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.
Silke says
Dear Allison,
I would love to make this wonderful gluten free vegan carrot cake. However, we live in a location where I can’t get all purpose gluten free flour. But I can get gluten free pancake mix. do you think I could use that as replacement? I tried with buckwheat flower but it gets a bit muddy and grey. other suggestions much welcome too!
thanks so much
cheerio
silke
Alison Andrews says
Hi Silke, honestly I’m not sure about the pancake mix. You can make up your own gluten-free flour blend, Minimalist Baker have a great recipe for a homemade blend if you’re able to get the individual flour types.
Silke says
Dear Alison,
just to give you some feedback! the cake was amazing! I finally found gluten free flour, and made the cake sugar free too, using Agave sirup only. I took a bit less apple sauce to compensate for the extra liquid from the sirup. I added a little bit of flour to the frosting to avoid it running away without the powdered sugar. lastly, I replaced the walnuts with almonds. Nobody believed that it was G/S free and vegan cake! Even the restaurant where we had the party didn’t believe it when they tried! amazing recipe! thank you so much!
Alison Andrews says
So glad it was a hit! Thanks so much for sharing!
Amanda says
What gluten free flour blend did you use? Did it have xanthum gum in it?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Amanda, I have used blends both with and without and it usually has not made a difference.
Barbara Bason says
I have made this recipe twice now. It was excellent both times. I made the gluten-free version both times, and it was enjoyed by everyone! Thank you so much!!!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks so much Barbara!
Angela says
I’ve never made carrot cake before, and this recipe guided me through! I have a group of High school girls to feed every week- one is a vegan, and another has allergies to gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, chickpeas, and a handful of other things. Finding recipes that fit all the criteria is CHALLENGING so I was happy to find this carrot cake. I made it into cupcakes and they turned out so wonderfully. My girls loved them! Thank you so much!!
Alison Andrews says
That’s wonderful Angela! Thanks so much for sharing!
Alice says
What a fantastic recipe! I’ve made it both exactly as written and with various alterations – leaving nuts out for my nut-allergic friends, margarine instead of oil when that was all I had, homemade pear jam rather than apple sauce when we had such a bumper crop of pears I had to use them in everything I made… it has always gone down an absolute treat with whomever I made it for. This evening I’ve just made a batch of cupcakes for Hallowe’en with the flesh from the pumpkins I carved instead of carrots… we’ll see how they turn out! Thank you very much.
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear that Alice! Thanks for the amazing review. Hope the cupcakes come out well!
silke says
Thank you Alison! I am very excited, as I found some gluten free all purpose flour today! yay! thank you for your help!
Lucy says
Hi Alison,
I’m making these right now! My batter is mixed and just letting the juices from the carrots to let go. My GF flour blend has coconut flour in it and I’m a little worried it might be to dry but I’m just going to go with it and make no modifications. It’s smell so good. I’m making this for my daughters birthday cake. She’s 15 today. Wish me luck!
Lucy says
Hey Alison! Well everyone loved the cake! It was slightly dry due to the coconut flour blend I use but not excessively dry. I would reduce the flour amount by 1/4 cup if I use that blend or I’ll just purchase a different blend for the next time. Thank you so very much for sharing your recipes! This recipe has been voted as a keeper by the whole family!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Lucy! Thanks so much for sharing!
Marsha says
Hi,
I just took this out of the oven and it is super bumpy on top! And I baked it in two eight-inch pans and I had to give it 15 additional minutes or it would have been goo. Any ideas about what went wrong? I’m letting it cool now and will take it out of the pans in about 10 minutes. It’s for a birthday party tomorrow and I’m afraid it’s going to be a disaster. ????
Alison Andrews says
I’m not entirely sure what went wrong but I do highly recommend an oven thermometer, because ovens can vary so much in temperature it is a really good idea to be able to see what temperature it actually is reaching inside. This is my best guess based on the fact that it took so much longer to cook.
Sami says
Hi dear
I am going to bake this wonderful cake tomorrow.
I have Bob mills gluten free all purpose flour and they say add xanthum gum for per cup flour.
Can I use gluten free baking soda and baking powder in the recipe ?
Xanthum gum is also require with baking powder and baking soda?
Alison Andrews says
No need to add xantham gum to this recipe.
Becky says
This looks great, can you make it into cupcakes instead and just cook it for a shorter time?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Becky, yes you can. It will make around 18-24 cupcakes, and they can bake for around 22-25 minutes.
Janel says
Would I be able to substitute coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar?
Alison Andrews says
Yes that should be perfect!
Vya says
Do you think 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of maple syrup would work?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Vya, I don’t think so. Not without adjusting the rest of the recipe to compensate for it.
Lisa says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Lisa, yes you can!
Emma says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Wonderful Emma! So happy to hear that, thank you!
Akanksha says
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?
Alison Andrews says
You can probably replace the flax eggs with applesauce, so use 9 Tbsp of applesauce in total.
Jessie says
Hello! Would a 9×13 glass baking pan work too? If so would you recommend modifying the baking instructions at all? Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
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.
Ardis says
Excellent cake. I loved. My husband didn’t believe it’s vegan.