Carrot cake is pretty awesome! It gives you the feeling that you’re eating something pretty darn healthy. I mean you’re getting your veggies in!
And when it’s vegan carrot cake, well….. then you can feel pretty saintly about it!
Ok Ok, I’ve said I’m never going to mention guilt and food in the same sentence on this blog, and I’m going to stick to it, but you know, there’s indulgence and then there’s feeling saintly about indulgence, which is not like indulgence at all really.
So go on, have your vegan carrot cake and eat it too, while feeling saintly about your good choices π
And you know one of these days I’ll make a gluten-free version and THEN, well then, you know, you can just about ascend to heaven on a cloud while you eat it!
Jokes aside, this carrot cake is super good, it has a wholesome hearty vibe, while being moist, rich, and delicious.
Two things: firstly, I frosted it with a slightly altered version of my lemon buttercream frosting recipe. In this one I added apple cider vinegar, this was to try and get a slightly more ‘cheesy’ flavor to it.
Well, it didn’t really work, it was really good, but I would not say it was in any way ‘cheesy’.
The sad thing is I can’t get vegan cream cheese here, so a cream cheese frosting was out, at least until I figure out how to make a cream cheese frosting without cream cheese, and without using tofu, because I haven’t got my head around using tofu in a dessert quite yet.
But lemon buttercream works fabulously as well. Especially if you like your frostings very sweet.
Second thing: Every single time I’ve made this I’ve intended to put walnuts in to it. And every single time I’ve forgotten. It’s been in the oven already when I’ve remembered the walnuts.
So as you can see, I decorated the top of the cake with crushed walnuts but I just KNOW that walnuts IN the cake itself would be fab too.
If I could only just remember!
Anyway, if you remember to do it, adding some walnuts in as a final step before transferring the batter to the cake tins would be a great addition to this cake.
You will love this cake for its moist, rich, wholesome flavor and gorgeous color.
Topped with lemon buttercream frosting and crushed walnuts, this cake is ideal for any special occasion. Or just for Sunday afternoon tea.
So just to reiterate, you’ll love this cake for so many reasons, but mostly because it’s:
- Rich
- Moist
- Wholesome
- Vibrant
- Topped with lemon buttercream frosting!
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay good for a couple of days, or keep it covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week!
And if you love cakes, then definitely check out some of our other awesome cakes, like:
And if you love chocolate there’s our vegan chocolate cake and for those who are gluten-free there’s our gluten-free chocolate cake. There’s something for everyone I reckon!
So what do you think of this gorgeous vegan carrot cake? Let me know in the comments!
I’d love you to rate the recipe (it’s really SO helpful!), and let us know how it went if you’ve made it already.
As always, if you take any pictures, don’t forget to tag me #lovingitvegan on instagram so I can see it! xxx
Oh! I almost forgot!
While you’re here – sign up for our email list! You’ll get a (free) recipe ebook in the deal and you’ll stay updated with all our latest recipes too! Too tempting am I right?Β 
Moist Vegan Carrot Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting
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Prep Time: 30 mins - Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
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Yield: 10 -
Category: Cake, Dessert -
Cuisine: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Moist, rich vegan carrot cake with a wholesome flavor and gorgeous color. Topped with lemon buttercream frosting and crushed walnuts. Ideal for any special occasion, or just Sunday afternoon tea.
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
- 2 cups (250g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 9 oz (250g) Grated Carrot
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) Brown Sugar
- 2 Flax Eggs
- 1/2 cup (120ml) Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup Chopped Walnuts (Optional)
For the Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
- 3 and 3/4 cups (450g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Vegan Butter
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 3-4 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (180 degrees celsius).
- Grease two 7 inch cake tins and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a mixing bowl.
- Add the grated carrot and the brown sugar.
- Prepare the flax eggs, by mixing 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Water and allowing to sit for a minute.
- In the meantime, add the oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar to the mixing bowl.
- Add the flax eggs.
- Mix everything together in the mixing bowl.
- *If your batter is too dry at this point (and only if it’s too dry to mix) then add in a little non-dairy milk, only as much as you need to get the batter to a wet enough consistency so that it can mix properly.
- Lastly add the chopped walnuts if you want to add them.
- Divide the mixture between the two 7 inch cake tins.
- Place into the oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- While the cakes are cooling, prepare your frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and 3 Tbsp of lemon juice to an electric mixer bowl.
- Start mixing on low speed.
- If your frosting is too thick then add in more lemon juice a drop at a time as needed to get your frosting mix to the perfect consistency. If your frosting ends up too thin, add more powdered sugar.
- Add frosting to the top of one of the layers.
- Add the other layer on top and complete the frosting of the top and sides of the cake.
- Sprinkle crushed walnuts on top of the cake and serve.
Notes
Some commenters have noted that they needed to use a little non-dairy milk to get their batter wet enough. This would depend on how wet your carrots are. I didn’t need to use any extra liquid, but if you do, then just use as little non-dairy milk as you need to get the batter wet enough to mix properly.
Inspired by Gimme Some Oven
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 10)
- Calories: 517
- Sugar: 74.6g
- Sodium: 347mg
- Fat: 13.6g
- Saturated Fat: 1.9g
- Carbohydrates: 97.7g
- Fiber: 2.2g
- Protein: 3.2g
Hi do you think I could use gluten free flour for this recipe. Thank you
★★★★
Sure Danielle, you would need to use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend, Bob’s Red Mill brand is a good option, and then increase the baking soda and baking powder by 1/4 tsp each. Usually in going gluten-free in cakes I would suggest increasing the oil as well, but in this case I don’t think it would be necessary. All the best! π
Thank you for the advise. I am going to try this tomorrow βΊ
Hi I made the cake with gluten free flour and it was amazing. I found the icing to sweet so will just do a butter icing next time. Thank you for reciepe
Cool Danielle! Great to hear it came out well – thanks for posting!
Richly moist and satisfying cake.
★★★★★
The cake turned out so delicious!! Thank you for the recipe although the cups and gram measurements were confusing so I just followed the gram measurements. Anyways the frosting was so delicious and the cake was moist but not dense!
★★★★★
Hi Naadia! It’s actually better to follow gram measurements with cakes, particularly with flour, and weigh things, it works out more accurately! So glad to hear it came out well! Thanks so much for posting. π
How many carrots will I need and does 1.5 cups mean 1 and a 1/2 cups?
Hi there Hamid, it’s around 3-4 large carrots, but this definitely needs to be weighed so that the right amount of grated carrot is added in. Any leftovers you can throw into a salad. π Yes, 1.5 cups means 1 and a 1/2 cups.
Not sure what went wrong but I measured and mixed everything accordingly and my batter was a doughy ball rather than something I could pour into a pan! I’m going to try and add some things to get it to the right consistency and I’ll update soon
Oh no! Did you weigh the flour? It’s so easy for flour measurements to end up with too much if not weighed, it’s a tricky business! The batter is ‘quite’ thick on this one with all those grated carrots in there, but not doughy of course. Hope you manage to fix it! All the best!
That’s the only thing I didn’t do- weigh! I added some water and that seemed to thin it out a little but I ended up pouring it all into one 8″ round pan. The batter tasted alright and it baked properly at 350 for 30 mins.
I mixed up the frosting and ended up adding some unsweetened soy milk and it’s pretty good !
I’ll update with taste pretty soon π
Brilliant – I hope your innovations saved the cake and that it was still good! π
24 hours later and that cake was all gobbled up!
Hi, my dough ended up very thick too and barely spread to cover the pans. Everything was measured appropriately. Smells great, hopefully tastes good and will still turn out all right. I added some golden raisins to the batter and ginger for a lil extra spice.
Ginger and golden raisins sounds like an awesome add! Hope it comes out great!
I made this and added 1 cup of raisins and 3/4 of a can of pineapple tidbits (drained) and it was amazing
★★★★★
What a great idea Kendra! You know, I never thought of using raisins, which is weird, because it’s a perfect addition to carrot cake! And the pineapple sounds awesome too. Thanks for posting! π
Hey! Amazing recipe! Just wanted to know, can I use coconut oil or any kind of oil instead of vegan butter because it is impossible to find one in my country!:(
Hi Rugile, thank you! Honestly I have never tried using coconut oil as a replacement for vegan butter in the frosting. It may work fine, I actually donβt see why it wouldnβt really, but canβt say for sure. If you read ingredients on margarines you can usually find one that doesnβt have animal products. Of course I canβt say for your country as I donβt know where youβre based, but I have found this to be the case in quite a few countries so itβs worth mentioning. All the best.
I used coconut oil and it turned out great! Thanks for this recipe.
Lovely! Thanks for posting! π
Is the flaxseed meal required for the cake to come out good? I have ALL the other ingredients planning to make this tomorrow morning for my best friends birthday.
★★★★★
Hi William, yes it is definitely a required ingredient as the recipe has been created using this. If you omitted it, it might work out okay or it might really not. Since you want to make it for a birthday, I wouldn’t experiment at this stage, and rather just get the flaxseed meal so you can follow the recipe exactly. All the best!
Hi, I am planning on making this cake for my husbands birthday and I have a lot of cake flour in my pantry that I need to use up. Can I make this cake with it or must it be APF? TIA
Hi Adriana, I really can’t say for sure as I haven’t tried it like this. The issue with using cake flour in vegan baking is that it contains less gluten than all purpose flour, so it binds less. It could work out absolutely fine here, but you just wouldn’t know until you try it. Probably the worst that would happen is that it would be more crumbly. If you do try it with cake flour then let me know how it turns out. All the best! π
Alison,
Thanks for your quick reply! I will stick to all purpose flour this time around as it’s for my husbands birthday, but next time I’ll experiment.
Thanks once again!
Hi Alison,
Do you think I could pop the batter into a loaf tin instead for a loaf cake or would it not rise enough?
Thank you!
Jess
Hi Jess, I ‘think’ it would be fine! It would just affect the cooking time, you’d likely need to leave it in longer, I’m not exactly sure how much longer, you’d just have to check it regularly to see when it’s cooked.
I used this recipe but subbed a few things. I used all oat flour, 1/3c coconut oil, and roughly less than 1c coconut sugar and this cake was amazzzzing. I’ve made this recipe 2x-the first I pressed the batter into a donut pan and the second time in disposable bakeware for coworkers. This cake gets better in the fridge IMO. The first night warm seemed dry to me(that’s on me reducing my oil) however, here we are two days in and it is so yummy I had to leave feedback. I also can’t get my head around tofu cream cheese or carrot cake without cc frosting. Since my family and I are dairy free simply for healthier living, I did indulge in 1/3 fat cream cheese with a little vanilla extract and coconut sugar. Bonkers! Love love love! Thank you!
Awesome Cecilia! Thanks for posting! π
I made this cake for my own birthday, doubling the recipe and using three 9 inch round cake tins. I used melted coconut oil instead of olive oil, and found the batter to be dry so I added about 1 cup total of almond milk. This did the trick! I did not use the frosting above, instead I made a vegan cream cheese frosting. I too forgot the nuts in the batter so I just layered some between the layers and sprinkled on top. My non-vegan family members were extremely impressed, claiming that this cake is even better than any carrot cake they’ve tried! Thank you so much for this recipe π
Awesome Rachel! So glad it was a success! Thanks so much for letting us know the adjustments you made. π
I’ve made many cakes before & never seen one that only uses oil as the liquid. I wound up having to add almost 3/4 cup of almond milk. I don’t have a kitchen scale but am usually pretty close with flour etc…
I’m anxiously waiting to see how it turns out!!
Hi Megan, the recipe only uses the oil (and the flax egg liquid, vinegar etc) as the wet ingredients because it has 9oz of raw carrot added to it, which is an extremely wet ingredient. The batter starts out dry but after you add those grated carrots and mix in a bit it just gets wetter and wetter as the moisture from the carrots seeps into the batter. Sure, it’s still thicker than a regular cake batter with all that chunky carrot but it turns into a batter like you see in my pictures.
I had the exact same problem, the mix was so dry it looked like I was making carrot cookies. Had to add about half a cup of almond milk… Perhaps your carrots had a lot more liquid come out of them than the few of us that have commented about the mix being dry! π Fingers crossed it will still bake nicely!
This is entirely possible – I baked a batch of cookies the other day that was the exact recipe I had made before but I was using a different brand of vegan butter, and suddenly I needed to use more non-dairy milk than I used before as my batter was WAY too dry. So yes, different ingredients bring different results. Being flexible in baking is always a good thing. Hope your cake came out well!
I found the apple cider vinegar in the frosting overpowering. I made another batch, substituting almond milk for the apple cider vinegar. Thanks for the recipe.
I am going to make for my grand daughter! My question is do you think I could use coconut flour?
I don’t think it would work for this recipe Lucy. It’s not the kind of flour that you can do a straight swap with.
Hi Alison!
I’m Flavia and I’m from Italy, I try to make your recipe, and this is so good, I never taste a cake like this, I have to change vegan butter because here in my country there isn’t, I substitute with soy butter, and also the olive oil I change with Mais Oil because here in Italy we use the olive oil only for savory recipes never in dessert because it’s too much heavy.
And I have a question, can i use a rice flour? For this time I use a flour type ‘0’, it’s also ok?
Sorry for this long message and for my grammatical errors π
And again thank you so much for the recipe
★★★★★
Hi Flavia! So glad you liked the cake and thanks for posting about your substitutions. Regarding rice flour, I have not found it to bind properly in a cake, if you want to make this cake gluten-free, then I would use an all purpose gluten-free blend, like Bob’s Red Mill. I have made this recipe gluten-free when I made these cupcakes so you can see the other adjustments that were made: http://lovingitvegan.com/gluten-free-carrot-cake-cupcakes-with-cashew-cream-frosting/
All the best! π
Hi,
The cake was crumbly so not sure what happened there?! would you know what went wrong?
Also I found the cake and frosting way too sweet so will try to put less sugar next time as it is nearly 1KG of sugar for the whole cake π
Overall, I loved the flavours! really moist cake! Thanks for sharing
★★★
Hey! Definitely try adding 1/2cup almond milk (120mL) per batch of cake mix.. trust me!
Hi,
The recipe looks wonderful. I can’t wait to try it. I was just wondering if I could omit the apple cider vinegar. Also, would vegetable oil work as well as olive oil?
Thanks
The apple cider vinegar is important as it interacts with the baking soda. The olive oil can absolutely be switched out for any vegetable oil of your choice. π
Hi, thanks for your reply and sorry for the late reply back! I did add the apple cider vinegar and ended up sticking with the olive oil. I also added some ground ginger and mixed spice and replaced the icing with cream cheese frosting. Silly me squeezed out all of the water from the shredded carrot before adding it to the mix so I had to add some extra water to the mix before putting it in the oven as it was too doughy! Everyone loved it! Some found the cake too dense but I think that’s how it’s meant to be. Any advice on making it a little less dense? I also thought the flax eggs are a brilliant idea! Thank you so much. I am going to make it again tomorrow ready for my family gathering for Christmas! Can’t wait! x
Hi Bansi, I didn’t find the cake to be dense. Just be careful with the flour measurement, it’s so easy to use a little too much flour, so best to weigh it first. That’s usually what causes it to be dense. So glad you enjoyed it though and hope you have a great Christmas! All the best! π
Hi having been invited to a family holiday dinner that was to be attended by a few vegan and a few diabetic family members I decided to try this recipe. I made my two flax “eggs”. I will be using those again. It worked out brilliantly. I also just used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and a cup of coconut sugar. I had to add 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple with the juice. Just so it was wet enough to spread in the pan.I tasted the batter before I put it in the pan. It’s safe to do that with the flax egg. It looks delicious. I can’t wait to wow our family. I can’t wait to try it tomorrow!! Thank you. Happy Holidays!!!
★★★
Hi, this carrot cake looks delicious and I really want to try it for an upcoming birthday. I was just wondering if I can use chia “eggs” instead of flax eggs. Happy Holidays!
I don’t see why not. Chia eggs are a straight 1:1 swap for a flax egg so it should be fine, though I haven’t tried it like this myself. If you do try it, let us know how it works out!
Wow! I hate carrot cakes but this one I could eat forever!! unbelievable!
Just instead of the flax eggs I used chia seeds and it added up some crunchiness along with the wallnuts
Hi Sharron, thanks for letting us know how it works out with the chia eggs! Glad you enjoyed the recipe! π
Hi, what are flax eggs? I’m in Philippines n haven’t seen it around… Is there any replacement ingredient I can probably use? TIA
βΊοΈ
It’s a mix of flaxseed meal with water. If you click the links in the recipe it takes you to a step by step tutorial (including a video) of how to make a flax egg. A flax egg can be replaced with a chia egg, same concept, but using chia seeds instead of flaxseed meal.
This sounds fantastic and totally do-able! Making it on Sunday so I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hey Lesley – awesome! Hope it went well! π
Delicious!
I made this cake for my daughter’s 15th birthday party, and everyone loved it.
A few changes:
I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white flour.
I replaced half the olive oil with plain unsweetened applesauce.
I used 3 cups grated carrot (probably more than the 9 oz. called for).
I baked it in two 8 inch round pans.
Love this! Baked once before with grams and it worked fine. Today I used cups and when it comes to the flour: my cup holds 250g so when I use 2 I end up with 500g and not 250g. I popped it in the oven anyway to see what happens.
Do I have to use 2 cups (500g) or 250g (1 cup) flour?
Thank you so much π
Wow, that is a big cup! The cup I’m talking about in the recipe is a measuring cup, but yes, even a proper measuring cup is a complicated measure because you’re supposed to fluff the flour up and then spoon and level, so you never shake it (which makes the flour settle) or push down the flour as this will result in way too much flour. And because of this I always recommend to weigh the flour. It’s just too easy to accidentally use too much. If you use a little too much sugar – that’s no problem. But too much flour and generally your cake is not going to come out too well. I definitely recommend weighing the flour, and if your cup holds this much then I think it’s not a standard measuring cup, so rather use grams for everything. All the best!
Hey, Thanks for the recipe! I made this today for me and my partners birthday (as it’s three days apart from each other). I followed exactly and carefully and the mixture was doughy! I added in a little rice milk and water to thin it out and poured it into two tins. I thought my tins were 7″ but think they might have been 8, as it didn’t rise so much! I think when sandwiched together with buttercream it will be fine though! And like you I forgot to put the damn walnuts in! haha.
★★★★
Hahaha, those walnuts! If your tins were 8″ then you would likely have needed to increase the recipe a bit to make the layers thicker. However, just to let you know that there isn’t a big rise anyway, but it’s enough of a rise since there are two layers. Hope it was lovely once you put them together and frosted them!
I made this a couple of days ago and it’s a fantastic recipeβthanks Alison! For the egg substitute I used ground flax seed (coffee grinder) and instead of mixing it with water used aquafaba. As a binding it worked very well and the cakes rose to the tops of the pansβmoist and firm! Yum!
★★★★★
Oh cool! Awesome substitution there! Thanks for posting! π
Hi Alison! If I were to use one baking tin instead of two, does that mean I have to bake for an hour? Thanks.
Hi Dillon, no definitely not. The time would be longer but not double. I’m not sure how much longer, but maybe 10 minutes or so? You’d have to play it by ear and just check it at about 40 minutes or so and see if it’s done. If not, back in it goes!
Thanks for the recipe! Is there any alteration you would recommend if I use organic sprouted whole wheat flour?
Thanks again!
Hi Dawn, I haven’t tried it like that so I don’t know. From what I read online you can swap up to 50% of the all purpose flour with sprouted whole wheat flour but not all of it or you won’t get the same results.
Hi I made this cake today but the butter icing is runny how can I thicken it ?
Just add more powdered sugar to thicken it up.
I’ve reduced the sugar to 1 cup (half brown half sweetner) and added a glass of milk as my carrots were quite dry. The sponge is beautiful. Smells amazing.I’ve made several vegan cakes in the past and Alison’s ones always come out fantastic! Saved in my recipe book.
★★★★★
Brilliant! Thanks so much for posting Antonia!
Hi, Alison! Thank you for all your great recipes. All my family adores the carrot cake π I was just wondering: have you ever tried to make it without sugar? I tried it with black treacle/molasses made out of dates – it was very sweet and tasty, but a bit more moist. I would be your biggest fan, if you start cooking your lovely desserts with natural sugar replacements. You would definitely take it to the next level π And yeah, everything else that you do is great and healthy, only the sugar is bothering me.
Hi Katy, glad you liked the carrot cake, and that sounds great as a substitution! I definitely have no plans to replace the sugar in my recipes, I try to go with the easiest/most accessible ingredients and also what I see as being the most tasty for that particular recipe. Our blog is also not focused on any style of eating within veganism; it’s vegan, and that’s it! π Everything goes for us within the vegan paradigm. That is the essence of our brand. That being said our raw recipes of course lean this way, so you might like those more! And there are more of those coming too! π
Dear Alison,
thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! I made the cake for a meet-up yesterday and got really good feedback.
I was freestyling a little bit since I didnt have icing sugar. I made the coconut filling you have in the chocolate cake recipe instead of the lemon buttercream frosting and it turned out tasty.
I definitly want to make this cake again but for my personal taste I would love to make it less sweet and a bit more carroty next time. Can I just use less sugar and more carrots in that case or will I have to adjust other ingredients? Looking forward to your suggestions
greetings from Cascais, Portugal
★★★★
Hi Anne! Glad you liked it and got good feedback! I actually think that might work fine without any other adjustments, that is what I would try first off and then see if any other tweaking needed to be done. If it’s a little too moist, then add a little more flour. I don’t think the sugar adjustment would make a big difference to the end result as sugar is usually quite an easily variable ingredient. But let us know how it goes if you try it that way! All the best!
Would I need to alter the recipe if my cake tins were 2 9inch tins?? Thank you in advance! So excited to have a vegan dessert at Easter tomorrow.
I definitely would in this case, else your layers will be too thin. I would increase the recipe by half in this case. All the best! Happy Easter!
1/2 like half of that ingredient need? 2 tsp = 1 extra teaspoon??? And 2 flax eggs so 3 flax eggs to make it an extra half? Sorry just want to clarify before I start baking!
Yes, exactly like this. So if it was 1 tsp then you would use 1 and a 1/2 tsp. Etc. If it is confusing or you’re worried about it, you could also leave it as it is and do it as a single layer cake. That would also work.
This cake was so delicious!!! I’m vegan because I’m breastfeeding my son who has numerous allergies. My family just couldn’t believe I was able to eat something like this for Easter. Thank you! Can I just ask, what’s the storage advice for this? Does the icing keep it fresh enough to store out of the fridge??
Hi Laura, so glad to hear it came out so well! It will keep at room temperature for a few days but if you wanted to keep it longer than this you should keep it covered in the fridge. If it’s in the fridge, it’s good for up to a week.
I haven’t made this cake yet, but I’ve made other recipes of yours so I know it will be delicious! Thank you for adding to the growing number of vegan recipes online. I’m not yet vegan (getting closer all the time), but my daughter is.
Keep up the great blog.
P.S. I have a minor quibble about your site, which I have about other food blogs too, so it isn’t personal, and I hope you don’t mind my feedback. I wonder how other readers feel about this: I find it annoying to have to scroll through so many full-size photos before getting to the recipe I want. Is it really necessary to see 9 photos of the same (delicious-looking, granted) cake? Some food blogs include photos of cracked eggs, bowls of flour, etc. I really don’t get the point of all that.
Hi there! Glad you’ve been enjoying the recipes! Regarding your feedback, in order for a recipe page to be indexed by search engines and actually reach people, it needs to be a certain length and preferably contain many images as well as video where possible. It also needs to be a certain number of words (and the recipe itself does not count towards this). This is how our recipes are actually getting an audience. If we were to just post a recipe and just one photo and not much else, it would not be indexed and would not appear in search engines. This would mean no audience or a very small audience. In addition a page has value to advertisers due to its content and its length. If it was just the recipe card – no advertisers would buy space on the page, meaning no bloggers would earn any income from their hard work. Hope this answers your question!
Hi,
Just wondering about the amount of frosting this is actually meant to make. It seems impossible that only 3tbsp of butter would be enough to frost a cake as beautifully and fully as you’ve frosted yours in the photos! Did you double, triple, or even quadruple that recipe? I have made frosting just like this before and it takes about 1/2 cup of vegan butter for me to make enough frosting for 12 cupcakes, frosted about as thin as your middle layer of cake here.
Thanks!
It’s the amount of powdered sugar, not the vegan butter, that creates the volume here. I used the recipe exactly as written.
Ah, I see, that makes sense. Thank you for your reply!
Just made this and it came out wonderfully, except that the frosting was way too sweet. Instead of starting over, I added arrowroot flour, almond milk, and salt. It worked pretty well!
★★★★★
Cool Heather! Thanks for posting!
Just made this for a mother’s day lunch. Turned out fantastic. I made a few changes, I’m gluten free so i used gluten free flour and just increased the olive oil until the mixture was soft enough. I also used a silicone loaf pan rather than 2 cake tins as I didn’t have 2 and it looked too flat in the one larger cake tin.
It went down a treat, and I didn’t tell anyone it was vegan and GF until afterwards… we polished the whole thing off!
PS this was my first time baking with flax eggs instead of real eggs and you can’t tell the difference! This has changed my life!!
★★★★★
Fantastic Maddie! So great to hear you were able to adapt it for gluten-free so successfully!
It’s definitely missing some more liquid, which I added and it’s delicious, please fix the recipe, I’m measuring everything and half cup of oil and flax egg wont make runny 2 cups of flour π
I’m not going to fix the recipe (though I have added a note) because it works exactly this way when I make it and it also has for a lot of others who have made the cake. π This is down to how wet your carrots are, as discussed above. Flexibility in baking is always required, as different ingredients will have different results, so you need to have a flexible approach, which you did, and this is great.
Amazing!!!!! Sooooo nice. Definitely needed the almond milk for mine and I used coconut oil too! But its delicious. Thank you x
★★★★★
Awesome Emma! Thanks for sharing!
Hi,
Made the cakes using bigger pans so they are very thin. I also used the recipe for the lemon buttercream it’s very thick. I was able to roll it into a ball. I’m not sure how to make it spreadable. I don’t have any non dairy milk. I’m making this for family that is coming from out of town. Please help!
Hi Courtney, the layers will be thin if you used bigger pans, I usually advise to go bigger with the recipe if using bigger pans, but hopefully when you stack them it will still be okay. Regarding the frosting, if you have more lemon juice then add that, a tiny bit at a time until you reach the right consistency. If you don’t have any lemon juice left then just use water. All the best!
I used water before seeing this comment and it came out great! Will share a photo.
I made the cake today. Looks good, textures good and taste is delicious. Frosting is another matter. The 3 TBS of vegan margarine can’t be right. It doesn’t bind together. I must be missing something
Hi Michael, the lemon juice is also super important! And you do need to use an electric mixer for this. I have a video of a similar frosting on this page: Vegan Vanilla Frosting, it uses the same amount of vegan butter, and the same amount of liquid and it might help you to see it happen visually.
Hey Alison!!! I am planning to make this cake for my birthday…..but I will have to make a few tweaks…..The thing is that I can only use coconut milk…..so will the cake be too “coconutty” if I add both coconut milk and coconut oil??? What other oils do you suggest (other than olive???) Can I use sunflower oil….I always use it for cupcakes??!!!
Also can I use AQUAFABA as frosting….????(I am kinda new to baking)
THANKS A TON!!!
Hi Shreya, you can use any vegetable oil you prefer. If you use coconut oil and coconut milk, it would be fine, it won’t be overpowering as a flavor. I haven’t used aquafaba in a frosting as yet, so I can’t advise there. All the best!
Thanks
Can you suggest some other frosting recipe???….not made of cashew and almonds and also something simple???
Thanks
Also I cannot get any vegan butter where I live……..
Hi will it work if I make a Chia egg instead of a flax egg.
Yes, this works fine as a swap.
Hi. Watched the video clip. It shows soya milk being added. Has this been missed off the ingredient list for frosting. Yes, electric mixer was used.
No – lemon juice is used instead of soy milk in this frosting.
Thank you. Did try my best. Will try again very soon as such a delicious cake. My granddaughter age three wanted a carrot cake instead of chocolate one. Good choice. She enjoyed making it.
This is unbelievably good; just wanted to let you know π
Thanks!
Lovely! Thanks for sharing! π
I have literally made this carrot cake recipe like a thousand times and it never fails to please. It is so damn good! I did use a different frosting though, just because this frosting has too much sugar for my liking and sugary frostings always come out grainy for me (i don’t have the best blender/equipment to get it smooth). But the cake itself, literally has pleased everyone i’ve made it for. Thank you!
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Wonderful to hear! Thanks so much for sharing! π
Hi Alison,
I very much want to bake this cake as you have described, however I have all the ingredients except the Flax seeds, or any other seeds for that matter. Can I use another egg replacement such as “No Egg” from Orgran? This ingredient I have already in my kitchen. I,ll be sure to post my review after the bake.
Many thanks in advance.
Hi Lucinda, I have never used Orgran, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work just fine. The flax eggs are nice for this cake because flax by itself is a nice wholesome sort of ingredient for a carrot cake, which fits in well, but other than that, I think any egg replacement would be just fine. All the best and let us know how it goes! π
Hi Alison. I used the “No Egg” replacement and I’m delighted with the results. Ran out of brown sugar so substituted the rest (150g) with white. Also remembered to add the walnuts at the end π Otherwise I pretty much stuck to your recipe and measurements.
After reading other comments here about dry consistency with the mix it wasn’t necessary for me to add more liquid as it seemed moist enough. I used a bread tray and it needed 40 minutes in the oven.
Im new to baking and this was first (spontaneous as I had extra carrots in the fridge) Carrot Cake.
Well, may I just say WOW! My BF and I hovered over the aromatising cake while it was cooling before I added the lemon frosting. I left it in the fridge while we went for a long walk. After returning I lovingly cut little cake squares and served it to my harshest baking critic (BF) He is not vegan like me but he made some num-num-num sounds while inspecting, smelling, and eventually devouring the lot.
This morning he even ate another slice and brought one for his mum. It truly is a delicious cake.
To sum up, thank you so much for the recipe and your further advice. I will be baking this again soon and will take it with me to the next Vegan Bake Sale here in Vienna Austria.
PS: there was nowhere to attach a photo here so I posted it to your Facebook page π
Thanks so much for sharing Lucinda! So glad to hear it came out so well and I’m sure your post will help many others who make this cake. And thanks for posting the pic on facebook – it looked delicious. All the best! π
Making this cake and hoping to convert to a wedding cake.
Looks like I’ll be using four pans (6,8,10,12 inches x 2inches)
I know it’s a lot to ask you to do so much math, but can you help or advise in any way with conversions?
Please and thanks! Can’t wait to make it soon, and hoping so that you read this ASAP!
Hey Alex, I would just try something like 2.5 or 3 times the recipe and see if it’s enough. Trial and error! All the best!
Delicious! Tried the recipe for a vegan friend. Used chia egg and self raising flour. Worked a treat! Definitely a keeper if we’ve run out of eggs!
Great to hear self raising flour works well too! Thanks for posting! π
Any alternative to baking powder?
Not really…. You could try leaving it out, the baking soda alone might do the trick, but I didn’t test it like that.
I love this recipe but need to ask a question, If I substitute flax egg for apple sauce how long would it keep for?
Could I bake on a Sunday to eat on Wednesday?
Applesauce as a substitute shouldn’t make any difference to how long the cake lasts. I have found that cakes stay good for up to a week if kept covered in the fridge BUT they are at optimal tastiness when freshest. It would be fine to bake on Sunday and eat on Wednesday but it’s not going to be quite as delicious as it would be if you also ate it on Sunday/Monday rather than Wednesday.
Hi what else can I use to sub for the powered sugar?
Amazing cake!! Thanks so much for the recipe. We demolished it in a day. I used the carrot solids from my masticating juicer, which worked well.
Oh great to hear that carrot pulp from the juicer works for this too! Thanks for sharing! π
Hi Alison
Do I have to take it out of cake tin to cool on rack?
Anxious for result!!
Thanks
Yes, definitely!
This recipe is excellent! I typically use about a half cup more carrot than is called for. I also find that 30 minutes isn’t long enough to bake and usually bake it for 40-45 minutes and get a perfect result (also without the crusts being too crispy) but maybe that’s because I use extra carrot. Thank you Alison for this recipe!
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Thanks for sharing about your adjustments! So glad you like the recipe! π
Hi Alison hope all is well I was wondering if I can make these into cupcakes??
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I did and it turned out great!
Yes! All our cake recipes adapt well for cupcakes. I made a version with orange and walnut that you can find here as well.
I want to make this but was wondering what purpose the apple cider vinegar serves? Can I make it without?
It works with the baking soda and acts as a kind of ‘egg replacement’ in that way. You could try leaving it out, but I don’t know what effect that would have. I don’t use it in things like pancakes and scones, but those are much denser than you want a cake to be.
This cake sounds wonderful and I can’t wait to make it! Can you recommend a brand of Olive Oil, Soy Milk, and Vegan Butter you use? Sometimes just the slightest change in a brand can make all the difference.
Hi, yes you’re right, the brand can make a difference! However, I don’t remember the brand of olive oil I was using at the time, I am using a different one now and have not found any difference. Same thing with soy milk, I use a variety of brands, Silk, Soy Dream, Eden Soy, right now I’m using a different one and I can’t think of the name. All work great and make no difference. Vegan butter on the other hand can be quite variable. I really like Nuttelex, but can’t get it anymore so am using another one. I find that the best ones are the spreadable ones, the hard blocks (you can only occasionally find a hard margarine that doesn’t have animal products) are less successful without adjusting the recipe as they contain a lower water content.
Can you please tell me how many cups of shredded carrots the 250 grams equates to? I plan on doubling this recipe since my pans are 8β and use the extra batter for cupcakes
Great recipe-
Simple and easy to follow- I didn’t have flaxseeds but had chia seeds which I had to grind up FOREVER in the food processor as I refuse to buy a coffee grinder lol. This was my first time using chia as an egg replacer and it worked pretty well. I have also made it using aquafaba which gives it a lovely texture, it just needs slightly more baking powder to rise more.
Definitely one for the bookmarked pages. Many Thanks!
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Awesome Lisa – I haven’t tried aquafaba as an egg replacer yet, thanks for the info! π
Hi! I would really love to try this but I was just wondering if it’s possible to cut down the brown sugar by half? Also if I used all regular white sugar would it affect the cake’s moistness? Please let me know and thank you!
You can definitely use white sugar without much of an impact, but I’m not sure about reducing the sugar. I think if you read the other comments, it might have been done by someone already?
Hi! i only used 3/4 of cup of sugar and one pinch of stevia, also y add just 1/4 of oil and 1/4 of milk and was soooo gooood! with time i got used to to modify recipes to lower their sugar and oil and so far milk replace half of the oil and just enough sugar to have it moist then stevia to taste, believe me,, it does work beautifully and you miss nothing π i love this blog you just have to modified a little to your taste, its good that its basic so you can acctually play with it.
Thanks Diana! π
thank you alison you have made me the best cake maker for my son. you couldn’t have a more loyal reader:* plus when i started being vegan as a teenager i was very obsessed with food now with years came a less self centered ego and profound peace not worrying too much about it. reading you give me a lot of learning.
for me you are my beautiful friend. all my hugs to you.
Thank you so much, that is wonderful to read. And I totally relate, food peace is a very valuable thing! π Thanks so much for sharing! π
Thanks for the recipe, I wonder if we can avoid the vinegar as we don’t consume it at all. Also less sugar I think would be better…?
The vinegar reacts with the baking soda so itβs an important ingredient – I think I have heard of people using lemon juice as a substitute so you could try that. π€
Thanks, I thought about lemon too. I’ll try. Thanks!!!!
Made this recipe into cupcakes changed the brown sugar to white and added around a cup of almond milk.I even converted a non vegans with this recipe thank you so much.
Great to hear it worked out well! Thanks for sharing Ari! π
Loved the cake! I love your recipes and also this one turned out to be great. Although I must say somehow the icing was way too sweet…. No one in my home could eat it because of the excessive sweetness π
How can I make the icing less sweet but same consistency?
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You might be better off using a vegan cream cheese frosting, unfortunately I don’t have a recipe for one yet as I haven’t been able to get hold of vegan cream cheese so far, but that would definitely be a less sweet option.
Hi there!
I rarely comment on recipes, but as there were many comments about the batter being dry, I thought I’d give you my trick. I grated the carrot and added the brown sugar to it. I then proceeded to prepare all other ingredients. By the time everything was done, the sugar had dissolved into a syrup and the carrots had rendered a lot of juice. I’ve done this both times I’ve made this cake and the batter is absolutely perfect.
Also, made this for my dad’s 75th this summer (it’s his fav cake) and he was so impressed (as was everyone else) that he asked for it again this Christmas!
Thanks for a lovely recipe! (disclaimer, made my own vegan cream cheese icing, so can’t comment on that!)
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Thanks for commenting Gaby and sharing your tips! Very helpful! So glad your dad loves the cake too! π
Thank you for sharing this great recipe that delivers on softness and sponginess, icing was verrrry sweet but easily altered. We replaced the sugar with finely chopped dates 1:1 and it worked just fine.
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Sounds perfect, and what a great idea to use dates! π
Eating this right now! Made cream cheese icing for it and swapped walnuts for pecans and itβs delicious! Havenβt had a good vegan cake before… canβt wait to make myself a birthday cake next month using another one of your vegan recipes!!π
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Awesome Catherine, your swaps sound great too! Thanks for sharing! π
Made this cake to commemorate my late fatherβs birthday. I made two. One because Iβm nursing a toddler with insane food allergies and one that I altered for my gluten free besties. They are both amazing! I used pre-shredded carrots with almost no moisture so I added about 1/4 cup water, just enough for it to look like your pic. It turned out so yummy. I used gluten-free flour with xanthm gum and added 1/4 teaspoon more of baking soda and powder, again, amazing and super moist. Thanks for a great recipe!
Awesome! So glad to hear that ArΓ©ema! Thanks for posting. π
I hate carrot cake but it’s my dad’s favorite so I had to be a good daughter and make it. I had no problems with the batter. That turned out great. The icing was a bit of a disaster though. It smelled like vinegar and was too melty and too sweet. I used Earth Balance. I’ve tried both the sticks and the tub and I can’t get my frosting to look anything like yours. This was my 4th frosting attempt. I managed to make it look somewhat presentable but it melted into a goopy mess a 30 minute car ride. Any suggestions? Do you have a recipe for less sweet frosting?
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Hi Mary, glad to hear the cake was a success but pity the icing was being so difficult! I really don’t know what the issue there might have been other than perhaps it was not thick enough to start with? But I understand about the sweet thing, I’ve been trying to find a good vegan cream cheese where I am to be able to make a good cream cheese frosting but haven’t found it yet. Luckily there are lots of recipes for vegan cream cheese frosting out there, so I definitely think that might be a winner for you as that should be a lot less sweet and might suit your palate more. All the best!
Hi , Looks like a great cake and I am about to make it. I just wanted to say that your cup and gram measurement doesnt make sense with the flour as 2 cups is 500 grams.
No it isnβt. A cup of flour is 125g.
I made this w/ regular eggs, since I’m only allergic to dairy, and couldn’t be happier w/ the results! I baked in a 9×9 instead of 2 round layers, so it was a little thicker; but still moist & chunky, w/ chewy corners (my fave π I topped it w/ a dairy free faux cream cheese frosting I rigged up, and it was very nearly like my pre-allergy days π Thanks so much for this recipe!
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Awesome! So glad it came out great! Thanks for sharing! π
I made this today and the cake itself was moist and delicious. I have to say though that adding the apple cider vinegar to the buttercream icing made it taste quite unpleasant and vinegary. My husband agreed with this. Happy with the cake, not so happy with the icing. Next time I will leave it out x
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Thanks for the recipe. I made this for my non vegan family and they loved it as much as me!
Awesome! So happy to hear that Kathryn! π
Hi,
I made a gluten free version of this cake and it was delicious. I’ve never made a carrot cake before but love to have a slice of it when having coffee somewhere. It was my wife’s fiftieth birthday and she loved it! I went through at least forty websites before choosing your recipe because it just looked and sounded so lovely.
Thank you!
That’s wonderful to hear that it worked out so well! Thanks so much for sharing! π
This turned out better than I even expected it would. I used a 9″ x 13″ glass dish and baked it for probably 35-37 minutes, and it was just perfect. The only change I made was to use half cake flour and half spelt flour, because I didn’t have all-purpose flour. I didn’t make the frosting, but put a little cream decanter on the table with full-fat coconut milk in it for drizzling. The cake was cut into little squares, so there were lots of eaters, and truly even the pickiest among them loved it. Thank you for the recipe!
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Great! Serving with some coconut cream is a cool idea for this too. Thanks so much for sharing! π
Just made this looks good itβs for Easter tomorrow so havenβt tasted yet will let you know.
Thank you for providing delicious alternatives that my vegan husband and the rest of us non-vegans can really enjoy! I was really dubious about the flax eggs, but it works. I also made your vanilla cake previously which was very good.
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Fantastic Jill, I’m so pleased to hear that! Thanks for posting! π
This was my first time ever making carrot cake and it turned out awesome! My husband said it’s the best carrot cake he’s ever had. Definitely making this again and again. I added a little dried ginger to the mix of spices and a few extra carrots. I only had 9″ round pans so I made 1.5 times the recipe.
The icing was sooo good too! I plan to make it again for other desserts as well.
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Hi Heather! So glad it worked out so well! Thanks so much for sharing! π
I was looking for a good Vegan carrot cake recipe for quite sometime. I bumped on your website. I thought i will give it a try.
This was my first time making a carrot cake. I just followed your recipe. It came out sooo good. The cake’s texture was moist and soft. My daughter made the icing(she loves to bake) We all enjoyed the cake, I shared the cake with my colleagues. They loved it. Thanks for providing this recipe. I will be making it again when my in laws visit us this summer π
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Wonderful Sashi, thanks so much for sharing! π
What a great recipe! I made this tonight and will make the frosting in the morning.I used a 9×11 pan and it came out perfect. I wanted it to be a bit lower in fat so I did 1/4 c. Olive oil and 1/4 c unsweetened applesause. Worked perfectly! Next time might try all applesauce instead of oil.
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Awesome Dena! Thanks for sharing your adjustments! π
I made this today in cup cake form without frosting…..It’s very good, very moist…..i didn’t added any extra milk…..batter was correct consistency…..i did use one suggestion from reviews and mixed brown sugar in carrot….
I added a bit less sugar and added dried cranberries….
Thank u so much for good recipes….
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Awesome, thanks for sharing! π
Turned out to be very tasty. I liked it very much. It is a great cake, however the amount of sugar is huge!! For those who are not interested in avoiding big amounts of sugar (as I am) this is the perfect recipe!
P.S. My icing is a bit weird but this is because my sugar wasn’t really ‘icing sugar’.
I crushed the normal one at the blender ππ
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It was the first cake of your blog that I made. I divided the sugar and the oil by two and used a cake mould and that worked perfectly fine though it took quite a long time to cook. It was a total success; my colleagues really liked it (though none of them are vegan). So then, I made your vanilla cake. Then your red velvet cake. I don’t know when I will stop. I shared your recipe with the vegan club of my college which made it for the presentation of the club and it was such a success that they sent the recipe to their whole mailing list.
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That’s brilliant! Loved reading that! Thanks Sarah! π
This is seriously the best carrot cake ever! All the non vegans loved it, too. I made it exactly as your recipe except since I had no vegan butter I used coconut oil which worked great and I think it’s way better than cream cheese frosting. I am printing this out so I can find it easily to make it again. Thank you!
Awesome! So happy to hear that, thanks for sharing! π
I baked this cake for my son’s first birthday and everyone loved it. I was looking for an easy vegan recipe with very few new ingredients, so don’t expect this to turn out so soft and delicious. Thank you for a recipe I will use several times again!
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So glad you loved it! Thanks for posting! π
I just wanted to say this cake is beyond wonderful. I made it for my best friend for her birthday and it was a hit. My boyfriend has actually asked me to make it again for him to take to his firehouse. I told him it is only for special occasions and he isn’t aware of it yet, but he is getting it sent to the firehouse on Saturday which is his birthday! Thanks for the great recipe.
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That’s wonderful Taylor, and what a nice surprise for his birthday! Thanks so much for sharing! π
Hi from Netherlands!!!
I altered your recipe into gluten free style, and used a “cream cheese” made by ‘hang op’ vegan yogurt. Adding vegan butter and powdered sugar with touch of lemon juice and zest, worked fabulous! Thank you for sharing your recipe and experience.
Greetings,
Meg
That sounds awesome Meg! Thanks for posting! π
I have an old carrot cake recipe I’ve used for years that I got out of Bon Appetit Magazine. It was a show stopper, 3 9-inch layers with lemon cream cheese frosting. Since going vegan a year ago, I’m always exploring new ways to make my old favorites. This recipe does not disappoint. The only thing I did differently was use whole wheat pastry flour. This too is a show stopper. And very fun as cupcakes as well!
Thanks for a great recipe!
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Whoop! So glad you like the recipe! Thanks a million! π
I just made this cake and overall love it as it’s so simple and really moist, but I found it really sweet. I only had 150g of brown sugar at home, so I added 100g of white sugar and it turned too sweet for me. I’ll definitely make it again but maybe next time I’ll use pineapple instead of the white sugar part and stick to 150g of brown sugar.
Still, thank you so much for this recipe as I love cakes that I can make in almost no time and without any weird ingredients!
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Hi Joanna, thanks for sharing your experience and so glad you liked the cake overall. I think if you read the other comments you’ll see that others have had success in using less sugar with this recipe and still really enjoyed the results. All the best! π