This easy one-bowl carrot cake has a fluffy and moist texture. The cake is gluten-free and vegan topped with creamy dairy-free frosting. I don’t think you can only enjoy this perfect cake on Easter!
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Both my and my sister’s birthdays are in April. As the date of Easter varies each day, in some years my sister’s birthday fell on Easter holiday and sometimes mine fell on the holiday. I’m saying that I actually made this delicious carrot cake for our birthdays!
I seriously think that the first person who put carrots in cake was a genius. Finely grated carrots bring moisture to the cake. Not only do they make the cake healthier, its sweetness has perfectly matched the spices and saved the amount of sugar the cake needs!
TEXTURE OF THE CARROT CAKE
Fluffy, moist and light. No one in my family is the kind of people who like gooey cake. That’s why my family enjoyed this fluffy and airy carrot cake so much! What’s so surprising is that my boyfriend APPROVES the cake and he doesn’t eat gluten-free or vegan! Topped with the creamy and thick frosting made with coconut cream and vegan cream cheese, I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t like this cake!
INGREDIENTS & SUBSTITUTES FOR GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN CARROT CAKE
Below are the key ingredients and some highlights for this delicious carrot cake:
Gluten-free flours: I used a combination of almond flour, gluten-free oat flour and tapioca flour. If you wish to make the cake nut-free, you can substitute almond flour with more oat flour. I made my own oat flour by grinding gluten-free rolled oats. You can simply use a good quality blender or food processor to do so.
Powdered erythritol: I intended to reduce the amount of sugar in this cake so I chose this sugar-free sweetener in place of part of the coconut sugar. Make sure it’s fine enough or else it’ll be quite difficult to dissolve. If you don’t mind more sugar consumption, you can definitely use all coconut sugar for this cake. For US measurement, substitute 1/5 cup coconut sugar for 1/3 cup powdered erythritol; for metric measurement, just simply make 1:1 substitute.
Coconut sugar: you can substitute coconut sugar for powdered erythritol, but this is not the case in reverse, as coconut sugar adds special flavor to the cake that perfectly matches the spices.
Unsweetened applesauce: this is a perfect egg replacer for carrot cake so I haven’t tried any substitution. It adds moisture to the cake and makes the cake softer.
Coconut oil: it should be melted completely before use. You can replace it with other liquid oil like canola oil and grapeseed oil.
Carrots: make sure they’re finely grated.
Spices: I used ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Spices make carrot cake wonderful! Don’t skip them!
INGREDIENTS & SUBSTITUTES FOR VEGAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Coconut cream: I used Siam’s full-fat coconut milk. Chill the coconut milk overnight to get solid coconut cream. Save the remaining coconut water for other use.
Vegan cream cheese: let it soften under room temperature before use, or else the frosting will become lumpy.
Powdered erythritol: to make the frosting sugar-free, I used powdered erythritol,
which makes the frosting a little bit less firm than the one made with traditional powdered sugar. As mentioned above, you have to make sure it’s fine enough so that it can easily dissolve.
TIPS
Do not overmix: oat flour is a good binding agent in baking, very similar to the function of gluten in wheat flour. However, if you overmix the batter, oat flour can make the cake dense and gummy.
Cake pan size: this is a 4-inch diameter three-layer carrot cake (I know it’s a bit tiny for some of you). The same amount of ingredients in this recipe can make a 6-inch two layer cake. The baking time may take 5-10 minutes longer.
Storage: the leftover cake can stay in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
MORE GLUTEN-FREE + VEGAN DESSERT RECIPES! 更多無麩純素甜品食譜!
- Keto Vegan Cheesecake Bites (No-bake Fat Bombs!) 生酮純素一口芝士蛋糕 (脂肪炸彈)
- Keto Vegan Matcha Cookie Sandwiches 生酮純素抹茶夾心曲奇
- Gluten-free Vegan Double Chocolate Mochi Cookies 無麩純素雙重朱古力麻糬曲奇
- Keto Vegan Basque Burnt Cheesecake 生酮純素巴斯克焦香芝士蛋糕
- 6-ingredient Keto Vegan Strawberry Cream Tart 生酮純素士多啤梨忌廉撻
- Gluten-free Vegan Banana Raspberry Streusel Muffins 香蕉紅莓燕麥脆脆鬆餅
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Gluten-free Vegan Carrot Cake 無麩純素甘筍蛋糕
Ingredients
For the Cakes
- 45 milliliter unsweetened soy milk 無糖豆漿
- 1 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 蘋果醋
- 94 grams unsweetened applesauce 無糖蘋果蓉
- 45 grams coconut oil 椰子油 melted 融化
- 45 grams powdered erythritol 赤藻糖醇霜
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 雲呢拿香油
- 45 grams coconut sugar 椰子糖
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 泡打粉
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 蘇打粉
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 肉桂粉
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 荳蔻粉
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger 薑粉
- 1/3 teaspoon sea salt 海鹽
- 330 grams carrots 甘筍 finely grated 刨細絲
- 38 grams walnuts 核桃 chopped 切碎
- 75 grams almond flour 杏仁粉
- 75 grams gluten-free oat flour 無麩燕麥粉
- 114 grams tapioca flour 木薯粉
Instructions
For the Cakes
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
- In a large mixing bowl stir together soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Let sit for about 5 minutes until the mixture coagulated. Then add coconut oil, applesauce, sweeteners, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt, and whisk to combine.
- Fold in grated carrots. Then add almond flour, oat flour and tapioca flour and stir to just combine. Be careful not to overmix or else the oat flour will make the cake dense and gummy.
- Line three 4-inch round pans with parchment paper (see blog post TIPS). Divide the batter evenly among cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until deep golden brown. Inserted a skewer into the cake center to see if it comes out clean. Please note that the baking time varies if you use larger pans.
- After the cakes come out of the oven, let them stay in the pans for about 30 minutes. Then transfer onto the cooling rack to cool completely before doing frosting.
For frosting
- Scoop out the coconut cream from the can and reserve the coconut water for other use.
- In a medium mixing bowl add the coconut cream, softened vegan cream cheese and erythritol. Whisk with an electric hand mixer until combined and creamy. Chill for at least an hour before using.
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香港中文