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
Description
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
Would I be able to substitute coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar?
Yes that should be perfect!
Do you think 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of maple syrup would work?
Hi Vya, I don’t think so. Not without adjusting the rest of the recipe to compensate for it.
Hi Alison.
Would I be able to use regular eggs with this recipe? I know it would not be vegan but I was searching for gluten free, dairy free cake recipes and found this. It sounds wonderful! I just wanted to make sure I can use regular eggs without messing it up.
Thank you!
Hi Lisa, yes you can!
Oh my goodness! What a brilliant cake! We were making this for a friend as a thank you but it smelled so good they got one layer and we got one layer! My 14 Yr old daughter is the Baker and we didn’t have walnuts but man it was good!! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Wonderful Emma! So happy to hear that, thank you!
Hi Alison, this looks wonderful, thank you for the recipe, I want to make it for my friend’s birthday which is tomorrow but I don’t have flax meal, is there any replacement for that?
You can probably replace the flax eggs with applesauce, so use 9 Tbsp of applesauce in total.
Hello! Would a 9×13 glass baking pan work too? If so would you recommend modifying the baking instructions at all? Thank you!
I think so, but the baking time would be longer, I’m not exactly sure how much longer, you would just need to keep a check on it. I’d probably start checking it from 35 mins onwards.
Excellent cake. I loved. My husband didn’t believe it’s vegan.
★★★★★
Hello! Thank you for the amazing recipe! I cannot wait to make it for my husband’s birthday next month 😊 I just wonder what can I use to replace the all-purpose flour? Our family members have intolerances to wheat, corn, spelt, apple.. I’ll have to replace the flour, the applesauce and the apple cider vinegar.. Do you have any suggestions for the flour replacement? Also, may I use lemon juice to replace the vinegar? I understand it will be different but if you have any idea of what can more/less work alright, that would be great help. Thank you very very much!
★★★★★
Hi Miki, this recipe is already gluten-free/wheat free. It uses a gluten-free all purpose flour blend, which is the best kind of gluten free flour to use for this cake. You can use any gluten-free blend, as long as it is a blend meant to replace regular flour for baking. You could use something like pineapple purée instead of the applesauce and yes lemon juice should work as a sub for the vinegar. All the best!
Thank you so much for the reply Alison! I really appreciate it. I love your recipes! xx
Hey! This cake looks awesome, I’d love to give it a go!
I’m cooking for a household with nut allergies, but I love the something extra that walnuts add to a carrot cake… instead of just leaving them out, do you think it would work to substitute something like raisins or chopped dates instead? Or do you recommend just removing the walnuts with no sub?
You could add something like raisins or chopped dates, but this cake works wonderfully without walnuts and doesn’t need a sub. It could be that the dates or raisins add too much sweetness, since it’s already wonderfully sweet. 🙂
Hi, which gluten free flour blend did you use? I have Bob’s Red mill GF 1 to 1 blend.. Thanks!
I’ve used a few different blends and all have worked well. I think the 1 to 1 blend should work great!
Hi!
Can I use oat flour instead?
Thank you!
I don’t think that will work.
Hi Alison,
This is probably a bad time to ask a question but I’d be glad if I can get an answer as I am baking it for Easter this morning. Can I use almond flour as my gluten free flour?. And I don’t have apple sauce, I have fresh apples, and unripe banana what can I use? I’d the apple sauce mandatory?
Thanks!
Hi there, almond flour would not work. You could replace the applesauce with an extra flax egg (so 3 flax eggs in total).
Forgot to add rating!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Yez!
Have made the vegan one and now this gluten free version. They are both deeeeelightful.
I used mashed banana instead of apple sauce for the GF version and it came out perfectly.
Thanks!
I made this for my daughter’s birthday and everyone loved it. I made a slight alteration to the recipe, using a mix of chopped pecans and sultanas instead of walnuts. I also baked it for 45 mins. This is a very rich cake, especially with the frosting and I served over 20portions from it.
Highly recommended, lots of people asking for the link to the recipe.
★★★★★
Awesome! I’m so happy it was a success. Thanks so much for the great review Nicky! 🙂
Hi Alison, thanks for this wonderful recipe! I made it for a Birthday Celebration where both vegan and gluten free were required. Good warning on the thick consistency of the batter. I did wait. I used part red mill gluten free all purpose and part baking, and 1/2 cup almond flour.
I also added 1Tbsp lecithin and 1 1/2 tsp xanthin powder because I had them on hand and wanted to be on the safe side. I was so delighted to see it rise in the oven!
I made the vegan lemon icing with earth balance plant butter. It didn’t have a lot of extra ingredients and was soy free. The first batch I had to toss because my lemon extract was too old I think , very harsh. So I remade it with 1 Tbsp grated lemon zest and 1 -2 Tbsp lemon juice. So much better.
Thanks again! Well received! Shared the recipe with the birthday girl!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Lizbee! 🙂
Wondering if I can bake this in a bundt pan? Would you change the temperature at all? Thank you!
Hi Lauren, I would keep the temperature the same but it would likely bake for a lot longer, in the region of 50 minutes or longer. Just keep a check on it. 🙂