Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe With Cream Cheese Icing

Indulge guilt-free in our delectable Vegan Carrot Cake with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. Savor the sweetness of this plant-based delight that's kind to your taste buds and the planet.

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Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions and Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• Top tip
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This vegan carrot cake is moist and has a lovely spiced flavour which is offset by the sweetness of the vegan cream cheese icing. The chopped walnuts provide a nice bit of texture and work really well with the flavour of the cake and icing. This is definitely one of those bakes that people would not guess is vegan.

Funny story - I've never been a big fan of carrot cake. I'm not sure why, I think I might have had a horrible slice one day when I was a child and it has put me off ever since! For some reason my youngest little one has been asking to make carrot cake everyday - I'm not sure if he's seen it mentioned in a book or on TV but he has been obsessed! We like cooking and baking together so I thought, why not, let's make a carrot cake. And do you know what - I loved it! Of course it helped being able to put my own twist upon it (and leave out the raisins!). I was very pleased with the result and it would be a great cake to take to a cake sale or a friend's house or serve as a dessert even if you have people over.

Carrot cake is often popular at Easter - I guess because of the carrot and bunny theme and you could decorate your carrot cake with orange carrots made or piped with icing for a great Easter table centrepiece. I also really like it as an autumn recipe too because the cinnamon flavour just goes so well with everything at this time of year. I mean, a slice of this vegan carrot cake paired with a pumpkin spiced latte - does anything actually get any better than that?!  

If you are looking for more cake recipes, why not try my Vegan Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake or Vegan Orange Almond Cake. You can never have too much cake after all. 

Ingredients

The key ingredient to this cake of course is the carrot. Traditionally the carrot was added to cake to act as a sweetener in times when sugar was more scarce. Make sure to grate your carrot on the finest grater plate you have as this will give your cake a smoother texture.I love the fact that this great recipe uses just traditional simple ingredients - good whole food at it's best. 

For the cake

• plain flour (all purpose flour)
• soft brown sugar
• caster sugar (make sure to look for vegan cane sugar)
• baking powder
• bicarbonate of soda
• ground cinnamon
• salt
• ground ginger
• ground nutmeg
• coconut oil
• non dairy milk (soy milk, oat milk, almond milk or coconut milk)
• banana
• vanilla extract
• grated carrot
• chopped walnuts

For the vegan cream cheese icing

• plant based butter 
• vanilla extract
• vegan cream cheese
• icing sugar

For exact quantities see the recipe card below. 

Instructions

First of all make the cake. You will want to grease and line two 8 inch cake tins with parchment paper or use silicone cake tins. I love using silicone cake tins as they make it so much easier to remove the cake and it means no more greasing and lining! 

Put all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well to combine. Make sure that the flour is sieved to reduce the number of lumps.

Add the wet ingredients - milk, coconut oil and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients and stir through. Then mix in half of the chopped walnuts, the mashed banana and the grated carrots through the cake batter.

Divide the mixture equally between the two tins. Spread to an even level and place in the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on wire racks still in their cake pans. When cool remove from the tins and leave on the wire rack to cool completely until they are at room temperature. 

To make the icing

Use an electric beater to beat the vegan butter in a large mixing bowl until smooth. I prefer to use Flora Plant Based block butter. When the butter is nice and soft add in the vegan cream cheese. I used the violife cream cheese tub. Add the vanilla extract before using a sieve to add the icing sugar slowly. You might need to use more or less icing sugar to achieve the right consistency. 

Decorating the cake

When the cake is completely cooled, sandwich the two halves together with some of the icing. Then spread a thin layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake. Put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes until the icing has set. This is called a crumb coat and it will make it easier to ice the rest of the cake. 

Use the rest of the icing to cover the top and sides of the cake. Press the other half of the chopped walnuts into the sides of the cake and sprinkle on top to decorate. 

Store the cake in an airtight container in a cool place and it will keep for about 3 days before it starts to dry out. The sooner you eat it the more it will be a moist vegan carrot cake.

Hint: I use a grating attachment on my food processor to quickly grate the carrots. Use the fine grater as this will give the best texture to the cake and stop the vegan cake from being too claggy.

Substitutions and Variations

If you know how to make the recipe fit a certain diet, let the reader know here. Don't fake it - only provide guidance on topics you have actual experience with.

• Gluten free - I haven't tried this recipe with gluten-free flour, but I am sure you could make the change and it would work. 
• Raisins - Lots of people like raisins in carrot cake, so if you do, go ahead and include some.
• Icing - If the sweet tang of vegan cream cheese icing isn't for you you can substitute it with regular vegan vanilla icing.
• Oil - If you don't have coconut oil you can substitute it for canola oil or vegetable oil. 
• Banana - you can't taste the banana in this recipe but if you haven't got any or are allergic you can substitute this for apple sauce without having to adjust the baking time.

This cake is naturally dairy free, egg free and soya free. 

Equipment

You don't need anything fancy to make this cake, just a couple of large bowls and a whisk. I use silicone cake pans instead of metal prepared pans because it's easier to get the cakes out and there's no need to grease and line them. You can of course use an electric mixer but it really is more effort (and washing up) than it's worth for this recipe.

I use the grater attachment on my food processor to quickly grate the carrot but you can just use a regular cheese grater.

Storage

This healthy carrot cake keeps really well in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 4 days. 

Top tip

Grate the carrot thinly for the best texture - you want to have the finest shredded carrots that you can. Also, don't skip the crumb coat when you are icing the cake.

Print

📖 Recipe

I hope that you enjoyed this recipe for vegan carrot cake. If you make it yourself don't forget to tag me on instagram @wemadethisvegan or use the hashtag #wemadethisvegan, I'd love to see your creations!

Also please share this recipe with your friends on social media and you can also pin it for later.

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