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.
Want to make cupcakes instead? You’ll love our vegan gluten free carrot cake cupcakes.
You’ll also love our fabulous vegan gluten free chocolate cake.
How To Make Vegan Gluten Free 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.
- 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.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes in the pans and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting and decorating.
The Frosting
There are several frosting options that would work great for this cake. We used our vegan lemon buttercream frosting in these photos. And the flavor blend of lemon frosting with carrot cake really works.
You can also use our vegan buttercream frosting recipe or our vegan cream cheese frosting.
Ingredient Notes
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.
You can use any vegetable oil or canola oil. I also tested it with extra virgin olive 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.
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.
Baker’s Tips
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.
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.
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.
Storing Tips
It stays fresh for a couple of days at room temperature, and around 5 days covered in the fridge. It is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months 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
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Cake
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
- 3 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Blend (408g)
- 2 cups Light Brown Sugar (400g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
- 2 Flax Eggs 2 Tablespoons Ground Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tablespoons Hot Water
- 3 Tablespoons Applesauce
- 3 ⅓ cups Grated Carrot (366g)
- ¾ cup Canola Oil (180ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 ½ cups Walnuts (150g) Chopped, Optional
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 Tablespoons ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then adding 6 Tablespoons 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 our vegan lemon buttercream 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.
Excellent recipe. I had to make a few changes, due to not having enough ingredients on hand. I served it at a celebratory party last night, and one person, who never compliments anyone on anything, said it was the best piece of cake she’d ever had in her whole life. She isn’t vegan or gluten-free. (Neither am I. I just have a lot of vegan friends, including gf vegan friends, and I like to include everybody in the food I make for a party.) This cake is heavy, substantial, and fills you quite completely. Okay, my forced error changes. I didn’t have quite enough cinnamon by about a half a teaspoon. I had some cinnamon sticks I tried whacking with my mallet, and then sifting through a strainer, but most of the pieces were too big no matter how much I whacked away, so I still didn’t have quite enough. I added about a quarter teaspoon, if that, of ginger, and a tiny bit more nutmeg. Second, the frosting. I couldn’t find my little plastic lemon, and the store was out of lemon extract, so I wound up using orange extract and squeezing a couple of Cuties for the orange juice to make orange not-really-buttercream frosting. Also, back to the cake, I wasn’t quite sure about the brown sugar quantity. My old “joy of Cooking” book always described “one cup of brown sugar, firmly packed”, and this recipe didn’t use that wording. I wasn’t sure whether to firmly pack it or not. I decided to pack it somewhat, because it’s easier to add sugar than to subtract. By packing it but not firmly, the cake was not overly sweet but just pleasantly so. (Hint about brown sugar stored in an opened bag: keep it in the freezer. When you need it, let it thaw, and it will be soft.) And lastly, I used pecans throughout, rather than walnuts. It all came together and looked just like the recipe pics, heavy, substantial, moist, satisfying. I used 9″ pans. Be sure to pat the batter smooth, because the shape it is in the pan is the same shape it will be when it’s cooked. The frosting didn’t go as far over 9″ layers, so I left the sides unfrosted. Not a problem. I loved it, and so did everyone else.
Happy to hear the recipe worked out for you Nancy. Thanks for sharing and for your great review!
This was great- I made exactly as recipie said, weighing ingredients out, had to cook a bit longer and put in two 7” rounds
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe and thanks for the great review!