1 Bowl Vegan Carrot Cake
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The best Vegan Carrot Cake! Perfectly spiced, incredibly moist, topped with creamy vegan cream cheese frosting and simple to make in just 1 bowl!
Once you realize how easy this carrot cake is to make, you will find yourself making it over and over again! Not only is it made in 1 bowl with simple ingredients, it is the best tasting carrot cake, vegan or not.
The cake layers are super moist, perfectly sweet and full of texture. It’s an incredible dessert for Easter or any day of the week when a craving strikes.
What the readers are saying
“I made this for our son’s college graduation party since the whole family recently went vegan. Nobody could tell the difference between this and “normal’ carrot cake and cream cheese frosting (I made your vegan cream cheese frosting). A couple people said it was so much tastier than any other carrot cake they had ever tasted. Delicious!” -Pam
“I baked this carrot cake, in cupcake form, today, and topped them with your vegan cream cheese frosting. Yummy! I think I will add raisins or pineapple next time. This is now my go-to carrot cake recipe.” -Joyce
“I love this carrot cake! I made it for Easter and my mom said it was the best carrot cake she has ever had. I will be making it again for her birthday on Saturday because carrot cake is her favorite of all cakes. Thanks for another great recipe Nora. You are our go to place for all recipes. In Nora we trust!” -Lauren
Ingredients you need (with substitutions)
- All purpose flour – May substitute a gluten free flour mix, if needed. Many have tried this with success!
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt
- Oil – I used canola oil, but you can use grapeseed oil, melted coconut oil or vegan butter. You might be able to substitute more applesauce for oil, but I’m afraid it will come out a bit gummy.
- Applesauce – Try substituting crushed canned pineapple for a change!
- Almond milk – Any non-dairy milk works here, such as soy.
- Vanilla
- Grated carrots
- Walnuts, optional – Simply omit for nut free. Or substitute pecans, raisins, etc.
- Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
How to make Vegan Carrot Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 8-inch cake pans with a little circle of parchment paper, and then spray the pans generously with oil. This will help your cakes come out of the pans with no problems!
- Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk.
- To the bowl with the mixed dry ingredients, pour in the canola oil, applesauce, non-dairy milk, and vanilla. Mix to combine, but be careful not to over mix. If you are using a stand mixer, use the lowest setting and do not over mix, the cake will come out dense and chewy if you do.
- Add the shredded carrots and walnuts, if using, and fold them into the batter gently.
- Again, do not over mix! I can’t stress this enough. Just mix until combined, and gently.
- Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 20 minutes before carefully removing them. Let them cool on a cooling rack completely before frosting.
What kind of frosting should I use?
Traditionally, carrot cake uses cream cheese frosting, so I prefer Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting for this cake. Vanilla Frosting is also a great option. Or you could even make this tart cream cheese-like frosting from my Pumpkin Cake Bars recipe.
The only thing with vegan cream cheese frosting is it can be a bit unstable if it gets warm, so make absolutely sure your cakes are cooled completely before frosting, and keep the frosted cake in the refrigerator, just to make sure the top layer of your cake doesn’t slip off!
Can I make cupcakes instead?
Yes, the recipe works great for cupcakes! Bake cupcakes for about 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean in the middle. Let cool completely, then frost as desired.
Other variations
- For a 9×13 inch cake, bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is set.
- Make a triple layer cake by using 3 6-inch pans, baking for a little less time (25-30 minutes.)
- For a carrot bundt cake, place the batter in a bundt pan and bake for about 60 minutes until done.
How to store leftover cake
If you frost it with cream cheese frosting, the cake will need to be kept in the refrigerator. If you use vanilla frosting instead, you could store it on the counter for a few days.
It will keep in the refrigerator for about 1 week, and can also be frozen. Cover any cut parts so it doesn’t dry out.
Want more amazing vegan cake recipes?
1 Bowl Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup applesauce
- 3/4 cup almond milk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups grated carrots (about 3 large carrots)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
- 1 Recipe Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare 2 round 8-inch cake pans by lining the bottom with parchment paper and spraying well with oil.
- In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients and whisk well.
- Pour in the canola oil, applesauce, almond milk and vanilla and mix until combined with a large spoon. Now fold in the grated carrots and walnuts. Be very careful not to over mix the batter, or your cake will come out dense and chewy!
- Pour the cake batter evenly between the prepared pans, then bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops of the cakes are set. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for about 20 minutes before carefully removing from the pans. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.
- Once cooled completely, frost with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting, or Vegan Vanilla Frosting if preferred. Enjoy! Store leftover cake in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, covered.
Video
Notes
- May substitute a gluten free all purpose flour for gluten free.
- For nut free, omit the walnuts.
- May substitute soy, coconut or any other non-dairy milk for almond milk.
- May use melted coconut oil or another oil in place of the canola.
- I prefer Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting for this carrot cake, but you could use my Vegan Vanilla Frosting instead.
- To make cupcakes instead, fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes until set on top. Pipe frosting on each cupcake.
- Store leftover cake in the refrigerator if using cream cheese frosting. It will keep for about 1 week and can be frozen as well.
Nutrition
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255 Comments on “1 Bowl Vegan Carrot Cake”
Just made this recipe in muffin tins and it was amazing! I tried a different vegan carrot cake recipe and was disappointed, but this one was perfect!! I’m so glad I gave it a try. My wife is very happy!
Thank you!
I’m so glad the cake is perfect for you guys! Thank you for sharing your review and comments!
I love using nut-safe pepitas instead of walnuts, currants, and pineapple in this recipe! So quick to put together and delicious!
Thank you for sharing your review and comments!
My cakes are in the oven.. smells heavenly!
But after watching the video I think I grated the carrot too coarse? Yours seems to be fine grated.
Fingers crossed it works!
I hope it turns out just wonderfully! Coarsely grated or not.
Hello,
What can I use instead of applesauce, it doesn’t need to be vegan. Eggs or butter ?
And is it ok is I use self rising flour instead of all purpose flour ? ( I will just take out the baking powder from the ingredients)
Thank you
I’m not sure, I haven’t tried it with anything else. You could try whatever you think might work best. I also haven’t used self raising flour, but it might work.
It worked out great actually 🙂 with self raising flour and taking out baking powder, used eggs instead of applesauce.
Next time I will just have to adjust better the batter because my pans are 9”springfolds so it came out as thin layers.
Any suggestions to help me with the proportions?
Thank you 😊
I’m so glad to hear it worked out well! Interesting, I wonder if you could just double or 1.5 times the recipe to make the layers thicker. You will have to bake them for longer, until a toothpick comes out clean. Hope that helps!
Amazing thank you 🙏🏼
Hi … great recipe!!!what do substitute almond milk with if it’s not available??
Thank you
Glad you love the recipe! Any plant based milk will work in the recipe!
I’ve made this many times and it is as delicious if not more so than non-vegan carrot cake. One question, I am planning on making this in advance and wanted to see if freezing the cake layers for a few days, then frosting them would work okay?
Hi Caroline. Thanks for your great review on my carrot cake. I’m so glad you love it! Yes, the cake freezes very well. I hope this helps! Thank you!
Very tasty cake even for non-vegans. Tweeks to the recipe : reduced brown sugar to 1/2 cup of brown Truvia and white sugar to heaped 1/2 cup heaped.
To the icing I added a little dessert wine to reduce the sweetness.
Hi Doreen. I’m glad you enjoyed the cake! Thank you for sharing your comments!
I made this in several bowls, because I’m always scared of overmixing cakes and ruining their texture. All the dry except sugar well mixed and then all the wet plus sugar well mixed, then combined the two as little as I could manage without visible flour. (There were still tiny lumps, which disappeared once cooked.) Then I folded in the carrots and dried fruit and nuts. Turned out great! I don’t like frosting so didn’t make any. The cake is very sweet and, for my taste, would probably be a little too cloying with frosting. Next time I make it, I’ll experiment with reducing the sugar.
i made this for mothers day and it was a huge hit!!! only swap i made was coconut oil and i did the frosting with cashew cream. but everyone loved it! i think next time ill use a little less sugar for my mom (but i thought it was perfect). and i used two 9 inch round and baked for only a couple less minutes. anyways this was such a great recipe. i’ll definitely make again for my next carrot cake. it’s so moist and the amount of spice is great and makes it very flavorful. i added walnuts and golden raisins too. i missed a good carrot cake, thank you!!!!
Thanks for sharing your great review, Maria! I’m glad you loved the cake!
The flavor is great! Thank you for this recipe. Although, my cake cake out gummy what did I do wrong?
I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor, but the cake should not be gummy. Gummy cakes are most often a result of over mixing the batter, so be careful not to do that next time. Thank you, hope that helps!
There I was wanting carrot cake and perusing Pinterest for a good recipe when it occurred to me to check your site. Normally when I want to make something that I have not memorized I go straight to your website so it was weird that I did not in this case… I looked at recipes for the better part of an hour before I practically smacked myself for not going to your site first! You, like 100% of the time, did not disappoint. This cake was easy to make, came together quick, and tasted amazing! I used a store bought (vegan) cream cheese frosting and subbed soy milk for the almond. Spot on like usual! Thank you, (from Beaverton) for always having such great recipes.
Hi Jen! Thank you for sharing your fabulous review, and for using and enjoying my recipes! I’m so glad you loved the carrot cake!
Super good cake! awesome
however, it is quite complicated for the creaming part. When you pull the cafo d fast enough, it is difficult to make it hold.
do you have any advice?
thank you 🙏🏼!
I’m not sure I understand the question?
Do I need to adjust the recipe to use two 9-inch rounds?
No, other than maybe cutting the baking time down by 5 minutes. But check with a toothpick to make sure the cakes are down, as ovens can vary.
everyone loved it and my four year old who normally dislikes carrots keeps asking me to make it again. thanks for another great recipe!
I’m thrilled the cake was a hit! Thank you for taking time to share your great review!
Hi! I just made this & i’ma bit concerned. I know it says don’t over mix but when i started mixing it became chewy almost instantly & i still had undistributed flour. What is the reasoning for that?
Hi there, I wonder if you happened to use coconut oil with very cold applesauce and/or milk? Because that will make the batter immediately thicken up. This cake batter should be be very thick. If you did use coconut oil, next time at least make sure it’s melted and warm, and you should likely warm the milk/applesauce to room temperature before adding them together. Hope that helps!
Ah yes it must’ve been that the milk was cold as my coconut oil was already melted & the applesauce was room temp. Thank you for taking the time to respond 🙂
Hello Nora, hope you are doing good! I am planning to bake this cake and I have only 9 inch Springform cake pan. How do I adjust the measurement accordingly? Should I half the recipe? Please let me know! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes! 🙂
Hi there! I’m so glad you are enjoying the recipes. 🙂 I would cut the recipe in half to make it in one 9 inch springform pan. That should work quite well, though I’ve never tested it myself. Let me know how it goes!
Amazing! made it 3 times already and everyone loves it! Thank you for this delicious recipe! I used Miyoko cream cheese and it came out spoon-lickin’ good!!
I’m glad you found the cake amazing! Thank you for sharing you wonderful review!
Wow! Thank you for a lovely Easter recipe. I made it in a Bundt pan and it took about 65 minutes to cook through. I used Earth Balance instead of oil, crushed pineapple instead of applesauce (I would increase this a bit next time as the little pineapple bits are so nice with the cake) and oat milk. Also reduced both sugars by 50-75 grams each; the sweetness was just right with vegan cream cheese frosting. A winner!
Thank you for sharing your review and comments Cathleen! I’m glad the carrot cake turned out delicious for you!
Just had a slice and hands down absolutely delicious 😋!!!! Very moist! The only change I made is I used two cups of confectioners sugar instead of four- still sweet and tasty!
Thank you for sharing your comments, Angela! I’m glad you liked the carrot cake!
So moist and flavorful!! So easy. I have made it several times and everyone loves it-vegans and non vegans!!
Thank you for sharing your review, Sharon! I’m glad you guys love the cake!
WOW! I made this as an Easter treat. It’s just the two of us, so I halved the recipe and then cut the one layer in half. I then frosted the 1/2 layer, placed the other on top and turned it to the cut end. I frosted the rest and it looked so cute standing up by itself. I think I could have turned it into a bunny! But it didn’t last that long. Husband loved it! I did make a small change: I reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup brown and 1/3 cup white (for half of the recipe), and I used raisins instead of nuts. I frosted with your cream cheese frosting and it was amazing! I did have to cook longer, but it was still very moist. I used my food processor to grate the carrots. The end result was a lovely dessert, not too sweet. Happy Easter Nora! And thank you for this great recipe!
That sounds so fun! I’m so glad you enjoyed the carrot cake, thank you!
This is my ‘Easter cake’ this year. Thank you Nora, the taste is amazing.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Mirta!
I’ll put this on the Pinterest pin as well in case anyone needs this info but if you’re making cupcakes you’ll get about 20-22. I didn’t see this info anywhere so I thought it might be helpful to someone else! Great recipe btw. Very moist and tender and super easy.
Hi Olivia. Thank you for sharing your review and your comments!
Tasty cupcakes! Definitely moist almost a little too moist. Can I leave it in the oven a bit longer so it’s not so mushy?
Yes, it sounds like they maybe needed a little longer in the oven, until a toothpick comes out clean, or mostly clean with no wet batter. Thanks!