This is the Best Vegan Carrot Cake you’ll try! The spices are spot on, it’s incredibly moist, fluffy texture and super simple and easy to make!
VEGAN CARROT CAKE
I couldn’t believe how delicious this vegan carrot cake turned out! I imagine you will all love it as much as my vegan lemon cake! It is so perfectly moist, yet still fluffy and soft and made without any added oil. I promise you this cake tastes incredibly high fat, but is oil-free (minus the frosting, of course).
The secrets to this wonderfully moist and rich tasting and easy carrot cake is the combo of applesauce and molasses. The molasses is key here. Not only does it provide great depth of flavor, it also add incredible richness and moisture.
With the exception of the frosting, this oil-free vegan carrot cake itself is also refined sugar-free. So it is a much more healthy carrot cake than you’d typically see, but tastes ever bit indulgent, I assure you!
If you do not absolutely need gluten-free, please make this cake asap. But for those needing gluten-free, that version is coming!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
For this healthy vegan carrot cake, you’ll need to gather all the plant-based ingredients. All of them are easy and simple to find.
- Regular white all-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Spices: Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
- Salt
- Pure maple syrup
- Unsweetened applesauce
- Molasses
- Vanilla extract
- Carrots
- Walnuts: optional
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CARROT CAKE
Step 1: To a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Step 2: To a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Step 3. To another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients and whisk well.
Step 4: Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just mixed. Do not overmix. Add the batter to a square 8×8 baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick spray.
Step 5: Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out completely clean from the center. Mine was perfect at 34 minutes. It should be a gorgeous golden color, as pictured, risen well and smelling fabulous!
Cool the cake 1-2 hours minimum until completely cool before frosting.
CARROT CAKE FROSTING
I chose to use my delicious vegan vanilla buttercream frosting. I know a lot of people like the classic cream cheese frosting, so if you like, I’d suggest replacing the milk called for in my buttercream frosting with lemon juice instead to give it a tang.
MORE VEGAN CAKE RECIPES
- Vegan Gingerbread Cake
- Easy 7 Ingredient Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Gluten-free Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Funfetti Birthday Cake
- Vegan Almond Butter Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake
- Vegan Pumpkin Cake
Best Vegan Carrot Cake (Oil-free)
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (224g) regular all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (16g) cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 cup (240g) pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons (40g) regular (not blackstrap) Grandma's brand molasses. You can find this brand at most grocery stores and places like Walmart, Target, etc.
- 4 teaspoons (20g) apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (180g) shredded carrots
- optional: crushed walnuts for topping on the frosting
- FROSTING: See directions below
NOTE
- I always recommend to use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed, This is exactly how this recipe was tested, so follow my grams. Since we all measure differently, weighing ingredients is so important. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessons room for error. You never need cups or to compare them to the weights, just use the scale and bowl and make sure to zero out in between each ingredient.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly spray an 8x8 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- To a large bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Whisk very well.
- To another large bowl, combine the syrup, applesauce, molasses, apple cider vinegar, vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients, add the carrots and then use a large spoon (not a whisk!) to gently fold the ingredients from the bottom together until just mixed. Do not overmix. The batter will be fairly thick, but smooth. Do not be tempted to add more liquid, as the cake is very moist.
- Add the batter into the prepared dish and gently smooth out the top with the back of the spoon.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out completely clean from the center. Mine was perfect at 34 minutes. This cake is very moist, so you do not want to remove it until the toothpick is totally clean! It should be a gorgeous golden color, as pictured, risen well and smelling fabulous!
- Cool the cake 1-2 hours minimum until completely cool before frosting.
- I chose to use my delicious vegan vanilla buttercream frosting. I know a lot of people like the classic cream cheese frosting, so if you like, I'd suggest replacing the milk called for (1 tablespoono) in my buttercream frosting with lemon juice instead to give it a tang.
You’ve done it again! Excellent cake! I never play around with your recipes but this time I substituted the maple syrup with 1 cup of date puree instead and it still turned out perfectly. You’re a star.
Aww you are the sweetest, thank you Kimberly!!
Huh? I thought these recipes were supposed to be 8 ingredients or less. Another one kicked off my “try” list.
That was my original theme of my blog for over 8 years, but I stopped doing that almost 2 year ago (it was also removed off my bio to say “the majority of my recipes” since I have hundreds 8 ingredients or less. But I wanted to be able to fully release my creativity and not limit myself to certain types of recipes, so I now do both. Some with more or less than 8. But my recipes are always easy and simple!
Dear Brandi, I didn’t realize you had changed your format either because the logo still says vegan8, the bio is accessed only if you are new to the site. In addition, the blog was dormant for well over a year with no new recipes. I still love you, and hope your life is going well.
Hi! I sent out an email quite a long time ago announcing the change from not keeping everything only 8 ingredients. If you aren’t on my email list, you may have missed it. I’ve sent out multiple recipes over the past couple of years. Not weekly, but definitely still sent them out, and also post them on social media. I post on social media almost daily. The logo did change, it has a new design around the wording and the “8 ingredient” tag line was removed a long time ago. “The Vegan 8” name will not change because that is the name of my blog and changing it completely would really hurt my high ranking on google, as well as people who have known my blog for years. not finding me if I changed the name. That would hurt my business. I still share recipes with few ingredients, just some will be more than 8, some less, so the name of my blog will still go with me! Thanks for the support! Life has changed a lot for me and is wonderful!