Last Updated on September 22, 2026 by The Allergy Chef
If you’ve stumbled upon this easy vegan carrot cake recipe… have I got news for you. You’ve found a true gem because this awesome cake recipe is from my award winning gluten free, vegan, top 9 free bakery. Yup, you’re about to make bakery quality carrot cake that’s sure to make your taste buds sing.
Whilst the bakery was open, carrot cake was one of the top 5 selling flavours and customers without food allergies or dietary restrictions would buy them by the dozen. So, trust me when I say, this recipe is BOMB.
Allergy Status
Free From: Wheat/Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, Tree Nuts, Peanut, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame, Top 9 Allergens, Alliums, Avocado, Banana, Beans & Lentils, Buckwheat, Celery, Citrus, Coconut, Corn, Cruciferous, Garlic, Legume, Lupin, Mushroom, Mustard, Onion, Pea & Pea Protein, Poultry, Red Meat, Squash & Gourd, Strawberry, Sweet Potato & Yam, Tapioca/Cassava/Yuca/Manioc, Tomato, Yeast
Friendly To: EOE, Vegan
Compatible With: Apple Free, Berry Free, Nightshade Free, Oat Free, Potato Free, Stone Fruit Free, Top 14 Free, Low FODMAP
- Apple Free: Swap the ACV for a safe-for-you vinegar, or lemon juice. See notes for more info.
- Berry Free: Omit the raisins. One taster swears this is their favorite dessert when the raisins have been left out.
- Nightshade & Potato Free: See notes below on swaps for potato starch.
- Oat Free & Top 14 Free: See notes below on swap for oat flour.
- Stone Fruit Free: See notes below on olive oil.
- Low FODMAP: Swap the raisins for cranberries. Use a safe-for-you vinegar. The amount of oat in this recipe falls under the daily limit.
Tools Needed to Make This Easy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe
- Handheld Electric Mixer OR Stand Mixer (technically you could use a large mixing bowl and whisk by hand, but something with power will be much easier)
- Vegetable Peeler
- Knife (this is my current fave knife series)
- Cutting Board
- Box Grater
- Kitchen Scale (this is non-negotiable in free-from baking, as it allows me to give you precise numbers so you’ll have success at home)
- Measuring Cups + Measuring Spoons
- Large Baking Tray (I have quite a few from this brand)
- Spatula
- Parchment Paper
If you don’t have some of these tools, you can view what I use in my Amazon Shop.
More Epic Gluten Free Carrot Recipes
Each of these delicious recipes is gluten free, vegan, egg free, and incredibly allergy friendly. If you love carrots, absolutely give one a try.
- Carrot Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
- 5 Carrot Juice Recipes (with additional juice ideas to try)
- Carrot Cake Waffles Recipe (no milk, no eggs, no problem)
- Delicious & Easy Steamed & Seasoned Carrots
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Ingredients for This Easy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe
Flax Gel/Bind
- 3 TBSP Golden Flax Meal (for best results, use this brand)
- 6 TBSP Water (room temperature, here’s truly corn free water if you need it)
Note: This is sometimes called a flax egg. but I don’t use the term because there’s no universal measurement.
Part 1 Ingredients (Dry Ingredients)
- 45g Potato Starch
- 40g Brown Rice Flour, superfine
- 40g Sorghum Flour, superfine
- 30g Organic Gluten Free Purity Protocol Oat Flour
- 30g Arrowroot
- 200g Organic Cane Sugar
- 4 tsp Organic Ground Cinnamon
- 3 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/2 tsp Organic Ground Nutmeg
- Pinch Organic Ground Cloves
Part 2 Ingredients (Start of Wet Ingredients)
- 112mL Milk of Choice (4 ounces)
- 2 tsp Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Part 3 Ingredients
- 110mL Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (4 ounces)
- 1 TBSP Organic Vanilla Extract (use this for truly corn free)
Part 4 Ingredients
- 196g Organic Peeled & Shredded Carrots (7 ounces)
- 1/2 cup Organic Raisins (also tested without raisins and it comes out great)
Part 5 Ingredient
- 56mL Hot Water (2 ounces)
Important Ingredient Notes & Swaps
Before you make any swaps or substitutions to this vegan carrot cake, you need a firm warning. I’m sharing THEEE recipe from my award winning bakery. This gluten free vegan carrot cake was a TOP seller. For every swap that you make, you’re a step further from the award winning recipe.
Sure, your cake will function, and you may love every bite, but it will NOT be what was sold at the bakery. I think too often these days online everyone wants to come at a recipe like it’s the wild wild west.
Here’s the thing though… when a free-from master shares the key to success with you, follow the recipe 🙂
Potato Starch
This is a huge part of what gives this easy vegan carrot cake recipe its delicate tender crumb. I get needing to swap if you’re nightshade free, but if you’re not NF, use the potato starch. For my NF folks, swap for tapioca starch.
Oat Flour
If you aren’t managing Celiac Disease, a wheat allergy, or need to be strictly gluten free, you can use regular oat flour. If you can’t have oats, you can swap this for organic tiger nut flour (tuber, not a tree nut). However, this is going to shift the overall taste and texture of your carrot cake, so be warned.
Cane Sugar
This is a granulated sweetener. You can safely swap this for organic maple sugar and still have super fantastic results. Organic date sugar and organic coconut sugar are options as well, but I haven’t personally tested them. If you want to try a brown sugar, I’d go with organic light brown sugar, but know that this swap will shift the flavor some.
Do not swap this granulated sugar for a liquid sweetener like maple syrup, agave, or unsweetened applesauce. You will ruin the cake if you do.
Milk of Choice
You can use any plant-based milk in this vegan carrot cake recipe. The key is to use a plain unsweetened dairy free milk. It can be almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, oat milk, cashew milk, and so on. The one plant milk you should not use is coconut milk from the can due to the fat content, and overwhelming taste.
Now, you want to be in the know? Part of the reason my recipes worked so well was because I made the dairy-free milk myself. No additives, no crazy list of ingredients, just 4 simple ingredients to make a milk that worked well. If you don’t have a tree nut allergy, check out this brand. They make some pretty clean options.
Gluten Free Flour Blend
I know not everyone will need gluten free, and even those that do don’t always have individual flours on hand. This awesome vegan cake calls for a total of 185g of flour. If you need to, use 185g of an all purpose flour when making what I’m now calling the best carrot cake.
You cannot use a single flour such as almond flour, cassava flour, coconut flour, and so on.
Olive Oil
I only ever bake with organic extra virgin olive oil or organic tiger nut oil (tuber, not a tree nut). I’ve found these to be superior to other options including vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil. Absolutely do not bake with avocado oil since the flavour will be very present. Having said that, if needed, you can replace the olive oil with another oil that bakes well, so long as the oil is liquid at room temperature (sunflower oil, etc.).
You can’t swap the oil for coconut oil (including melted coconut oil), or dairy free butter (also called vegan butter), since these are solid at room temperature.
Raisins
You can omit the raisins in this recipe. One of my tasters prefers this great carrot cake without them. You can also experiment with golden raisins and cranberries if that’s your jam.
More Mind Blowing Gluten Free + Vegan Cake Recipes
Like cake? Great, try these next. You won’t be disappointed, assuming you like the base flavour. Like, don’t make apple cake if you don’t like apples… Happy baking!
- Easy Gluten Free Vanilla Sheet Pan Cake Recipe
- Out of this World Vegan Apple Sheet Pan Cake Recipe (I’m told this is one of the top cakes I’ve every developed)
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake Recipe
- Moist and Delicious Vegan Vanilla Birthday Cake Recipe
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Easy Vegan Carrot Cake Directions
- Bake Temperature: 325f/163c
- Baking Time:19+ Minutes (more info below, after the instructions)
For gluten free vegan cake recipes, I use a stand mixer with the wire whisk attachment. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use an electric hand mixer with a large bowl. I mean, you can also mix manually by hand with a whisk, but that takes more elbow grease than I’m willing to give.
Start by washing, peeling, and shredding your carrots. Use a small opening on your box grater to avoid having massive chunks of carrot in your final baked cake.
Next, combine your flax and water together in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside, then get your hot water going.
Next, combine the milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside. Finally, combine the oil and vanilla in a measuring cup. The prep for your wet ingredients is now complete. This is a good time to preheat your oven to 325f/163c.
Place your empty mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and tare to zero. Add the Part 1 Ingredients, and tare between weighted ingredients. Once they’re all in, lightly mix to combine.
With your mixer on low speed, add the milk + vinegar combo. Mix until just combined, then turn the mixer off and wait 1 minute. Now turn the mixer back on low speed and add your oil + vanilla combo. Continue to mix until a thick batter forms. Turn the mixer off and add your flax gel.
Mix again, and when the flax is well incorporated, add your carrots and raisins. Once incorporated, add the hot water. Continue to mix until a smooth batter has formed. Mix on high speed for 20 seconds, then turn the mixer off. Use a heavy duty spatula to scrape the bowl and give the batter one last mix by hand to ensure there aren’t any clumps.
This cake recipe can be baked in any shape/pan. Mini cupcakes start at 19 minutes (325f/163c). Your time will increase with larger sizes.
When your cake is done, a toothpick test should come out clean, with only a few small dry cake crumbles. Wet/gooey batter means you need to keep baking.
Pictured: Mini Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes topped with vegan cream cheese frosting (grab the frosting recipe here).
Important Note on Baking Pans
You know how they tell you to grease the pan and flour the sides of the pans? Nope, we are NOT doing all of that. I’ve tested that method and it’s completely unnecessary with my gluten free vegan cake recipes.
Parchment. Paper.
That friend is the world’s best kept baking secret. If you use parchment paper, you get the perfect carrot cake each and every time. This is the brand for the absolute BEST cupcake liners (the have mini, standard and jumbo).
For a sheet cake, I use my regular parchment paper from Costco. It works every single time, so save yourself the trouble of prepared pans and do things the easy way.
Cake Shapes and Bake Times
You can bake this gluten free vegan vanilla cake recipe as cupcakes, a sheet pan cake, cake rounds, mini cupcakes, and so on. The only difference will be the bake time. No matter the shape/pan, your cake needs to pass a toothpick test.
Here are general bake times to get you started:
- Mini Cupcakes: 19 Minutes
- Large/Standard Cupcakes: 25+ Minutes
- Jumbo Cupcakes: 28+ Minutes
- 6”/15cm Cake Round: 35+ Minutes
- 8”/20cm Cake Round: 38+ Minutes
- Quarter Sheet Pan: 26+ Minutes
- Half Sheet Pan: 28+ Minutes
These bake times are super general, and can’t take into account how full your cavity/pans are. For anything other than a mini cupcake, when in doubt, start with 24 minutes and go from there.
For quarter sheet pans, cake rounds, and large sheet pans, if you see cracking on top, there’s a good chance your cake is done (and may be over baked), so check with a toothpick ASAP and remove from the oven if you’ve passed the test.
Frosting Note
So you’ve made the best vegan carrot cake recipe, and now you’re thinking about what frosting to make. Well, if you’d like a traditional cake, make a vegan cream cheese frosting. It’s like, the absolute most classic combination where carrot cake is concerned.
Now, if you’re like me and you love to try new things because that’s what free-from is all about, let your cake cool, then try out one of these delicious options:
- Maple Frosting
- Ginger Maple Frosting
- Cinnamon Frosting
- Cinnamon Ginger Frosting
- Vegan Chocolate Buttercream
- Vegan Vanilla Buttercream (this is a great option if you’re allergic to vegan cream cheese since most contain nuts or soy)
Here’s a link for a vegan vanilla buttercream frosting. You can mess about to make the other combos, or if you’d like tested recipes, grab a copy of my Cake, Pastry, and Frosting Cookbook.
Gluten Free Vegan Vanilla Cake Storage
This cake is great fresh, for 4 days. You can leave it in the fridge or on the counter top, covered. It will dry out and be no fun if it’s not covered well. Alternatively, you can freeze this cake for 4 months in an airtight container. Past 4 months texture declines by about 8%.
To freeze, place your cupcakes into some kind of proper cupcake container (you can buy them online or at restaurant supply stores). When the cupcakes are loaded, close the lid and pop the whole thing into your freezer.
You can freeze your cupcakes with, or without frosting (I always frost and freeze so it’s less work later).
Whilst refrigeration isn’t required, it’s suggested. If you don’t like the taste of “cold” take your cake out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before eating/serving. If frosted, especially in hot areas, refrigeration is necessary to prevent frosting melt.
To thaw frozen cake or cupcakes, leave it at room temperature for 60 – 90 minutes. Do not reheat.
Learn How to Decorate Cake
If you’re enjoying vegan baking and want to learn how to decorate your cakes as well, I’ve got a couple of videos you’re going to want to see. Whilst cupcakes are what’s pictured, you can bake your vegan cake as individual cake layers (I usually do 6-inch cake pans or 8-inch cake pans). This cake recipe is designed to be a layer cake as well, and has the structural integrity to pull it off.
The only thing I’ll tell you now is that I don’t level cakes. With free-from cakes, it’s better to let the frosting do the leveling so you don’t destroy the structure when cutting off the top of the cake.
The recipe pages below will cover how to do a crumb coat, the tools you’ll want, how to smooth out the frosting on the sides of the cake, and so on. I don’t want to talk your ear off on the matter, so go watch the videos.
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Answering Your Questions About This Easy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe
Do I really need to use organic ingredients?
If you want the cake from my award winning bakery, yes, you need to use organic ingredients. Part of the reason my bakery was so successful among those without food allergies and dietary restrictions was that people could literally taste the quality.
I got an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from this feature alone. So, trust me when I say, people can taste the difference.
Is this a good carrot cake recipe for Easter?
Yup! A lot of bakery customers ordered this carrot cake for Easter (and Thanksgiving and Christmas). They’d share it with friends and family who weren’t gluten free, and who didn’t have dietary restrictions. It was always very well received, so absolutely make this for Easter.
Can I swap the raisins for walnuts?
Maybe. I don’t bake with nuts since I operated a nut free bakery. Also, I’ve been told by a lot of people that crushed walnuts (or even pineapple) shouldn’t be in carrot cake. So, you can give it try, but go into it eyes wide open.
You can test it on a half batch of cake, or make cupcakes and fold crushed walnuts into one of the cavities and give it a little mix, then see how it turns out.
Is this considered a healthy vegan carrot cake?
So, the word healthy is an unregulated term. Not only that, but you can ask five different people if this is a healthy vegan carrot cake recipe and get five different answers.
Some will say no, because there’s cane sugar in the recipe. Others will say yes because the ingredients are mostly organic. Ultimately, this tender carrot cake is a dessert, with sugar, and should be enjoyed in moderation as part of a well rounded diet.
If you ate like, half the recipe in one sitting, oh man, that is so not good for anyone. But a mini cupcake or regular cupcake? I think you’ll be just fine (assuming you don’t have a specific medical condition that would need you to avoid a carrot cake recipe like this one).
Can I use lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar?
This fantastic carrot cake recipe essentially has you make vegan buttermilk with the milk and vinegar combo. You will have the same lift results if you use lemon juice instead. The flavour may shift a tiny bit, but it’s not going to be the end of the world.
I’ll also add, since we’re talking citrus, orange juice and lime juice won’t give you the same lift, so stick with lemon juice.
If I bake cake rounds, should I cool them on a cooling rack?
No, do not cool the cake layers on a cooling rack. It’s important that your vegan carrot cake stay in the baking tin for at least fifteen minutes to take advantage of carryover cooking. If you were to eject them too early, you lose the heat (and the cake would fall apart).
Now, if you’d like to transfer your cake layers to a vertical wire rack after baking so you have more counter space, have at it. Just know that using said wire rack for cooling is 100% unnecessary.
Can I make this vegan carrot cake with pre-grated carrots?
Can you? Yes. Should you? No. Not only will pre-grated carrots come with an additional cost, but they tend to be too large and “stiff” for lack of a better word. Technically, you could roughly chop pre-grated carrots and have better results. However, if you want the best vegan carrot cake, grate the carrots at home with your box grater.
If hand strength is a problem, a modern day food processor can grate for you. This is the food processor that I have, and it comes with a bunch of attachments for grating (and peeling, which is WILD to me).
Is it possible to make this a sugar-free carrot cake?
Nope. You can make this a refined sugar free carrot cake by swapping the organic cane sugar for organic maple sugar.
It’s important to know that sugar is hygroscopic which means it helps baked goods retain moisture. In fact, it’s considered a wet ingredient. If you were to take a cup of sugar and replace it with half a cup of sugar, you’d see a decline in cake texture and cake performance. You’d have a less sweet cake.
Now, in conventional baking, they have a 20% rule. Generally, you can reduce the sugar by 20% and still have a good cake with moist crumbs. The reason they have this success because they have gluten and eggs.
In the free-from world, I’ve estimated that we have closer to an 8 – 10% rule. For us, that moisture is CRITICAL. You know how some gluten free baked goods or vegan baked goods are crumbly and gross? It’s because the ratios are simply wrong.
So, if you want the perfect cake with a tender moist crumb, you’d have to leave the recipe as-is. If sugar free is a medical requirement for you, I’m going to encourage you to find a different recipe. Also, check out what the raw vegans make. All of their recipes are naturally cane sugar free and rely on dates to naturally sweeten their dessert recipes.
Do you have a vegan chocolate cake recipe?
I do, in fact there are several amazing gluten free vegan chocolate cake recipe options. You’ll find all of them in my Free-From Cake, Pastry, and Frosting Cookbook. There’s the chocolate cake recipe from my award winning bakery, special versions of chocolate cake for people with less common allergies, and even an ultra low sugar mega delicious chocolate cake recipe.
Which brand sells the best vegan cream cheese?
So, I haven’t tried every brand of vegan cream cheese due to the specific allergies of my taste testers. We’ve tried Tofutti and Kite Hill. The tasters prefer Tofutti, which I thought was so interesting because the Kite Hill vegan cream cheese has a cleaner ingredient list.
If this is your first time making a vegan version of cream cheese frosting, I want to encourage you to purchase the different vegan cream cheese options in your area and do a side by side taste comparison, then make your frosting with the winner.
Can I freeze leftover cake batter?
Yes!! You can freeze the batter for this gluten free vegan vanilla cake. One time, I did a test in this type of deli container. 3 years later, I thawed the cake batter, baked it up, and everyone said it tasted amazing. So, have fun with that.
Just be sure to store the cake batter in an airtight container that’s been labeled. Also make a double or triple batch of this delicious cake recipe so you can have quite a few containers of batter in the freezer.
How is the cake able to rise without eggs?
Egg free cake rise is all about kitchen science, but not weird ingredients you can’t pronounce. With simple ingredients, we can produce a lovely cake rise that rivals conventional baking with eggs, gluten, and all the things.
It starts with the leavening agents (the key ingredients to our egg free lift). Notice that there’s two (baking soda and baking powder). That’s giving us a generous boost. However, did you see the apple cider vinegar? When you combine leavening agents with an acid, you get a rocket ship full of boost. Interestingly, we also have a vegan buttermilk situation going since the vinegar is combined with the plant milk.
Generally, this is how I create rise in my free-from baked goods. In addition to that, sometimes we get a little lift by whipping air into the batter, but this is going to vary wildly by recipe.
Can I make frosting without powdered sugar?
So, this question could mean a few things, so I’ll tackle each of the angles. Powdered sugar (aka confectioners’ sugar) is a key ingredient in frosting recipes. However, you can make frosting without it, so long as you have patience and elbow grease.
If you need to remove powdered sugar because you’ve run out, you can make powdered sugar at home in your blender. Combine 1 US dry cup of powdered sugar with 1 TBSP starch of choice (tapioca starch is what I use). Blend on high and you’ll have powdered sugar very soon.
Now, if you’re cane sugar free because of a dietary restriction or allergy, you can make “powdered sugar” from organic maple sugar, organic date sugar, or organic coconut sugar.
Blend 1 US dry cup with 1 TBSP tapioca starch on high sped and you’ll get something that resembles powdered sugar. Notice the word resemble. Whilst it’s not a perfect recreation, you can use it as a substitute when decorating your cake. Just know that it’s kind of finicky.
And finally, if you can’t have any form of added sugar, I’ve got you. So, toasted cassava flour is a great base for a faux homemade frosting. You can combine that with a little organic tiger nut oil (tuber, not a tree nut), water, and organic maple syrup.
Alternatively, you can combine the flour with super ripe organic bananas to create a paste that can operate as a frosting substitute.
