Vegan Carrot Cake
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When we think of Easter, isn’t carrot cake always invited to the party? It should be, because Vegan Carrot Cake recipe is one of our favorite desserts, for sure. Whenever someone brings carrot cake to the forefront, there’s not many that will turn this classic cake down! It’s irresistible!
More Amazing Dessert Ideas? Try out Vegan Carrot Muffins, Ultimate Vegan Vanilla Cake, Easy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins – Fluffy, Moist & Vegan!
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Carrot Cake
- This vegan Carrot Cake is so moist and amazing. It’s loaded with carrots, like you would expect. Soooo good!
- It’s iced with a vegan cream cheese frosting, and then topped with some crushed pistachios. We finished it off with some pretty piped carrot tops to make it look festive and delicious for Spring. Simple yet elegant!
- One layer easy-to-make cake, but you can easily double the recipe for a double layer cake!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Vegan Carrot Cake recipe
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons oil of choice I used avocado oil
- 1/2 cup sugar, we used Zulka brand
- ½ cup brown sugar, we used Zulka brand
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 flax eggs For 2 flax eggs you need 2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water, soaked
- 2 cups carrots, finely grated
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour could be used
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- any add-ins you want to add in like raisins, coconut, yellow raisins, pecans, walnuts, pistachios
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting or 2 tubs of Duncan HInes or Pillsbury Frosting
- 12 oz. vegan cream cheese
- 1 to ½ cups confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange or lemon juice optional (could also use vanilla extract)
- 1/4 cup pistachios, chopped or walnuts, pecans
- orange and green food color gel – non-artificial
- any add-ins you want to add in like raisins, coconut, yellow raisins, pecans, walnuts, pistachios
Instructions How to Make Vegan Carrot Cake
Best Vegan Carrot Cake recipe
- Spray an 8-inch baking cake pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter or oil and set aside. Line with parchment if desired, can also use a springform pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare the flax eggs by mixing 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Water and allowing to sit for a few minutes.
- Sift the dry ingredients of flour, cinnamon, salt baking soda and baking powder in a bowl, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the wet ingredients of oil, maple syrup/vanilla and sugars and mix well using a whisk.
- Transfer flax egg mixture to the large bowl with the carrots and flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture until thoroughly combined
- Stir in any add-ins, like raisins, coconut, nuts.
- Pour cake batter into greased baking pan, and level it out and bake for 25-40 minutes. Make sure cake is done, before removing by touching top to make sure it springs back or by using a toothpick method.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for 10 min.
- Then remove the cake from the baking pan and let it cool completely before frosting.
Instructions How to Make Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting or 2 tubs of Duncan HInes or Pillsbury Frosting
- Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and juice until smooth and consistency is as desired. Take out ½ cup of frosting and use orange and green food coloring or gel for the carrot tops. (also can use 2 tubs of frosting, use one for top of cake and the other for making the carrots following the pastry bag instructions below.)
- Frost cake with frosting, except for the ½ cup reserved to make the cute little carrots.
- Using a ziplock or pastry bag, add the frosting in and snip tips of bags and pipe out carrot tops. The carrots should have a bigger hole snipped than the green carrot leaves.
- Pipe as many carrots as you want along border and add some chopped pistachios and you’re good to go!
Vegan Carrot Cake Add-Ins
One of the best traits of this Vegan carrot cake is that you can do a lot of different add-ins! My favorites are adding in raisins and chopped walnuts to the carrot cake. My husband doesn’t want any part of raisins and walnuts on any level. He likes pecans. In fact, he wants pecans in every dessert when I mention I’m putting nuts in any recipe.
Anyways, between raisins, pecans, pistachios, golden raisins, walnuts, and coconut, whatever you want to add in will add great texture and will taste very flavorful in this vegan carrot cake recipe!
More spices? Add some ginger and nutmeg if you like more spice!
About the Cream Cheese Frosting For The Vegan Carrot Cake!
Cream cheese frosting is what goes best on carrot cake! Can we all agree on that? It’s kind of tangy, creamy, and the perfect compliment. If you want the shortcut cream cheese frosting, just grab a tub of Duncan Hines or Pillsbury cream cheese frosting or a vegan buttercream frosting and frost this puppy up.
A lot of times I like to make my desserts by scratch, and buy frosting, so I don’t get covered with frosting and eat it all in the process. Anyone else like that?
It’s just nice to have these options. However when it’s a special event, like Easter, I like to go all out and make the real thing. But you can bet I’ll have a back up can of frosting in the cupboard, just in case!
We love the one layer cakes. It’s like the perfect slice of heaven. Here’s another one layer cake, Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache for the chocolate loyalists.
For more vegan cake recipes, you there’s also these The Ultimate Vegan Cake Recipes Collection: 50 Delicious Ideas, this Easy Vegan Strawberry Buttermilk Cake and this Vegan Caramel Apple Cake ‘Fit For the Gods’!
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Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Vegan Carrot Cake
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons oil of choice I used avocado oil
- 1/2 cup sugar we used Zulka brand
- ½ cup brown sugar we used Zulka brand
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 flax eggs For 2 flax eggs you need 2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water, soaked
- 2 cups carrots finely grated
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- any add-ins you want to add in like raisins, coconut, yellow raisins, pecans, walnuts, pistachios
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting or 2 tubs of Duncan HInes or Pillsbury Frosting
- 12 oz. vegan cream cheese
- 1 to ½ cups confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange or lemon juice optional (could also use vanilla extract)
- orange and green food color gel non-artificial
- 1/4 cup pistachios, chopped or walnuts, pecans
Instructions
Vegan Carrot Cake
- Spray an 8 inch baking cake pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter or oil and set aside. Line with parchment if desired, can also use a springform pan.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare the flax eggs by mixing 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Water and allowing to sit for a few minutes.
- Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt baking soda and baking powder in a bowl, set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the oil, maple syrup/vanilla and sugars and mix well using a whisk.
- Transfer flax egg mixture to the large bowl with the carrots and flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture until thoroughly combined
- Stir in any add-ins, like raisins, coconut, nuts.
- Pour cake batter into greased baking pan, and level it out and bake for 25-40 minutes. Make sure cake is done, before removing by touching top to make sure it springs back or by using a toothpick method.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for 10 min.
- Then remove the cake from the baking pan and let it cool completely before frosting.
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting or 2 tubs of Duncan HInes or Pillsbury Frosting
- Using mixer, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and juice until smooth and consistency is as desired. Take out ½ cup of frosting and use orange and green food coloring or gel for the carrot tops. (also can use 2 tubs of frosting, use one for top of cake and the other for making the carrots following the pastry bag instructions below.)
- Frost cake with frosting, except for the ½ cup reserved to make the cute little carrots.
- Using a ziplock or pastry bag, add the frosting in and snip tips of bags and pipe out carrot tops. The carrots should have a bigger hole snipped than the green carrot leaves.
- Pipe as many carrots as you want along border and add some chopped pistachios and you’re good to go!
Recipe slightly adapted from Carrot Cake & Carrot Cake
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