One Bowl Vegan Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Low Sugar and Gluten Free options)
The most delicious, decadent, and EASIEST vegan carrot cake recipe you will ever find! Bursting with carrots and warming spices, covered with a luxurious cream cheese frosting, and topped with candied walnuts for an extra sweet crunch, this cake will quickly become your new addiction!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients - note this will make THREE layers
- 3½ cups gluten free flour can sub all-purpose if desired. This links to my favorite store bought gluten free flour blend that works best with all of my recipes, or see "Ingredients Needed" section for further info.
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar *if you want a lower sugar option, this links to my favorite sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp nutmeg
- pinch of ginger
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups non-dairy milk
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp neutral oil
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups shredded carrots
- 2 cups walnuts
Candied Walnut Ingredients
- 1½ tsp vegan butter or neutral oil
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- ½ cup walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- 8oz vegan cream cheese
- 4 cups powdered sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite powdered sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- ½-1 cup cornstarch this is optional IF you want a thicker frosting but don't want to keep adding sugar endlessly
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease 3 8-inch cake tins plus line with parchment rounds. Note – this recipe has amounts for THREE layers of cake. If you are doing more layers or fewer layers, adjust the amounts accordingly!
- In a large bowl, mix together the gluten free flour, both sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Then add in the non-dairy milk, neutral oil, and vanilla extract. Lastly, add in the carrots and walnuts and mix all until just combined.
- Pour evenly into your greased and lined cake pans. Bake for 28-32 minutes – mine are perfect at exactly 30 – check to be sure they’re done by sticking in a toothpick and removing the pans when the toothpick comes out with just crumbs, not wet batter.
- Set aside your cake pans to cool for about 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pan and putting onto a cooling rack to come to room temperature. Personally I like to let them come to room temperature for a few minutes and then stick in the fridge, as I find it easier to build a layer cake when the cake itself is cold.
- While your cake layers are cooking and then cooling, it’s time to make the candied walnuts and frosting, starting with the walnuts since they will also need cool time. Put the butter and sugar into a small pan over medium heat. Let it heat up for about a minute until combined, then add in the walnuts. Cook for 3-5 minutes until they are coated – don’t let it burn! – then transfer the mixture to parchment paper to cool fully.
- Lastly, just before putting together the cake, it’s time to make the frosting. Note – this amount of frosting will make what you see in these pictures, which is enough to frost between layers and on top, then do a sort of “naked cake” look on the outside. If you want to go heavier on the sides of the cake, I suggest making 1.5x the amount written above.
- To make the frosting, simply add the vegan butter, vegan cream cheese, and vanilla extract to a bowl and mix first for a minute or two using a hand mixer or stand mixer. Then add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time. You can add a pinch of salt to taste. Also as I note above, if you want a thicker frosting but don’t want to keep adding more and more sweetness to it, you can use some cornstarch to get your desired consistency.
- Final note – before frosting my cake, I leveled off the top of each layer to make sure they were flattened for easier building. This is optional.
- Eat and enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!