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.
Miki says
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!
Alison Andrews says
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!
Miki says
Thank you so much for the reply Alison! I really appreciate it. I love your recipes! xx
Tom Watson says
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?
Alison Andrews says
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. 🙂
Su says
Hi, which gluten free flour blend did you use? I have Bob’s Red mill GF 1 to 1 blend.. Thanks!
Alison Andrews says
I’ve used a few different blends and all have worked well. I think the 1 to 1 blend should work great!
Nikita says
Hi!
Can I use oat flour instead?
Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
I don’t think that will work.
Kaka says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Hi there, almond flour would not work. You could replace the applesauce with an extra flax egg (so 3 flax eggs in total).
Yez says
Forgot to add rating!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much Yez!
Yez says
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!
Nicky says
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.
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! I’m so happy it was a success. Thanks so much for the great review Nicky! 🙂
Lizbee says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Lizbee! 🙂
Lauren Furey says
Wondering if I can bake this in a bundt pan? Would you change the temperature at all? Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
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. 🙂
Amee says
Thanks for the recipe! I was wondering if I can try maple syrup or coconut sugar instead of the brown sugar, Thanks.
Alison Andrews says
Coconut sugar should work! 🙂
Sharon Thompson says
I made this using Almond flour and added applesauce for moisture. It was my first scratch GF cake. My husband is the GF person but really picky about his food. I had one piece and he ate the rest of the cake. I will definitely make this recipe again.
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks so much Sharon. 🙂
Natalie says
Made this for a Christmas family meal with new vegans, as a wheat intolerant I also made it GF and with the lemon frosting. Everyone is raving about how good it was. Got me loads of brownie points so huge thumbs up.
Next time I must try not to grate my knuckle as well as the carrot as I’m sure that probably made it non vegan but hey ho!
Massive thanks
Alison Andrews says
Ouch poor knuckles! This is why I use a food processor to grate the carrots. But so glad it was a hit, thanks for the awesome review! 🙂
Xenja says
Hi what can I use to substitute applesauce? Thanks!
Alison Andrews says
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. 🙂
Xenja says
Thanks! will try to make this recipe in the weekend
Susan says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! So glad to hear that Susan! Thanks for the amazing review. 🙂