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.
this is the best carrot cake hands down regardless of GF or vegan! So yummy
Thanks so much Kaela!
This is delicious!!! I halved the quantities and it made 12 cup cakes. I didn’t have any apple sauce so I used an extra flax egg (so total of 2). I used Doves farm self raising flour. I cooked them for about 28 minutes. They were moist, light and absolutely scrummy ????
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Ellie!
This looks delicious! How long do you think it would last in the fridge?
Around 5 days in the fridge.
I haven’t baked it yet but I was wondering, if I could make these into muffins/cupcakes instead? How should I adjust the baking time & temperature? Also, would it be possible to sub some of the flour with ground nuts?
Hi Emily, this would make 18-24 cupcakes depending on how high you fill the liners. Bake time would be around 20-25 minutes at 350°F. I wouldn’t replace any of the flour or it will throw out the balance of the recipe. All the best!
Looking at making this for Easter! Have you tried it/would it work as cupcakes?
It makes 18-24 cupcakes and baking time is 20-25 minutes at 350°F.
Delicious cake! Thank you for the metric measurements, makes it much easier in the UK 🙂 I was making a low fat & low sugar version of this so I substituted the sugar for 1 tsp of stevia, and the oil and apple sauce for 2 ripe bananas. The nutmeg taste is a little too strong for me but I will use less next time. The consistency is incredible!
So glad it worked out well! Thanks for the great review.
I am a beginner, Have not started baking yet. my brother gave me his preloved oven which allows me to bake 1 tin at a time. May I know how do I adapt all your cake recipe into a single pan? Planning to cut into half for cream. Is the temperature and time remain the same? TIA
Hi Christine, the best is just to halve the recipes for a single layer cake. The temp and baking time would be the same. All the best! 🙂
I read your notation about the flour and I am wondering if a 1 to 1 flour will work or should I go with an all purpose blend? I don’t find that I have much luck with the 1 to 1 flour so I was leaning toward all purpose but my all purpose blend I have on hand does not have xantham gum…I’m not sure if this will make a difference. TIA!
Hi Caitlin, I would go with the all purpose blend, don’t worry about the xantham gum I have often used blends without it and not had an issue. 🙂
Thank you! It came out perfect AND so wonderfully the first time that my (non diet sensitive) family have requested it for Easter tomorrow! My kids also requested the cupcakes so making up a batch of each ☺️
Yay! So happy to hear that!
Almost two years since my daughters diagnosis and we still hadn’t found a cake that gave us that feeling that we were eating something decadent that didn’t remind me of a dry desert.
This cake changed everything and having the weights made it SO much better! I did one change that we loved, I used canned pineapple that I whipped with an immersion blender until it was nothing but froth and used it in place of half the oil. I love pineapple flavour in carrot cake but don’t like the texture, we also added finely crushed pecans instead of walnut pieces.
We used your amazing cream cheese frosting recipe with it and it was so unbelievably good that I didn’t bother eating the ice cream ( salted caramel and I love it) and went back for a second piece 😀
This will be our go to and I can’t wait to wow people, they will never know its vegan GF
That’s wonderful Aileen, so happy to hear that! Thanks for the amazing review!
Made this for my mums birthday today and oh my gosh it was amazing!! The gram measurements massively helped as I’m based in the UK and the texture is insane!!
Fantastic! So happy to hear that Elise!
Hey, how could I make this recipe for a loaf pan?
Hi Elizabeth, it hasn’t been tested that way. It may work but I would assume a much longer baking time, probably in the region of 60-70 minutes.
Hi, just wondering if I can bake it in a single pan and slice it in two afterwards since I only own one cake pan. If so, what would you recommend for bake time and temperature? Thank you
It would be better to halve the recipe in that case.
Hi. I only have almond flour available. Is this ok to use?
Hi Hawa, no this won’t work at all.
Loving It Vegan,
The cashew cheese frosting is truly the best I have tried and I tried many. First time I added too much salt but loved it anyway. Thanks for all the fantastic vegan recipes.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely amazing cake and so easy to make! Thanks so much for sharing, everyone who tried it is begging for more! You might be the one to kick start a cake business over here!
Oh wow, that’s so amazing! Thanks so much Claire!