Irresistibly moist and secretly healthy carrot cake… This recipe is so good, you’re going to want to eat it again for breakfast the next morning!
I am the girl who eats carrot cake all year.
If you haven’t tried my recipe yet for Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes, that post continues to be one of the most popular recipes on my blog…
So I guess I’m not the only one who eats carrot cake year-round!
Since the carrot cake cupcakes have been so popular, I knew I wanted to get an actual healthy carrot cake recipe up on the blog this year.
With Easter less than a week away, today seems like the perfect time to share this moist and incredibly delicious healthy carrot cake, loaded with sweet cinnamon and carrots.
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!
The carrot cake above is topped with my Cream Cheese Greek Yogurt Frosting – which I even successfully made vegan!
It also tastes amazing topped with melted coconut butter (one of my favorite ways to eat carrot cake), or the cake is so perfectly spiced and flavorful that you might want to simply eat it unfrosted.
Above – watch me make the healthy carrot cake
Adapted From Homemade Zucchini Cake
Healthy Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 1 packed cup shredded carrot (200g)
- 1/2 cup applesauce (120g)
- 1/3 cup oil, or sub applesauce only if you don’t mind a gummy texture (60g)
- 2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups spelt, white, or Bob’s gf flour (180g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/3 cup sugar, xylitol, or evaporated cane juice (65g)
- 1/16 tsp uncut stevia OR 2 additional tbsp sugar
- optional shredded coconut or chopped walnuts
- optional 1/2 cup raisins
Instructions
- *For a double layer cake, simply double all ingredients and bake in two pans.Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line an 8-inch square or round pan with parchment. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients and let sit at least 10 minutes or fridge overnight. In a separate bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients. Pour wet into dry, then stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Pour into the prepared pan, and smooth down evenly. Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. The carrot cake tastes much sweeter and better-textured the day after it’s made, and leftovers can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or even sliced and frozen. I frosted the cake with about 1/2 cup of the frosting recipe linked under the second photo in this post – If using a preservative-free frosting like the one I used, it’s best to frost directly before serving.View Nutrition Facts
Have you made this recipe?
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Lisa says
Thanks Katie – I make a cake most days and carrot has been on my list for a while, so I’ll enjoy this. Just wondering… when you say : “[t]he carrot cake above is topped with my Cream Cheese Greek Yogurt Frosting – which I even successfully made vegan!” does this mean you are no longer vegan?
Shelly says
She said that she DID make it vegan, not that she didn’t.
Lisa says
Yes, that’s why I ask – surely if she’s vegan there would be no need to state this?
anna says
This caught my eye and curiosity as well!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Sorry for the confusion. I specifically mentioned the vegan part not because I am no longer vegan, but because many people reading this post and not familiar with my blog might not realize that when I say “Greek yogurt” frosting, it is actually suitable for vegans 🙂
Luke says
I made this for my grandmas birthday and it was beautiful 😍
Jenny says
This looks so unbelievable delicious, would love to try it right now!!
I love carrot cake <3
Happy Easter to you!
Jenny
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Vivian | stayaliveandcooking says
Carrot cake is the best! Love that you made it both healthier and vegan.
Shelly says
Thank you so so so much for this recipe! I have made your cupcakes before but really wanted a more “fancy” recipe for Easter Sunday dessert. I looked at a few other carrot cake recipes online but didn’t know the authors too well and didn’t know how they’d turn out. I am always afraid to try something out from a random blogger online, which is why I keep coming back to your recipes again and again. 🙂
John Storeys says
Carrot or zucchini, I’m in love with these healthy cakes!
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Kristin says
Carrot cake is my favorite dessert. So excited to try this–what amount of coconut and/or walnuts would you recommend adding? Thanks!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I would probably start with 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts. With the coconut, a 1/2 cup would work!
Gaby says
What is 1/2 cup applesauce (120g) not sure what that is ?
Samara B says
Hi Katie! Thanks for the recipe – I am a huge sucker for carrot-anything! Just a quick question. Would it be possible to use honey as the sweetener? I’m not sure if this would change the texture of the cake, since it would be added liquid! Please let me know. Thanks! xo
Maria says
I would love to know about using maple syrup too!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I’ve not tried, but please report back if you experiment by playing around with the liquid amounts 🙂
Megan says
I used agave, would have used maple but I was out. I didn’t have to change any part of the recipe. Used same amount of sweetener as recommended and it came out great, nice and moist.I would probably double cinnamon next time but thats just me. Thanks for the recipe!
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Emilia says
This recipe is litterally what i’ve been waiting for, defenitly gonna try this for easter but I eat carrot cake all year round anyway as well 🙂
Elissa says
WHY do you do this to me Katie?!?!? It sounds sooooo gooood. I didn’t even know I wanted carrot cake. Ummm.
Jen says
Hi! I would love to try this for Easter. But I’ve never made carrot cake before and have always wondered how fine I need to grate the carrot. I only have one size on my food processor and I’m worried that’s too coarse. Could I chop it fine with the spinning blade, or would that throw the texture off too?
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Whatever your food processor can do should be fine. Here is an example of something that could work, and you can go finer than this as well: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2008/05/28/bugs-bunny-would-be-proud/
Jen says
Great! Thank you so much!!
Kelly says
This looks and sounds divine, yum!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
Kerstin Lissvik says
This look delicious! Can just imagine this along with my 3 a clock coffee, yummi! Thank you for sharing.
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Rachel Elwood says
12 pieces in an 8×8 pan? Those are awfully small pieces of cake!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
It’s actually bigger than you might think, especially once frosted. For example, the cake in these photos is an 8×8 pan cut into 16 squares, so 12 would be even bigger than this: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2015/07/20/zucchini-cake-recipe/
Charles B says
Made it after dinner, and just had the first pieces. Very good! I added 1/4 cup shredded coconut, which seemed about right.
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Serena says
So I’m looking at the cupcake recipe you reference, and I notice that the ingredients are exactly the same. Why does the cake recipe have us let the wet ingredients rest together before mixing with dry? Why not do that with the cupcakes? Thanks.
Rachel says
I thought the same thing… anyone have an answer?
carrota says
Thanks for this recipe!
Though never had a carrot cake before, I took a leap of faith and made this recipe – and its very good!
Didn’t even use sweetener of any kind because the carrots are sweet anough for me.
Kerstin says
Oh that looks amazing and incredibly delicious 🙂
Love, Kerstin
http://www.missgetaway.com/
Maryanne says
This cake was delicious! Thanks for another great recipe!
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Darlene says
Any idea how much white wheat to use? Don’t have any spelt as none of us are GF and the spelt/GF flours are too expensive for someone on a fixed income.
Darlene says
That would be white whole wheat flour (have the wheat already and the mill), not AP flour. Thanks.
Unofficial CCK Helper says
The recipe says you can use regular old white flour. Katie is not personally a fan of whole wheat flour because it yields a dense result in cakes that is also somewhat gummy. But you are free to experiment if you don’t mind the risk, and you would use the same amount.
jennai says
Carrot cake is my favorite dessert. So excited to try this
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Jessica says
Could you give me any suggestions for replacing the applesauce in this recipe? I can’t have apples. 🙁
I considered replacing it with mashed banana, but I don’t want it to give the cake a banana flavor.
anna says
I often used pumpkin purée instead of apple sauce and it works! =)
tereza crump aka mytreasuredcreations says
I made this tonight for supper. 😉 I used gluten free flour and coconut oil. My 4 kids and husband loved it!! I’m hoping to have some left over to try it tomorrow. This was delicious. I’ve tried other recipes from your site and so far all of them turned out amazing! Thank you, Katie!! 😀
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Kate says
I made this for an Easter party and it was a hit! I think I overcooked it a tad, but the frosting was delicious and masked that well. I had never put Greek yogurt in frosting, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I added walnuts, coconut, and raisins, and they all tasted great!
anna says
hi! I just have one question.. what do you use vinegar for? I noticed it is present in many recipes. in Italy it is not really used in desserts so I was wondering what it is for. Could I omit it?
by the way I love your blog!
Jay says
I’ve substituted vinegar with lemon juice several times and it seemed to work
Nova says
Can you substitute the applesauce with anything else?
Avra says
Katie, do you think oat flour has a good chance of working for this?
Lynnette says
When I made this the it was crumbly not at all like a .batter. is an ingredient missing?
Gina says
Hi Katie,
I noticed there is a new pop-up advertisement asking people to sign up for emails. I already get emails and I am hoping there is a way to stop that pop-up from coming up for people that already get emails since it is a bit bothersome. It comes up about every 5 minutes, and I’m usually on your site for much longer than that, so it comes up several times while I’m browsing. Thanks!
Ali says
I tried this recipe and my cake turned out really uhh gummy? Like it’s not like a cake at all more like a chewy texture and there isn’t the crumbs normally seen in cakes it’s just paste-y in the middle can anyone tell me what I did wrong? T.T
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Unfortunately because I wasn’t there to see, it’s really impossible to know what might have happened. What flour did you use, what oil what sugar? Did you make any changes to the recipe at all? Any specifics might also help. Thanks 🙂
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Sorry, have never tried… Be sure to report back if you do! Either applesauce will work.