This Easy Carrot Cake recipe is so simple to whip up you might find yourself making one every weekend. My husband loves carrot cake. I make one at least once a year either for his birthday or for Father's day. I've been making this recipe for quite some time, but recently started making it gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free. This carrot cake is soft, moist (dare I use that word) and absolutely delicious with lots of warm spices. It is rich and doesn't need any frosting. It works as an anytime cake or even a great coffee cake.
Jump to:
What makes this Carrot Cake Different?
For this carrot cake, I used melted coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut sugar in place of regular oil, milk and cane sugar. I also substituted the regular all purpose flour for measure for measure gluten free flour. Then apple sauce and golden raisins are added for additional moisture and flavor. This cake is rich and decadent but still pretty simple to make. It's a great recipe to get the kids involved. My children love helping with each step and even scooping the batter into a pan.
Adding Warm Spices to the Carrot Cake
I love carrot cake that has lots of warm spices. Ground cinnamon, ground cloves, freshly grated nutmeg and ground ginger add such warmth and flavor to the cake that it feels like a warm hug on a cool day.
And you can't have carrot cake without carrots. For this recipe I used two average sized carrots grated using the small shred side of a cheese grater. You can also grate the carrots on the large shred side if you want to see shreds of carrot in the finished cake, either works. Freshly grated carrot is your best bet for this cake. Store bought shredded carrots do not melt as easily as the fresh carrots and then to stay chunky in the finished carrot cake.
Perfect Gluten Free Carrot Cake Batter
For gluten free baking you need a soft, loose batter versus the thicker batter that you would find in regular carrot cakes. Gluten free cup for cup all purpose flours have been making life so easy. For this recipe I used Betty Crocker All Purpose Gluten Free flour. It takes all the guest work out of gluten free baking.
Scoop or pour your finished batter into a greased baking tin and let the oven to its thing! You will notice that because this cake uses coconut sugar it is browner that you typical carrot cake. So don't use how brown it is as an indication of doneness, use a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake.
Carrot Cake Baked to Perfection
I know you are going to be tempted to eat this cake hot out of the oven. The smell of the cake baking just makes you want to dig into it as soon as it is done baking. Try to resist and allow the cake to cool before removing from the baking pan. Allow the cake to cool completely before cutting into it or it make fall apart.
Save it for Later
The Printable Recipe
Printable Recipe Card
Gluten Free Carrot Cake
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups of measure for measure gluten free flour
- ¾ cup of coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon of ground clove
- **You can substitute all the spices for two teaspoons of pumpkin spice
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup of melted coconut oil or other cooking oil
- ½ cup of coconut milk
- 1 cup of unsweetened apple sauce
- ½ cup of golden raisins rinsed
- 1 heaping cup of grated carrots
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F
- Combine all the dry ingredients (except for the coconut sugar) in a mixing bowl and set aside
- Next in a large mixing bowl combine the coconut sugar and all the wet ingredients and mix together well
- Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together to form a batter with a pancake batter consistency
- Pour or scoop the batter into a greased baking tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a tooth pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean
- Then remove from the oven and let cool completely before removing from the baking tin and serving
Loving this recipe? Try my Gluten Free Short Crust Pastry Dough recipe for more baking fun!
Alphe says
Ah, carrot cake is one of my favourite autumn bakes, I always use loads of cinnamon. I like that you made yours in a nice mould, makes the presentation so good!
Althea Brown says
Thank you so much. It is one of our favorites in my home!
Diana says
Could I make this cake without eggs, what substitute I can use? Thanks!
Diana says
Could I make this cake without eggs, what substitute I can use? Thanks!