This vegan carrot cake is the best ever! It’s moist and rich and topped with a tangy lemon buttercream frosting and crushed walnuts.
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- When the cakes are cool, frost and decorate with crushed walnuts.
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.
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.
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.
Vegan Carrot Cake Q&A
You can make this cake gluten-free by simply switching the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. You can also check out our recipe for vegan gluten free carrot cake. It’s totally divine.
Sure! This recipe adapts to 12-18 cupcakes depending on how full you make the cupcake liners. You can also check out our vegan carrot cake cupcakes.
Storing and Freezing
Keep the cake covered at room temperature where it will stay good for 3-4 days, or keep it covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
It is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Strawberry Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups Light Brown Sugar (300g)
- 2 ⅓ cups Grated Carrot (255g)
- 2 Flax Eggs (2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Water)
- ½ cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup Walnuts (100g) Chopped, Optional
For the Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2-3 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
Decoration:
- Walnuts Chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 7-inch cake pans or two 8-inch cake pans (see notes*) with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift the all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together.
- Add the 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 carrots will have released more moisture into the batter allowing it to come together into a thick batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, prepare your frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Start mixing on low speed gradually increasing speed until your frosting is thick and smooth.
- If your frosting is too thick then add in the extra tablespoon of lemon juice, a drop at a time and only as much as needed to get to a spreadable consistency.
- Frost the cake and decorate the top with chopped walnuts.
Video
Notes
- 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.
- Adapting for different size 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.
- Gluten-free: You can make this cake gluten-free by simply switching the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose flour blend.
- Cupcakes: This recipe adapts to 12-18 cupcakes depending on how full you make the cupcake liners.
- Storing: Keep the cake covered at room temperature where it will stay good for 3-4 days, or keep it covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
- Freezing: It is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
- This recipe has been updated with new photos but the recipe itself is unchanged.
Gai Powell says
I use 1 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wholemeal. It (I think) makes a nicer cake.
I used to do 50-50 but found it too heavy.
BTW…..Best ever carrot cake.
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing and the great review! So happy you like the cake. 🙂
Nina says
I followed the recipe, greased the dishes but couldn’t get the cakes out. I let the cakes cool down but the bottom of the cakes stuck to the dishes and that even though the toothpick came out okay.
Did anyone else have that issue? What did I do wrong or could I do better next time? 🙁
Alison Andrews says
Hi Nina, line the bottoms of the cake pans with parchment paper as well as spraying with non-stick spray (or greasing them with oil). This will make all the difference! 🙂
Jessi says
The internet says 9oz of carrots is about 5 cups shredded. That seems extreme. Can you please tell me how many cups shredded carrots?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jessi, no it’s around 2 and 1/3 cups, though you’ll get the most accurate result from weighing it.
Megan says
My girlfriend made me this cake for my birthday she’s not vegan but she loves sharing in my lifestyle and she spoils me rotten this cake was delicious moist I love the frosting We reduced the sugar From 3 cups to 1 cup Absolutely delicious will be making again maybe will make these into cupcakes next time and we used pecans because I prefer them over walnuts and I forgot to put raisins I was going to add raisins I will next time
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your adjustments! 🙂
Aike says
I made this cake a few days ago. It’s so good! And it tasted better and better each day. I used GLUTEN FREE all purpose flower and a little less sugar. Also I used lemon instead of apple vinegar. I am totally blow away by the moistness. Not easy to have a moist gluten free bake.
Next time I want to try to skip the sugar and use an alternative. Any suggestions? Experience with that? Thanx again. I am curious to try your other bakes now…
Alison Andrews says
Hi Aike, so happy you loved the cake and that it came out so well as gluten-free, that’s awesome! I haven’t tried this with anything other than sugar, so I can’t advise, but I reckon you can reduce it a fair bit without affecting the recipe too much. Thanks for the awesome review! 🙂
Anjani03 says
Can I use spelt flour instead of all purpose flour? If so, then is there any changes to this recipe?
Thank you
K. Carr says
This was super good! I was just looking for vegan recipes since I’m trying to minimize my intake of animal products and this caught my eye. I’m thrilled that the flax eggs work out so nicely because that means I don’t have to buy eggs anymore! I only ever bought them for baking.
I did 2 things differently from the recipe though. I made it in a bundt pan (add 5 minutes to the bake time) and instead of buttercream I just made a sugar glaze icing with powdered sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Fantastic, wonderfully spiced cake. 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Fantastic! So happy to hear and thanks for sharing your adjustments and the awesome review! 🙂
Laura says
Just made this and it’s lovely! Thanks so much! I’ve never had much luck with vegan baking but this really works.
Alison Andrews says
Wonderful to hear that Laura, thanks so much for the great review! 🙂
Rebecca De Groot says
Would aquafaba work in this? How could I incorporate it? Thanks!
Bob says
If the apple cider vinegar didn’t work, shouldn’t we leave it out? Thanks.
Alison Andrews says
I’m not really sure if you’re referring to the cake batter or the frosting. It’s optional in the frosting, it’s a crucial ingredient in the cake batter.
Tish says
Is there a substitute for apple cider vinegar in the batter? I’m not a fan of it at all. Thank you.
Alison Andrews says
It’s needed (the acidity) to react with the baking soda, you can use white vinegar too, or some people have used lemon juice and said it worked fine.
Morgan says
I’m in the process of making this now but I’m an idiot lol……. I only have 8inch pan and lined two forgetting about the 7in being smaller. Then I realized going through the comments that 9 ounces of carrots would be two cups and I only put one. Is it doomed???
Alison Andrews says
Hi Morgan, I think others have made this cake in 8-inch pans, so I don’t think that’s necessarily going to be too bad, the layers will just be thinner. The carrot shortage will be more of an issue, but on the other hand if you were able to mix it into a dough, then it couldn’t have been too dry! So holding thumbs that it comes out okay!
Romy says
I have been looking for a vegan carrot cake recipe for quite some time. THIS one is the BOMB!
It came out so amazing, moist & heavy the walnuts give it a great crunch for texture. I Loved the frosting, a nice bite in contrast to the heavy moist cake. I added the zest of the lemon as well…
I did make some adjustments:
I subbed 1/4 C. oil with apple sauce
Added 1 tsp Garam Masala
Added 1/3 C dried apricots
I think I will cut down on the sugar on the next go round. The apple sauce and apricots (and frosting) added a lot of sugar on their own. I highly recommend trying this amazing recipe, you won’t be sorry and your friends and family will thank you…
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much Romy, so happy you enjoyed it and your additions sound awesome! 🙂
Frannie says
Great recipe! The carrot cake was super moist and delicious! I don’t love the flavor of apple cider vinegar in frostings, so I substituted oat milk instead of the vinegar which made it more creamy and delicious!
Amelia says
Hello! I only have one (deep) baking tin that’s 7inches. Should I a) make 2 cakes and bake separately, or b) can I bake the batter together and slice down the middle? Recipe looks great and can’t wait to try but haven’t made a proper cake in a while (usually cookies!) so not sure what to do.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Amelia, if the cake is too thick it will take a lot longer to cook and might still end up wet in the middle, I would be more inclined to bake one half and then bake the other half. It’s not a perfect solution either, but I think it might work better. All the best!
Melanie Serre says
Hi there,
I’m wondering what type of “stand mixer” you are using in one of the photos? Also, I looooove carrot cake!!!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Melanie, it’s a Philips, nothing fancy at all! I am planning on upgrading to a KitchenAid one of these days! 🙂
Simran says
Hello! Could I use chia eggs instead of flax?
Alison Andrews says
Sure, that should be fine! 🙂