This vegan gluten free carrot cake is so good no one will ever guess that it’s either vegan or gluten-free! It’s perfectly moist and packed with flavor.
One of the most popular recipes on this blog is our vegan carrot cake.
But it’s not gluten-free. Many have tried it using gluten-free flour and had success, but I wanted to do a version that is designed as gluten-free so that it’s as delicious as it can possibly be and this is it!
No one would ever know that this cake is either vegan or gluten-free never mind both!
It is perfectly moist with all that delicious signature carrot cake spiciness and texture.
How to make vegan gluten free carrot cake
Add gluten free all purpose flour to a mixing bowl along with brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix together.
Then add in grated carrot, flax eggs (ground flaxseed meal mixed with hot water), applesauce, oil, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and chopped walnuts and mix into a thick batter.
Divide between two 8-inch (you can also use 9-inch) prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Pro tips for Gluten Free Carrot Cake
Use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. This is super important, this recipe has been designed around using a blend, not a single type of flour like almond flour or rice flour. So it’s important that you use a blend as well. If you use a single type of flour then I can’t be sure at all if it will work out.
Weigh ingredients like flour and grated carrots. This is going to give you the best chance of accuracy in this recipe. If you don’t have a food scale, I highly recommend one. They are really a baker’s best friend in the kitchen.
You can use any vegetable oil but my favorite in this cake was extra virgin olive oil. I also tested it with canola oil and coconut oil. Both of those also work great but coconut oil makes it harder to stir in since this is a very thick batter.
Be patient when mixing this batter. You might think I’ve forgotten an ingredient when you see how thick the batter is, but just leave the bowl for a minute, and let those carrots release extra moisture into the batter and then come back and stir again and suddenly it will turn into a batter.
The walnuts are optional. I think chopped walnuts add something wonderful here and we decorated the cake with chopped pecans but if you’re nut-free you can leave them out with no issues.
You can make it in either 8-inch or 9-inch pans. We tested it in both sizes and it works great for both. What you see pictured here is 8-inch cake layers, but as you can see the layers are nice and fat, so it does adapt to 9-inch cake pans as well, you just have slightly thinner layers, but it still totally works.
There are several frosting options that would work great for this cake. We used the vegan lemon buttercream frosting from our vegan lemon cake to frost this. And that flavor blend really works.
You can also use our vegan buttercream frosting recipe or our vegan cream cheese frosting.
You will love this delicious vegan gluten-free carrot cake! It is:
- Undetectably gluten-free (or vegan!)
- Perfectly moist
- Packed with flavor
- Sooo delicious!
It stays fresh for a couple of days at room temperature, and around 5 days covered in the fridge. It is also freezer friendly so if you want to freeze it, go right ahead.
More Vegan Cakes….
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Apple Cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake
- Vegan Pound Cake
So let us know what you think of this vegan gluten-free carrot cake in the comments and please rate the recipe too! Thanks!
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Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Cake
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This vegan gluten free carrot cake is so good no one will ever guess that it’s either vegan or gluten-free! It’s perfectly moist and packed with flavor for a perfect dessert.
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
- 3 cups (408g) Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Blend*
- 2 cups (400g) Brown Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 2 Flax Eggs (2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Hot Water)
- 3 Tbsp Applesauce
- 3 and 1/3 cups (366g) Grated Carrot
- 3/4 cup (180ml) Olive Oil (or sub any vegetable oil)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 and 1/2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 and 1/2 cups (150g) Walnuts (Chopped, Optional)
Frosting Options:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 8-inch* cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix together.
- Prepare your flax eggs by adding 2 Tbsp ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then adding 6 Tbsp of hot water from the kettle. Leave it to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the flax eggs, applesauce, grated carrot, oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar and chopped walnuts and mix into a thick batter. If it’s struggling to come together, just leave the bowl to sit for a couple of minutes and then come back and stir again and it should come together. Leaving it for a minute will allow the grated carrots to release more moisture into the bowl allowing it all to come together.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake tins. Place into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. If you have some crumbs on the toothpick, this is fine, but you don’t want wet batter.
- Let them cool for 5 minutes or so and then remove them from the cake pans and place them onto a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Frost with any of the choices of frostings above and decorate with chopped nuts (we used pecans).
Notes
*It’s very important that you use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend that is intended to replace wheat flours in baking. I have used various brands and all have worked great, the important thing is that it must be a blend.
*Weighing ingredients like your flour and grated carrots is going to give you the best chance of a perfect result.
*The frosting we used in these photos is the vegan lemon frosting.
*This cake can also be made in 9-inch cake pans. Everything else remains exactly the same, the layers will just be slightly thinner than what you see pictured here. We have tested this as 9-inch and it’s perfect.
*Nutritional information is for cake only and does not include frosting.
*Recipe adapted from our recipe for Vegan Carrot Cake.
- Category: Dessert, Gluten-Free
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 12)
- Calories: 452
- Sugar: 35.5g
- Sodium: 396mg
- Fat: 22.8g
- Saturated Fat: 2.7g
- Carbohydrates: 61g
- Fiber: 4.9g
- Protein: 5.5g
Keywords: vegan gluten free carrot cake
Hi what can I use to substitute applesauce? Thanks!
You could make an extra flax egg (so 3 flax eggs in total) if you can’t use applesauce. Alternatively, mashed banana, puréed pineapple in the same quantity can also replace applesauce. 🙂
Thanks! will try to make this recipe in the weekend
Last week I made this carrot cake for a 50th birthday celebration dinner and it was delicious! It was my first ever carrot cake so I was a tad nervous…but everyone raved. My friends were stunned it was vegan especially the cream cheese frosting! Yum!
★★★★★
Awesome! So glad to hear that Susan! Thanks for the amazing review. 🙂
Hello, this looks delicious. I would like to use the recipe to make mini loafs. Do you think it would hold together and would 15-18 mini be about right?
Thank you😊
Hi Danielle, sorry I have no idea of the size of mini loafs, are they about the size of cupcakes? If so then definitely 15-18 would be about right. And it should hold up fine for that. 🙂
Hello from Australia I am planning to use this recipe to make a tiered wedding cake . What size Tbsp would I use in this recipe? Aussie recipes use a 20ml Tbsp but I think this recipe would use a15ml Tbsp. Please let me know as soon as you can. Cheers Helen
Hi Helen, we use American tablespoons so it’s 15ml. All the best! 🙂
This was AMAZING! We all loved it! Thank you! I would recommend this to everyone I know.
★★★★★
Awesome! Thank you so much. 🙂
Loved it, thank you. Made a single layer cake in a hole tin, perfect 🙏
★★★★★
So happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing and the awesome review. 🙂
Hello! Seems like an awesome recipe! Do you think I can use the Bob’s Mills egg replacer instead of the flax-egg?
Hi Rachel, you might be able to but I’m not entirely sure since I haven’t tested that.
This looks delicious. You mentioned you use gluten free flour blend do the blends you use xanthan gum or they gum free as i can not tolerate gums. Would you adjust anything for those without?
★★★★
Hi Kate, I have used blends that have xantham gum in them and blends that don’t and I haven’t found any difference in the result. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour doesn’t use xantham gum and it works really well in baking! 🙂
This is a simply gorgeous cake. I made exactly to the recipe with the vegan cream cheese frosting. My sister who is not into ‘gypsy’ foods declared she wouldn’t have known and it tasted like ‘real’ food lol. Absolute winner will definitely repeat. Thanks
★★★★★
Fantastic! So glad it was a success and your sister liked it! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome rating. 🙂
Hi could I just leave the sugar out ? I’ve done it with other gluten free bakes and things have been fine …would the reduced volume to batter make a difference .?
Thanks
★★★★
Hi Jo, I’m really not sure what the effect of leaving it out completely would be. Let us know how it goes! 🙂
Can you use regular eggs instead of flax eggs?
I’m sure you can, 2 regular eggs would replace 2 flax eggs.
What is the measurement for baking powder? I only see baking soda on the ingredient list but the directions list both and I really want this to turn out!
Sorry about that! It is 1 and 1/2 tsp.
you dont list how much baking soda to put in… just baking soda
Whoops! It’s 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder. I have updated the recipe. Thankfully this cake would work even without the baking powder (but the baking powder gives it even more rise) so it was not a tragic mistake, but a mistake nonetheless! Thanks for pointing that out!
Genius! You’d literally NEVER know this was gluten-free.
★★★★★
That is the best part for me! Thanks Jen! 🙂
Can I use normal flour instead of gluten free flour ? Thanks !
Hi Joy, it should be okay! This was specifically tested for gluten-free but just looking at it I think it will adapt to regular flour too, we do also have a carrot cake recipe that is not gluten-free. 🙂
Your innovative genius surpassed itself this time! This cake looks divine, moist, light and mouthwateringly tempting. Most gluten free cakes are heavy and unappetising. I’m hugely impressed and will try this as soon as possible. Congrats on an amazing effort!
★★★★★
Thank you so much! xo
Can I use date paste instead of brown sugar?
★★★★★
Hi Umesh, I’m not sure of the impact that would have. You can definitely try it, but since I haven’t tested it that way I’m just not sure of the quantities or how it might impact the balance of ingredients.