Recipe: Easy Vegan Carrot Cake

Name: Easy Vegan Carrot Cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 270 g carrots; 135 g walnuts; 1 orange; 135 g sultanas; 400 g self-raising flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 240 g soft light brown sugar; 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp salt; 400 ml soya milk; 160 ml rapeseed oil ((or other flavourless oil)); 440 g icing sugar; 100 g dairy-free margarine; 100 g dairy-free cream 'cheese'; 1-2 tbsp soya milk; 3 tbsp shelled pistachios ((optional))

February 18, 2018

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A moist and flavour-packed vegan carrot cake with cream ‘cheese’ icing, that’s easy to make with no weird ingredients… what more could you ask for?!

Carrot cake must surely be one of the nation’s favourite teatime treats, and there’s absolutely no reason why vegans should miss out, so here’s a plant-based version, with dairy-free cream ‘cheese’ icing to top it off. And it really is easy, I promise. The list of ingredients is longer than I had hoped, but each one is there for a reason, and even if you’ve never baked a cake before, this is a really simple one to put together.

This was actually my son’s first birthday cake, (and yes, I cut out a slice for the purposes of these photographs before he had blown his candle out… poor kid! Well, I won’t get away with it again as he’ll know what’s going on next year when he’s two, so this was my last chance….).

Making your Vegan Carrot Cake

Ingredients

Carrots obviously! But you can also experiment with other vegetables – I made a parsnip version of this a few months ago and it was pretty epic, even if I do say so myself!!

Walnuts are a carrot cake classic but I do also love this with pecans or hazelnuts so do choose whichever you prefer, or you have in the cupboard!

Soya milk I always recommend soya milk for baking particularly when it is acting as an ‘egg replacer’ as it has the highest protein content of any of the plant based milks so behaves most like an egg would. However your cake will still turn out well if you use oat or nut milks too, so if you can’t or don’t want to use soya don’t be put off.

Dairy-free margarine for the icing – I often use a spread rather than a block margarine as it makes the icing very soft, creamy and easy to work with. My favourites are Flora buttery or Naturli spread. Do leave them out of the fridge for a while before making the icing, the softer the better.

Dairy-free cream cheese for the icing – I have tried using many different brands and usually come back to Violife cream cheese as the best tasting in this icing.

Pistachios just look so pretty on the top of this cake, but they are pricey so do use walnuts or pecans instead, or pipe pretty rosettes of the icing around the edge!

Storing and Freezing your Vegan Carrot Cake

This cake keeps really well in an airtight cake tin or tupperware for 3-4 days – it is so moist thanks to the carrots and nuts that it doesn’t dry out like a plain sponge might.

It also freezes really well, so great if you need to plan ahead for a party or gathering. Just pop a sheet of greaseproof paper between the two sponges and wrap them in foil and they will keep really well for months. Then you just need to ice and decorate them before serving.

This is so straightforward to make that sometimes I double the recipe and pop a spare cake in the freezer (or make little individual ones to freeze, even better!). It is so handy to have cake in the freezer for unexpected guests or school cake sales you’ve forgotten about…!

Vegan in 15 Cookbook

There are plenty of similarly quick and easy recipes in my new book, ‘Vegan in 15‘*.

Hop over to Amazon for a look. Thanks for your support!

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Reader Testimonials

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Delicious cake and a hit with non-vegans too. So much so that a friend has passed it on to a teacher colleague to share with her class!” Tessa

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Carrot cake was delicious and family members I left outside their door thought I had bought it and asked for the recipe! Will make again as was so easy to do.” Renita

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Made this for my wife’s birthday – it’s the first time I ever made a two-layered cake and frosting – it came out amazing! The instructions are great and so easy to follow, thanks for a great recipe!” Jon

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I made this the other day. It truly is the best carrot cake I’ve ever tasted – and I’ve tasted a lot! You’d also never know that it’s vegan.” Jo

And if you have tried this recipe, please do leave a star rating and comment below which is so helpful for other readers wanting to try the recipe. 👇🏼

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IF YOU LIKED THAT…

…. you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space:

Vegan Sticky Toffee Apple Cake — Sticky Toffee Apple Cake (vegan)

Ultimate Vegan Victoria Sponge — Sticky Toffee Apple Cake (vegan)

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Easy Vegan Carrot Cake

Kate | The Veg Space

Carrot cake must be one of the nation's favourite bakes, and there's no reason why vegans should miss out. Here's an easy vegan recipe, topped with dairy-free cream 'cheese' icing!

4.95 from 17 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 1 hr

Course Cake

Cuisine British

Servings slices

Calories 618 kcal