Vegan carrot cake, moist, fluffy, and decadent. It is perfectly sweet and delicious and great to enjoy as a birthday cake or even to serve to your guests.
I’m absolutely in LOVE with this vegan carrot cake! I promise it’ll become one of your favorite desserts, as it is one of the best things I have ever tried. It is perfectly sweet, delicious, and decadent!
Besides, it’s way healthier than store-bought options and, as it is vegan, it does not contain any cholesterol at all. And you decide the amount of sugar you’ll be using!
Vegan carrot cake recipe – Short video
How to make vegan carrot cake – Step by step
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF or 180ºC. Grease two 7 or 8-inch (18-20 cm) cake pans.
- Mix the plant milk and vinegar in a jar or bowl until well combined (photo 1). Let the mixture rest at room temperature for at least 5 minutes. After this time, the milk will thicken and curdle (photo 2).
- In the meantime, add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl (photo 3) and mix until well combined (photo 4).
- Add the oil, vanilla extract, and the plant milk and vinegar mixture (photo 5). Stir until well combined (photo 6).
- Incorporate the grated carrot and the walnuts (photo 7) and stir again until well combined (photo 8).
- Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans (photo 9).
- Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes (photo 10).
- Let it cool for 15 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack and then let it cool completely before frosting (photo 11).
- Once cooled completely, frost with vegan cream cheese frosting adding a thick layer of frosting between the top and bottom layers of the vegan carrot cake (photo 12).
- Slice and serve.
Vegan carrot cake ingredients and tips
- Unsweetened plant milk: any type of unsweetened plant milk will work, such as oat milk, rice milk, almond milk, cashew milk, hemp milk, or even coconut milk, but soy milk is my favorite one for baking.
- Apple cider vinegar: you could also use white vinegar or lemon juice instead.
- All-purpose flour: I’ve only made this recipe using all-purpose flour, but I think this recipe would come out okay if you used a different type of flour. However, you may need to add more or less of it.
- Granulated sugar: feel free to use other types of sugar, like brown, coconut, or cane sugar. Make sure the sugar you’re using is vegan.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Ground cinnamon.
- Salt: I used iodized salt, but any other type of salt will do.
- Ground nutmeg.
- Oil: feel free to use any kind of oil. I like canola or sunflower oil because they have a neutral flavor, unlike extra virgin olive oil. Coconut oil is also a good choice, but you should use it melted.
- Vanilla extract: I always use homemade vanilla extract as it’s more affordable and extremely easy to make, but the store-bought version is also a good choice.
- Grated carrot.
- Walnuts: you can omit this ingredient and add vegan chocolate chips or raisins instead.
- Vegan cream cheese frosting: feel free to use our vegan buttercream frosting recipe or any other kind of frosting if you want.
Looking for more vegan desserts?
Did you make this vegan carrot cake?
Please leave a comment below, share it, or rate it. You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and PINTEREST. I’d love to see what you cook!
Vegan Carrot Cake
-
Prep:
20 mins -
Cook:
30 mins -
Total:
50 mins -
12–16 1x -
Dessert, Snack -
American -
Vegan
Servings 12–16 1x
Scale
Tap or hover over number to scale servings
Vegan carrot cake, moist, fluffy, and decadent. It is perfectly sweet and delicious and great to enjoy as a birthday cake or even to serve to your guests.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened plant milk (240 ml), I used soy milk
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (375 g)
- 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar (300 g)
- 1 and ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 and ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ cup oil (120 ml), I used canola oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated carrot (220 g)
- 1 cup walnuts (120 g), chopped (optional)
- 1 batch of vegan cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF or 180ºC. Grease two 7 or 8-inch (18-20 cm) cake pans. I also line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Mix the plant milk and vinegar in a jar or bowl until well combined. Let the mixture rest at room temperature for at least 5 minutes. After this time, the milk will thicken and curdle.
- In the meantime, add the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg) and mix until well combined.
- Add the oil, vanilla extract, and the plant milk and vinegar mixture. Stir until well combined.
- Incorporate the grated carrot and the walnuts and stir again until well combined.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans.
- Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Baking time may vary depending on the oven.
- Let it cool for 15 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack and then let it cool completely before frosting. If you don’t have a cooling rack, just use a dish or what you have on hand.
- Once cooled completely, frost with vegan cream cheese frosting using an icing spatula or a butter knife, adding a thick layer of frosting between the top and bottom layers of the cake.
- Slice and serve. Ideally, refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes before serving, but this is optional.
- Keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. You can also freeze the vegan carrot cake for up to 1 month, but in that case, freeze the cake without the frosting and defrost right before serving.
Notes
- You could also make cupcakes using this recipe. Just fill the liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for about 20-25 minutes.
- Feel free to use our vegan buttercream frosting or any other frosting instead.
- Cut the recipe in half to make a 1 layer round cake. You can also omit the frosting for a healthier and simpler version.
- If you don’t want thick layers of frosting, cut the frosting ingredients in half.
- Feel free to use any type of plant milk, such as oat milk, rice milk, almond milk, cashew milk, hemp milk, or even coconut milk, but soy milk is my favorite one for baking.
- Use any kind of sugar, salt, and oil.
- Walnuts can be omitted or replaced by raisings, vegan chocolate chips, or any other nuts.
- Nutritional info has been calculated without the vegan cream cheese frosting.
- Prep time doesn’t include neither the time you need to wait while the cake is cooling down after baking nor the time you need to keep the cake in the fridge to firm up.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/16 of the recipe
- Calories: 492
- Sugar: 49 g
- Sodium: 216.2 mg
- Fat: 22.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 69.6 g
- Fiber: 1.75 g
- Protein: 4.6 g
