day.
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Hi Sue!!!! That is so great!!! We are happy about it! Thank you for sharing it with us! Have a great day!
I made this yesterday and was really impressed. Many other the other oat based carrot cakes I’ve tried have been really mushy but this one was moist and light. I’m looking forward to making this again!
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Hi Geneieve! So glad you liked it 🙂
Hello Iosune, Is it particularly important to use oat? On my mind Oat and Barley are pretty much interchangeable, and currently I only have Barley at hand so this is what I would like to use to replace Oat, what do you think?
Thanks for your blog it’s amazing.
Hi Alexis! I’ve never tried it myself, but I think it should work 🙂
I did this recipe yesterday but with 2 changes, I used normal eggs and xylit sugar. Omg, it’s the yummiest gluten free cake I’ve done the last 3 years. The consistency is great and it’s so moist and addictive. Thanks so much for the recipe. Next time I will try it with the flax eggs.
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Hi Engi! So glad you enjoy it. Flax eggs are a great alternative to chicken eggs 🙂
So I did this today Bc it’s my birthday 🤪 and honestly it’s so delicious 😋
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Hi Daniela! Happy birthday to you 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Cake turned out great it tasted delish – next time I’d prob make 2 and sandwich together as the cake is about 2 cm high I’d also try it without the raisins ( although it would be a super alternative to fruit cake at Xmas ) – I liked that I could throw in brown rice and oats in my high speed blender to make fresh flour instead of using store bought g/ f flours thanks for the recipe 👍
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Hi Kelly! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Can I replace cane sugar with coconut sugar?
Hi Teele! Of course 🙂 Coconut and cane sugar are prety interchangeable. Have a nice day!
Was a hit with the Mental Health Community. Sold in 30mins. I really enjoyed making the carrot cake and cashew cream frosting. This is the first carrot cake I’ve made too. Thank u for a lovely recipe I just added extra coconut milk as the mixture was really thick. Other than that it’s beautiful
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Hi Melissa! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it 🙂 Have a beautiful day!
Is the coconut milk from a carton or a can? I am never sure, unless it is specified. I have almond milk in cartons, but I always buy the low fat. Will those work?
Hi Donna! I always use canned coconut milk 🙂 I think it could work, but it’s better to use full-fat milk as this recipe is oil-free.
Hello! I’ve just made this recipe and the taste is incredible, but the cake doesn’t hold together at all – it just crumbles. I can’t get a single slice out of it, even though I waited for it fully to cool. Do you have any recommendations as to how I might remedy this? I wondered about adding some psyllium husk or xanthan gum? Otherwise – so delicious!
Hi Tom! Did you use the same ingredients and follow all the steps? Was your batter similar to ours? You could try adding more flax eggs and maybe more milk. Hope it helps!
Hi! I’ve made this delicious cake before!
Thank you 😊
This time round I’m out of coconut milk, do you think soy milk could work?
Hi Jacqueline! I think it should work 🙂
Love this recipe! I used a mini muffin baking pan to make them bite-sized. Thanks for posting these amazing healthy, vegan and oil-free recipes.
Hi Laura! Thanks a lot. Sounds great! Have a nice day 🙂
Last message was by me btw.typo.I have now eaten half of this cake.I didn’t mean to…or did I? 😀 You see,i’m finding a gluten free diet is really helping my severe stomach aches and I’ve been scouring the web for gluten free recipes that actually taste as good as they look.I have finally found that here! i’m so excited!Did I mention how good this cake tastes? Thank you so much!
Hi Renae! I’m so sorry, but I didn’t see your comment. I’m so glad you liked it so much 🙂
Hi Again.Made this.Love this.I was a bit worried at first cos the batter was sooooo runny,almost like water!But it baked up nicely.I also used Orgran egg replacer for the flax eggs and rice milk instead of coconut.Beautiful!I cannot wait to try all of your other gluten free recipes.Do you think a gluten free vanilla cake/cupcakes will be on the cards in the near future? Thank you so,so much!
Hi there! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂 Summers in my country are so hot, so I don’t think I’m going to make cupcakes soon. Have a nice day!
Hi there! I was just wondering…is there anything else i could use instead of the flax egg? I don’t really want to use a chia egg either.Would i be able to use another egg replacer like enerG or orgran? Thank you! Love your recipes so much!
Hi Renae! You could add any egg replacement or even mashed banana or applesauce. Have a nice day!
Hi, do you use ground flax seeds or not ground?
Hi Delia! I use not ground flax seeds and then grind them to make the recipe 🙂 Have a nice day!
Is it possible to replace the cane sugar with the dates? or date paste (mixed with water) or that would affect the consistency? (or to sweeten it with banana what do you think>
Hi K! I think it should work, but I’ve never tried it. I think you should add some sweetener, bananas are not enough. Have a nice day!
Hi there, I do replace the sugar with dates and it works great, I just blend the dates in the coconut milk.
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Do you replace the sugar with exactly the same weight of dates? Thanks
Hi Bo! Thanks a lot for your comment 🙂
Hi, no, I had 150g dates but it really depends on how sweet you like the cake, just try the batter ☺
Thanks Ulli 😉
Hi Ulli! Thanks a lot for your valuable comment 🙂
Do I keep in fridge once fully completed. My friends don’t arrive for another 2 hrs and worried about the frosting…
Hi Jacq! Yes, it’s better to keep it in the fridge 😉
Do I keep in fride one completed? Thank you x
Hi Jaqc! Yes, I prefer to keep it in the fridge 🙂
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Its not mentioned. Should dry mix into wet ing. Or visa versa.
Hi Roger! It doesn’t matter, you just need to mix both until well combined. Have a nice day!
can I replace brown rice flour with millet or buckwheat flour?
Hi Karolina! Yes, buckwheat flour and brown rice flour are pretty interchangeable 🙂
Can I replace the flour worth 2 chickpea flour?
Hi Bebe! I’ve never made this recipe using chickpea flour, so I can’t help you, sorry!
Already baked it twice! Thank you for this recipe! !! Love your creations!
Hi, the cake is really delicious, thank you ?
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Hi Ulli! I’m so glad you liked it 😉