Vegan Carrot Cake

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This vegan carrot cake is the best ever! It’s moist and rich and topped with a tangy lemon buttercream frosting and crushed walnuts.

Sliced vegan carrot cake on a white cake stand.

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!

Okay okay, 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 🙂

And you know one of these days I’ll even make a gluten-free version (update: it’s here!) 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.

Topped with a tangy lemon buttercream frosting and crushed walnuts, this cake is ideal for any special occasion. Or just for Sunday afternoon tea.

Sliced carrot cake on a white cake stand.

How To Make Vegan Carrot Cake

You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.

Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together.

Two photo collage showing dry ingredients added to mixing bowl and mixed together.

Add light brown sugar and grated carrot to the mixing bowl.
Prepare your flax eggs by adding 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal to a bowl with 6 tablespoons of hot water. Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
Add the flax eggs, oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and chopped walnuts to the mixing bowl.
Mix everything together. If it seems like it won’t come together and the mix is too dry then step away from the bowl for a couple of minutes and then come back to it. The carrot will have released more moisture into the batter allowing it to come together into a thick batter.

Two photo collage showing wet ingredients added to mixing bowl and mixed into a thick batter.

Divide the batter evenly between two cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment paper along the bottoms).
Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.

Two photo collage showing carrot cake before and after baking.

Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Two photo collage showing cakes cooling on a wire cooling rack and then being frosted on a white cake stand.

When the cakes are cool, frost and decorate with crushed walnuts.

Vegan carrot cake topped with crushed walnuts on a white cake stand.

The Frosting

Two things: firstly, I frosted it with a lemon frosting and 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’. It was still really good though, with a perfect amount of tang, so I went with it!

Secondly, I have since made a fabulous vegan cream cheese frosting using a homemade vegan cream cheese. It is seriously delicious, so if you want to give that a try instead, then go for it. The lemon buttercream frosting recipe from our vegan lemon cake is also a winner if you want to use that instead.

Vegan carrot cake topped with walnuts on a white cake stand.

Chef’s Tips

Measure your flour correctly. If you have a food scale then measure the flour out on a food scale for total accuracy. If you don’t have a food scale then use the ‘spoon and level’ method to measure your flour. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level it off with a knife. Don’t scoop the flour and don’t pack it into your cup.

Carrots must be freshly grated. If you buy pre-grated carrots then they will have dried out a lot by the time you use them. You need freshly grated carrots so that they are packed with moisture.

The walnuts. Walnuts are entirely optional but they are really delicious both in the cake itself and sprinkled on top for decoration. Another great option is chopped pecan nuts.

Be patient mixing the batter. When you’re mixing this batter you may start to wonder if I’ve missed out some important ingredients in the form of liquids! You may start thinking it will never come together! Don’t worry, so long as you used freshly grated carrots, it will definitely come together. Just step away from the bowl for a couple of minutes, the carrots will release more moisture into the batter. When you come back and mix again, it will form into a thick batter.

Slice of vegan carrot cake on a cake lifter.

Adapting For Different Cake Pans

7-inch. This cake makes two thick 7-inch cake layers.
8-inch. It also works perfectly for 8-inch cake pans. The layers are slightly thinner, but still perfect, and 8-inch cake pans work great with the recipe exactly as is, no other changes at all.
6-inch. If you want to make this cake in 6-inch cake pans then I would suggest making it as a 3 layer cake. Baking time will be around 25 minutes.
9×9 sheet cake. You can also make it as a 9×9 square sheet cake. Baking time is 35 minutes.
9×13 sheet cake. It also works as a 9×13 sheet cake though it is a fairly thin cake so 9×9 is preferred. Baking time for 9×13 is 25 minutes.