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Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe. Vegan Carrot Cake Quick bread loaf with Cashew Cream Frosting. Moist, spiced with Cinnamon and Cardamom, full of carrots. Low oil. Soyfree Palmoil-free. Pin this Recipe Jump to Recipe
This week is amazingly busy. I was planning up the posts last week and realized that both Holi and Easter are this week. Carrots and Mangoes were my choice to appear on the blog this week. So lets get started with this super moist Carrot Cake.
This carrot cake is loaded with shredded carrots and pureed carrots. All that carrot with the spices like cinnamon and cardamom (because Cardamom!), some ginger, and a creamy cream cheese style cashew vanilla frosting make this an irresistible loaf. The loaf is a carrot cake quick bread with mild sweetness. Add spices of choice, some nuts and dried fruit, bake, then frost with an easy cashew cream vanilla frosting. This is an incredibly moist carrot cake. It tastes even better after chilling as the spices infuse the loaf. The frosting is cashews plus little sweetener, lemon and vanilla! I use my mini food processor to shred the carrots. That reduces elbow grease and time needed. Bake this loaf and tag me on Instagram. For a Gluten and Grain free version, try this. What are your plans for Easter?
Other Easter Recipes from the blog
- Carrot Cake Pancakes
- Carrot Cake Ice Cream with candied walnuts and roasted carrots
- Carrot Veggie Pilaf with shredded carrots.
- GF Carrot Cake – Gluten-free.
- Or use the 1.5 to 2 cups of dry ingredients from my gf pumpkin loaf to make this loaf gluten-free. Add 1/2 cup oats and 1 tbsp chia seeds as well to help hold the bread.
Mix the dry ingredients. Soak the shredded carrots in maple. Mix in the pureed carrots + apples. Mix in the dry to make a thick stiff batter. Drop into parchment lined pan and even it out.
Bake until toothpick from the center comes out almost clean.
Cool completely. Slice and serve or frost, slice and serve. Frosting Inspired by Wallflower Girl’s Cashew coconut flour frosting.
Video!
Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
- 2 cups loosely packed grated or shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2/3 cup sugar, i use a mix of regular and brown sugar. Add 2 tbsp more for sweeter
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp flax seed meal
- 1/2 of a small apple or 1/4 cup chopped apple or use 1/4 cup apple sauce
- 1/3-1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 1/2 inch fresh ginger, optional
- 1/2 cup water or non dairy milk, or use orange juice
Dry:
- 2 cups flour, I use 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup unbleached white
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp or more cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/3 cup currants or raisins
Cashew Vanilla Frosting:
- 1/2 cup cashews soaked for 1 hour or overnight
- 3-4 tbsp water
- 1/8-1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp or more lemon juice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tsp coconut flour
Instructions
- Prepare your pan for baking by lining with parchment or greasing and dusting with flour. Preheat the oven to 365 degrees F / 180ºc.
- Grate or shred the carrots and transfer to a bowl. Add the maple, sugar, oil, lemon, vanilla and mix well. Let sit for 2 mins.
- Meanwhile Blend the flax, apples, chopped carrots, ginger with water until pureed. Add to the carrot bowl and mix well.
- In another bowl, whisk the dry ingredients until well combined. Transfer to the wet and mix until there are no dry flour streaks. Fold in the nuts and currants. The mixture should be a stiff-ish batter. If the batter is too wet/moist (depends on the carrots), add 1 to 2 tbsp more flour and mix in.
- Drop the thick batter into prepared loaf pan. Even it out on the top.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until the toothpick from the center comes out almost clean. Cool for 15 mins and remove from the pan. Cool for atleast another 10 minutes before slicing.
- Frosting: Blend the soaked cashews with water, salt, lemon, sugar and vanilla. Blend until smooth. (I use a nutri bullet small blender).Taste and adjust lemon, sweet and salt and blend. Add a 1/4 tsp white vinegar for stronger sour flavor. Add some cinnamon for a cinnamony frosting. If the mixture is runny, add 1 tsp coconut flour and blend it. Add more coconut flour if needed to get the desired consistency. Spread the frosting over the cake.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Super bummed to say this was a huge disappointment in our household. The icing wasn’t even close to tasting like the real thing (something your recipes usually succeed in doing) and the loaf itself was incredibly dense & dry. Carrot cake is a favorite guilty pleasure, but this one missed the mark 🙁
I am sorry it dint work out for you. the icing is not the same as a sugar icing, but a version of cream cheese style lighter and less sweet frosting. You can use a sugar based icing of choice. how did just the cake turn out?
Do you think this would work if I substituted applesauce for the oil?
Hi Richa,
Is there any reason I shouldn’t replace the maple syrup with agave syrup? I rarely have maple syrup, but always have agave kicking around in a cupboard.
it should work with agave
HI Richa! I just made this and it is delicious. My husband had two pieces. It is moist and yummy. My question is about how to store it. I don’t anything about that and would love to store it the best way possible. I also made your cauliflower kofta curry this weekend. You are really amazing! Sita
In the refrigerator for upto 3 days. i’ll update the recipe. So glad they both turned out so well!
Thanks Richa. I also have a question about the sauce fir the cauliflower kofta curry. It has come out really tasty but very thin the three times I have made this dish. What do you suggest to thicken ht?
add less water or some cashew cream to thicken. It is a thinner sauce compared to malai kofta as its just onion tomato mixture by design. You can also thicken the sauce by cooking it longer before adding the kofta
Hi, the chopped carrots, do you puree them raw?
yes
Richa, this cake was so amazing. For some reason, it reminded me of gajar ka halwa and my husband totally had the same thought. Anyway – I actually made it for my daughter to take to school, and the kids totally loved it. I’m glad I made extra for me and the hubs to devour LOL
Thank you thank you!
Thats awesome! Yes it does taste somewhat like halwa esp if you add cardamom. The slow roasted carrots and spices. yum!
Thank you for this delicious vegan carrot cake! I’ve also tried replacing the sugar with rice malt syrup and have made it without any oil. The cake still turned out super moist and is most definitely our go-to carrot cake recipe 🙂 I’ve also tried it with 1/2 buckwheat flour, which works well too.
Sounds great!
I made this last night for our dessert. My whole family loved it. Thanks for a great recipe I’m sure to make again and again!
I used a mixture of 1/2 Oat Flour and 1/2 White Whole Wheat which seemed to work well.
A note of caution: if you do not have a small blender such as a NutriBullet or a BlendTec Twister, I would recommend making a double batch of the frosting. As I have only regular-sized BlendTec carafes, I had a VERY difficult time with the frosting. It never truly got smooth. The flavor was great, but it just didn’t come together & was grainy.
Other than the issues with the frosting, this was a terrific recipe which my hubby truly appreciated me making for his birthday!
Great. Thanks! yes make a larger quantity for frosting other things as cupcakes, cinnamon rolls etc