I’m a huge carrot cake lover as you might have guessed given all the carrot cake recipes I have here on the blog! From Carrot Cake Cookies, to Carrot Cake Balls, Carrot Cake Loaf , Carrot Cake Squares , and let’s not forget muffins! The only thing missing from this carrot cake party is the actual carrot cake even though I’ve been making this recipe for many years. I just never got around to posting the recipe here on the blog until now!
As you might have guessed, if you are a cake-lover, this healthy carrot cake recipe is adapted from my ever-popular Almond Raspberry Cake! Over the years, the two cakes that people make time and time again for birthdays, anniversaires and other celebrations are either my almond cake or my Flourless Chocolcate Cake – both winning recipes!
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I hope this recipe becomes a favourite with your family too.
The spices, carrots, raisins and walnuts blended together with gluten-free flours make carrot cake heaven!
This carrot cake recipe is…
- Moist, memorable and uber-flavourful
- Gluten-free, grain-free and paleo
- Refined sugar free
- Tastes just like carrot cake – as it should!
- Packed with fibre and plant-based protein
- Kid-approved and healthy-parent-approved
I have not made this cake without eggs before. However, you can check the comments for the Almond Flour Cake to see if others have tried this cake egg-free by using a flax egg.
For the icing, I would suggest either using Coconut Whipping Cream or Simple Mills Cake Icing. The icing is very sweet so if you want to reduce the sweetness I would suggest using the coconut whipping cream instead.
Here’s the recipe!
Desserts
Carrot Cake, Paleo and Gluten-free
PrintIngredients
- 2-1/2 cups almond flour*
- 3 tbsp coconut flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot flour**
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup carrots, grated
- 2/3 cups raisins, rehydrated for 20 minutes in warm water (discard water before combining
- 1 cup maple syrup***
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Coconut oil for greasing pan
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line an 8 or 9 inch springform pan or cake pan with parchment paper. Grease the sides with coconut oil.
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices. Whisk until combined.
- In a small bowl, whisk eggs. Add carrots, raisins, maple syrup and vanilla extract, stir to combine.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Using a whisk or a hand mixer, combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients until fully mixed.
- Fold in walnuts. Let the batter settle for a few minutes and then using a spatula, pour battle into cake pan.
- Place cake in middle rack. Bake for 40-45 minutes until a fork inserted comes out clean.
- Place cake on a cooling rack once baked. Let cake cool completely before removing from springform pan or cake pan.
- Now it's time to ice your cake! Try my Coconut Whipped Icing on the blog.
- This cake stores in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for up to a month.
Serves 6-8
*If you want to make this nut-free you could try a gluten-free flour blend like Bob's Red Mill.
I haven't tried it yet, so it's not tested but I think it would work.
**You can find tapioca flour (aka starch) or arrowroot at your local health food store or online.
It's always in the baking section.
Bob's Red Mill is a good brand.
***You can half the maple syrup and add 1/2 cup water or non-dairy milk in place of the 1/2 cup maple syrup.
You need to add that liquid if you reduce the maple syrup otherwise the cake will be too dry.
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I am so thrilled you now have this recipe in your hands because I know you’re gonna love it!!
Enjoy!
Joy xo
27 thoughts on “Carrot Cake (Paleo & Gluten-free)”
Made This tonight!! Omg it’s gorgeous.. I love carrot cake and my 50th birthday is next week so I made myself an early treat
Good for you! So glad you loved this. This is one of my favourite cakes of all time!
Can you do this recipe as mini cupcakes? Or regular cupcakes would be ok.
Yes totally! You’ll have to adjust the baking time of course, but they will be great!
This recipe sounds wonderful, and healthy! Is the 3T of coconut flour necessary? Is there a substitution for it or can I just omit it if I don’t have it?
Yes it definitely is! 🙂 It absorbs moisture. You could try subbing with arrowroot or tapioca flour.
This is the best carrot cake ever! I love it. The last time I made it, I put a cashew cream icing all over it. Thank you for sharing your recipes, as always this did not disappoint!
Mmmmm cashew cream icing, that sounds amazing! Glad you love it. Thank you for letting me know!
I am a fatty Liver disease diet and need to eat low carb/low fat. Do you have the nutritional values for your recipes?
Hi Annette, I do not have nutritional values for my recipes, sorry about that. But you can use an app like My Fitness Pal to figure that out if you like. Hope that helps!
This cake is amazing! Made it as a cake and also as a loaf (for the loaf I halved the maple syrup and used 1/2 cup nut milk as you suggested in the notes and it turned out so delicious!)
Hi Caroline! Glad you loved it!!
Well you were right, it kncked my socks off. Imade it this morning and had it for brekky. I like that you have paleo recipies . I have been following a mostly paleo diet for a few years and I DON,T do well with most grains. THANKYOU THANK YOU. May 16 2022.
Glad to hear that! I’m the same, even though I do have some grain-based recipes for the past 2 years I’ve been *mostly* paleo – like 85-90% and my digestion is best that way!
Soooooo yummy! My rec. number 1. Thank you :*
Hi Joy!
Is it possible to leave out the raisins or will that cause issues?
You could definitely leave out the raisins. Will be just as delicious!
I have made this as the cake it is supposed to be for Thanksgiving (and it was very well received) and now I have made them as muffins to take away for the weekend. I was a bit concerned about baking time. Turns out 30 minutes is just right in my oven… so it looks like I’m only taking 11 away for the weekend ( ;
This is a really good recipe! Thank you!
So glad to hear that! This recipe is a gem 🙂
Is it possible to use an egg replacer? I can’t have eggs.
You can try but I haven’t made this egg-free. I find that almond based (and coconut flour too) recipes aren’t as easy to make egg-free. However, I wouldn’t want you to waste all those ingredients to experiment. Have a read of the comments to see if anyone has tried it egg-free.
I made this with flax eggs and half maple syrup/half coconut milk (so delicious brand in a box), and it turned out amazing! I left out the nuts but did add the soaked raisins. I shredded the carrots in my food processor but then decided to blend them with the flax eggs because I didn’t want big shreds of carrots and I’m glad I did that. I also added a splash of ACV to the wet ingredients to react with the baking soda. I don’t think it was necessary but it didn’t seem to cause any problems either.
I’m sooo impressed and excited to have finally found a good cake recipe. Gluten free baking has been stressful for me because I’ve had to waste a ton of ingredients on failed recipes. Thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your egg-free experiment, other readers will appreciate this! Glad it turned out amazing. It’s a wonderful cake. If you like this carrot cake, thank you love this Chocolate Chip Cookie cake and I bet you can make the same changes.
Thanks Joy! Made this as a birthday cake for my mom 🙂
Wonderful! So happy to hear that!
Do you think chia (or flax) eggs would work instead of actual eggs? Because there are 4 of them, I didn’t know if it’d work out well.
I haven’t tried it without eggs, but have a scan through the comments because people always let me know when they’ve made it with success egg-free. Sorry I can’t help more.