Pretty sure you should bake this cake for Easter because it just so happens to be one of the BEST I’ve ever made. I’m not saying that because I really want you to make it; I’m telling you because this wonderful version is incredibly moist, full of nutritious, healthier ingredients and is gluten free. Cue jumping on couches Tom Cruise style.
Could you call this a healthy carrot cake? I’m going to say YES. But how, you ask?!
How do you make a healthy gluten free carrot cake?
Typically carrot cakes are laden with butter and/or oil and unnecessary amounts of sugar. I’m not saying that the occasional indulgence is terrible for you, however you might find yourself wanting to bake a better for you treat and your loved ones.
This healthy carrot cake is made with nutritious gluten free almond and oat flour and naturally sweetened with maple syrup. All that butter and oil isn’t necessary in this beauty! Seriously, I’m obsessed with this cake. We brought it over to a party and everyone devoured it. I mean actually devoured without napkins or forks. Only hands, face and cake.
That should pretty much convince you that it’s worth a try.
Make your own oat flour for this carrot cake
Good news, you can easily make your own oat flour right at home to use in this gluten free carrot cake recipe. Check out my tutorial with all of my best tips & tricks. So easy!
When it comes to carrot cake, we must discuss your preferences: Are you the type of person who loves tidbits of pineapple? What about nuts? Raisins? Coconut?! Something else?
I feel like it’s an ongoing debate between us carrot cake lovers. I say yes to all the things, but know that if you want to leave out the add-ins, this cake will still have unbelievable flavor and texture.
This is a recipe I promise you’ll come back to, year after year. I’ve included how to bake them into cupcakes/muffins in the notes section below so you can feel free to bake it as you so choose.
Please let me know if you give this recipe a try by commenting below or tagging #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram, I always love hearing from you. xo!
How should I store carrot cake?
Cake should be kept covered in the fridge for optimal freshness and will stay good for 4-5 days.
More gluten free desserts to try:
The Best Paleo Chocolate Cake with Paleo Chocolate Frosting
Almond Flour Strawberry Shortcake Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting + video!
Lemon Blueberry Pistachio Cupcakes (vegan + gluten free!)
The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies You’ll Ever Eat
Paleo Zucchini Banana Bread Bars
Lightened-Up Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour (I used store-bought)
- 1 3/4 cup almond meal or almond flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 cups finely shredded carrots (from about 3 large carrots)
- 3 eggs, slightly beaten
- ½ cup pure maple syrup or organic coconut palm syrup
- 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (coconut milk also works)
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- Optional stir-ins:
- ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- ½ cup finely chopped fresh pineapple (or drained pineapple tidbits)
- For the cream cheese frosting:
- 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
- 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- Extra pecans and shredded coconut, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper and generously spray with nonstick cooking spray. The parchment paper makes it easy to remove the cakes from the pan. Tip: I recommend turning the pans upside down and placing parchment paper on top. Use a pencil to trace the cake pan, then cut out the outline with a scissors and place parchment in each pan. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together oat flour, almond meal, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer (or you can mix by hand), add in carrots, eggs, maple syrup, almond milk, vanilla extract, coconut oil and apple cider vinegar. Beat on medium low speed until ingredients are well combined and smooth.
- Add in half of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until combined.
- Add in the other half of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed again until just combined. If desired, fold in any of the following with a wooden spoon: raisins, coconut, nuts or chopped pineapple.
- Divide batter evenly among the two prepared cake pans and smooth top with a rubber spatula. Bake for 23-27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached.
- Cool cake in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert cakes on a wire rack, removing from the pans and allowing to cool completely. At this point you can remove and discard the parchment paper.
- Once cakes have cooled completely (about 2 hours), you can prepare the frosting. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Slowly add in powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and mix on low speed until well combined.
- Divide frosting in half and spread over each cake. Once frosted, place one cake on top of the other and sprinkle with extra pecans and coconut, if desired. Serves 12 (12 large slices).
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Photography by: Sarah Fennel
For the add ins, is it ok to do all that is suggested? Or pick a few? Don’t want to go overboard and I appreciate your input!
Hi! I’d pick about 2 🙂
Hi Monique. Is the almond flour supposed to be packed?
No need to pack it!
Would it work with just almond flour? I don’t have any oat flour, and I’ve read Quaker Oats aren’t 100% gluten free (if not marked as such), so can’t make my own with the oats I have as I need to keep this gluten free.
I haven’t tested it with almond flour only, but I’m afraid it will be too dense!
I am going to make this soon and have everything but the milk. Has anyone tried making this recipe with cow’s milk? Many thanks
Any milk will work!
Was something liquid left out of this recipe?. It looks like cookie dough and is not spreading out in pan or rising.
This is correct as written! Because it’s gluten free the batter will be thicker than when using a regular flour. The carrots, eggs, milk, etc. should be enough liquid to bake properly!
Hi I’m so looking forward for this cake, been looking so much for this type of cake, no wheat and very low sugar, butter and oil content. I wanted to ask if I switch the almond milk to lactose free milk, will it work the same?
Yes that will still work!
Can water be used in place of almond milk?
Hi! I wouldn’t recommend using water, but feel free to use any dairy or non-dairy milk you’d like.
Great recipe! I did use the oat flour but instead of almond flour I replaced it with pecan flour. The consistency was right on, but it would have used more sweetness. I did use agave in place if the maple syrup so maybe I should have used more, but the frosting helped a lot! All in all, I would make this again and “up” the sweetener a bit. I’m trying to replace desserts that are filled with sugar so I need something that is as sweet as an unhealthy dessert without all of the refined sugar. More maple syrup, agave, or honey is no problem 😉 Thank you for this. I will definitely make it again!
Thanks for commenting and glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Perhaps it’s just me but I’ve tried this recipe twice and it doesn’t rise! And it isn’t that moist. I used store bought oat and almond flours and all the rest was the same. I’m surprised it calls for baking soda and not powder – wouldn’t the latter help with rising?
Love the ingredients but mine is nothing like the picture. Please help: what am I doing wrong?!
Hi Hillary – I would make sure your baking soda is fresh (as in the last 6 months) that could be the reason why it is not rising. Also, make sure you are not overtaxing the batter. What is the consistency of the batter before you bake it?
Thanks! My baking soda is fresh. The consistency of the batter was creamy / thick. I forgot to mention I swapped the maple syrup for a ripe banana as I was making it for kids (and someone said they tried this and it worked!). Maybe that’s another reason mine didn’t rise?
Hi Monique, I’m making carrot cake for a big family celebration today! Would you recommend this recipe or your other carrot cake recipe (the one with tahini)?
OMG both are SO good, I love both of them for different reasons. Let me know which one you end up making 🙂
Looks good but doesn’t taste good
Sorry you didn’t enjoy it! You might like this other carrot cake recipe, which has over 100 5-star reviews!
This cake exceeds expectations! I can’t say enough good things about it. I halved the recipe since I wasn’t sure it would work for us, but next time I’ll make the whole thing. The cake is not sweet at all, perfect for the diabetic in my household. I didn’t have cream cheese so no frosting, but it really doesn’t need it. I had to sub white vinegar for the apple cider vinegar, used oat milk instead of almond, and butter instead of coconut oil. It came out perfectly and I’ll be making it often.
hi Monique! can I replace the apple cider vinegar with lemon juice? thank you!
Hi, Priscilla! Yes I think that should be fine 🙂
Hands down the best gluten free carrot cake (or regular) that I’ve ever made, and keep coming back to this one time and time again. Super friendly to substitutions like using all GF flour or flax eggs. Best of all, very very easy to make and you can easily add in more carrots too. You really can’t go wrong or mess it up. Thanks Monique and team for nailing this one!
The best gluten free carrot cake I ever made! So moist and lucious, loved by everyone in the family. I will definitely make this cake again
I’m so glad!
I made this cake yesterday in advance of Easter this year, and it is an absolutely delicious cake and very moist to boot. I honestly has fears of it being dry with that little of oil, but my fears were unfounded. I didn’t change the recipe at all, but I did make my own oat flour in the Vitamix using rolled oats, so I can confirm that it works well. I added all the suggested add-ins and couldn’t imagine carrot cake without any one of them. Thank you, Monique, for this delicious cake that I really will return to again and again.
Amazing! So glad you love this one. Perfect for Easter!
Can I use AP flour instead of oat flour? And can the oil be subbed with yogurt or aplesauce?
I haven’t tried any of these subs so can’t be sure, let me know if you do!
Can I use AP flour or cake flour instead of oat? And could I replace the coconut oil with a different veggie oil or something else, preferably applesauce or yogurt?
I wouldn’t suggest swapping flours in this one – sorry! Try this recipe and feel free to use all purpose flour.
This was one of my layers for a layered bday cake (this and the newer carrot cake recipe [https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/the-best-healthy-carrot-cake/] and the zucchini cake recipe https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/spiced-zucchini-sweet-potato-cake/) and it was a favorite layer for A LOT of people at the party – mainly because the other two have coconut flour and its stronger than oat flavor wise! SO a great sub recipe if you have some coconut haters
LOVE ALL YOUR RECIPES MONIQUE
BLESS YOU BOO
THANK YOU FOR IT ALL MAMA!
Amazing! So glad this one was a hit!
This cake tasted terrible. Not sure if I did something wrong but all I could taste was the oat flour that tasted like old oatmeal. Your recipe calls for 2 cups of oat flour and 1 3/4 cup almond flour and I think that is too much. All other carrot cake recipes only call for 2 cups of flour total.
The frosting was not good either. Needs more than 1/2 cup of powder sugar.
I taste my frosting and change it by ear, I actually added coconut sugar because i had it on hand and it changed the flavor and color but was still delicious. Frosting instructions to me are always a suggestion and then you just taste as you go to make sure it fits your sweetness preference
This cake is UNREAL. So flavorful, perfectly moist (for lack of a better word), a total home run. Thank you Monique!
So glad you loved it!
YES!!!! Another recipe that is getting bookmarked in my all-star list. Followed the instructions as closely as possible (although made my own almond meal and oat flour). This cake came out WONDERFUL! Very grateful for the suggestion to check if the cake is done so that it’s nice and moist: clean toothpick with some crumbs. Otherwise I would have overcooked it and it would have been carrot toast.
Thank you for this great recipe! Will not last long in this house nom nom nom!
Amazing! I’m so glad you loved it!
I’m always hoping healthy variations of my favorites turn out – sometimes they do, sometimes the real thing is best – but this turned out perfectly! However, I used all homemade out flour, extra raisins, walnuts and frosting and it was delish but pretty dry and dense. Do you think that’s why?
I’ll definitely make again, Tuesday in fact for a birthday cake but hope I can moisten it and it’ll be a little fluffier.
Thanks!!!
Hi! Yes, using all oat flour is likely why it was a bit more dry. I’d recommend including the almond flour as well so that it’s nice and moist 🙂
My daughter is on a health kick and she made these cupcakes and they were absolutely divine. I could not believe the ingredients when she told me. We are big carrot cake lovers and we’re going to make this again this weekend!!
Love it! Such a great snack 🙂
So delicious! I love this recipe! My go to carrot cake recipe now! I made some substitutions: I didn’t have all the spices so I substituted 1T of TJ’s pumpkin pie spice and craisins instead of raisins. It was perfectly sweet and moist I didn’t make the frosting because it didn’t need any!
Perfect! So happy to hear that 🙂
I made a single layer of this cake for Easter (just 2 of us.) I added all the mix-ins! We enjoyed this cake so much! It is dense, moist, and full of comforting flavor. I loved everything down to the cinnamon cream cheese frosting. (I used Kite Hill dairy-free cream cheese FYI, for anyone looking for an option.)
Thank you for this delicious recipe! Made it for my stay-at -home ‘pandemic’ birthday yesterday 🙂 and it turned out great! Made my own oat flour in the Vitamix and baked it in a Nordicware Bundt pan. Checked it at 30 minutes (350 degrees) like suggested and then kept it in another 10 minutes and it was done. I used unsweetened coconut milk and the maple syrup. I like extra spice, so I added another 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon and doubled the cloves. Added all mix-ins…only 1/4 cup raisins, used frozen pineapple that I microwaved, chopped up, then drained. I also went full-fat on the cream cheese (birthday splurge!) and added a bit more powdered sugar. I blended the icing ingredients in a small Vitamix container and it came out so creamy! Added some whole walnuts, coconut and pastel nonpareils for icing decoration. Lots of leftover cake for this party of two…perfect for Easter this Sunday and then freezing slices to enjoy later!! Great job on this amazing recipe…my first cake using oat flour!
Delicious! So happy you found this recipe 🙂 happy belated birthday!!
I just made this recipe today and all I have to say is oh my GOSHHHH. I made cupcakes instead of a cake and they are SO good. I was worried because I had to make my own oat flour and almond meal. I currently live in Spain, and some of the healthier options are limited here. I am so happy I took the chance, because this recipe will now forever be on repeat. THANK YOU!
I halved the carrot cake recipe with raisins and walnuts but somehow ended up with 12 cupcakes even though I filled the cupcake liners 3/4 full. 🙂 I didn’t halve the icing recipe and it was enough to generously top all cupcakes (what can I say – I like my icing). This recipe is fantastic! The cake is light, moist and just sweet enough. The icing really takes it over the top. AND IT’S HEALTHY!! Thanks SO much for sharing!!!
Perfect! Glad you loved this one 🙂 one of my favs for spring!
Hi Monique!
I was wondering if I could substitute whole wheat pastry flour for the gluten-free options. I saw a comment from back in 2016 where you said you hadn’t tried it, but I wanted to check in to see if that had changed at all!
Thanks!
Hi Sara! I haven’t tried in this recipe, but this is a great alternative 🙂 Enjoy!
Hi Monique, this recipe looks absolutely delicious!! I wonder if I could substitute the maple syrup for coconut sugar, any ideas if that would work?
Thanks! 🙂
I think that would definitely work well!
I made this recipe as cupcakes for my husband’s retirement party (so I had something to enjoy along with his carrot cake.) It was absolutely delicious and will be a recipe I will enjoy over and over. The recipe made 21 cupcakes for me and I used oat milk instead of almond milk (as that is what I had at home) at it worked great. I added in all the add ins, so it took around 20 minutes or so to bake as they were pretty dense with the pineapple, etc. So delicious and none of that gluten free taste from a gluten free flour blend. I love baking naturally gluten free and without refined sugar. Great recipe!!
Perfect! I hope everyone loved them 🙂 Those add-ins are incredible. Glad you found this one!
I made this cake for Easter and it is AMAZING!! Even my picky toddler loved it 🙂
Thank you Monique for the recipe!
So happy to hear that Ana! Love that it was kiddo-approved too 🙂
Just took them out of the oven and they are perfect! Im obsessed! So easy and delicious! I also changed the frosting a bit, I swapped the sugar for maple syrup and omg its so good! I also did not use a hand mixer and I use home made oat flour! Thank you so much for the recipe!
So happy you loved this one Ema!!
Hi! I’m definitely making this cake for Easter. Can I sun dried cranberries for the raisins? Thanks!
any dried fruit will work!
Hi Carla! I hope you loved this one for Easter – dried cranberries work in place of raisins 🙂
I like the idea of using oat flour in a carrot cake as I have never done that before. Will definitely give it a try. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
It’s fabulous. I hope you love this one!
Just made this cake for Christmas and it turned out perfectly! Not one person could tell it was a gluten-free lightened up version. And as someone with type-1 diabetes, I appreciated that the glycemic load was more friendly than traditional carrot cake.
oops, Thanksgiving rather 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Kayley! And that it was a hit with family 🙂
Is there any other flour then oar flour that you can use?
You could try using regular, all-purpose flour!
I made this cake with little exceptions and turned out great! I did not use clove and used less amount of nutmeg. I used coconut milk instead of almond. The cream was only full fat cream cheese with less of the powdered sugar. It was for my child’s Fall -themed birthday party and everyone liked it.
The first time I made it I put coconut flour instead of almond flour, the same amount, without realizing it. It was not good since the coconut flour is so much more absorbent. If I did not read the comments afterwards to check if anyone had shared he same experience, I would not even know that I made the mistake. For the cream I put the vanilla and cinnamon but did not liked the taste,so the second cream was double dose and only cream cheese with sugar.
Thank you for this recipe!
Hi there! Do you think I can replace the oat flour for coconut flour? Thanks
Hi Sofia! I haven’t tried it, but you could try 3/4 cup of coconut flour. Let me know how it works out!
i think i already made my comment or actually a question, but i will do it again just to make sure…can you make this recipe in a bundt or angel food cake pan…i don’t have two round cakes pans, just one…thank you, in advance…looking forward to making it no matter what…
Hi Marcia!
Yes, you can make it in a bundt cake! You will probably need to bake for 40-45 minutes, but definitely check around 30 minutes to see how it’s doing 🙂
can this carrot cake be made in a springform pan or bundt pan using the same recipe? i don’t have two cake pans. thanx in advance…
I love this cake. My many friends are suffering from diabetes. I invited them over for next week. So I think I’ll prepare this cake for them. Thanks for your recipe.
Very yummy and moist! Even my non-gluten-free friends loved it. By the way, the cloves were left out in the instructions, but I caught it before putting it in the oven.
Love, love,love these! I did them as muffins. I milled my own oats and almonds, made them as muffins. I did not use any icing, they are amazing! Gave them to a few of my clients after my bootcamp class and they immediately wanted the recipe! Keep up the great work here, you are the bomb!
Carrot cake is my favorite cake but weirdly enough I’ve never made it myself! I guess I was scared to ruin it for myself :p
But I made this for my moms birthday today and boy oh boy was it a success! Super easy, heathy, and tastes just like the real thing! This is gonna be a staple. Oh and I topped it with shredded coconut and a few walnuts around the circumference and it was amazing! Thanks Monique!