Gluten free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting nestled between each layer is a delicious dessert that's hard to resist! If you love carrot cake, this delicious gluten free carrot cake recipe is for you.
If you love cake as much as we do, you will want to see all of the yummy gluten free cakes on my blog :-).
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It was quite the birthday weekend for Mr. Fearless Dining. Our friend party was a fun night of celebration. We introduced new friends with old friends, and it was a great night.
The next day was the big family party where we enjoyed this amazingly moist gluten free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. If you prefer a white cake for a birthday party, give this gluten free vanilla cake a try!
(Just in case you were wondering what the other birthday cake was, I made this delicious gluten free chocolate raspberry layer cake for the friend party!) This is by far the best carrot cake recipe I have made!
(Yeah, this cake was over the top and it fed 16 people, plus there were leftovers! Three giant chocolate layers of moist chocolate cake!)
I am digressing from this gluten free carrot cake recipe. Not only does this make a tasty gluten free carrot cake, but you can also use the batter to make gluten free carrot muffins, carrot cake cupcakes, or even a carrot cake loaf. You can even get creative and add some chopped nuts :-). If you really want something good, these Gluten Free Carrot Cake Iced Cookies are fun to make!
Have I convinced you to make this gluten free carrot cake recipe yet? One thing that is a little misleading is the size of the cake. Believe it or not, this gluten free layer cake is small. I used these tiny layer cake pans to make this cake. This cake can feed 6-8 people, depending on how much they love cake.
I will also say I didn't put the cream cheese frosting on the sides of this cake. Mr. Fearless Dining is trying to watch his calories, so I wanted to honor his wish for his birthday.
The cake sat most of the day in the refrigerator, and it did not dry out at all. This gluten free birthday cake stayed moist and delicious.
Can you make this cake dairy-free?
You can easily make this gluten free carrot cake dairy-free too. Just use a dairy-free butter substitute and dairy-free cream cheese, like Kite Hill or Daiya brands, for the frosting. The carrot cake itself is dairy-free since I use coconut oil instead of butter.
One reason this cake stayed moist is that it has almond flour in the recipe. Almond flour holds in moisture in gluten free baking. If you are allergic to nuts, you can skip adding almond flour and just substitute in a little more gluten free flour blend.
Happy Birthday Mr. Fearless Dining!
Instructions:
Add your wet ingredients and carrots in a bowl and whisk to blend.
How to shred carrots for cake:
There are two easy ways that you can shred carrots. One is to use a grater. (Just be careful of your fingers!) I like to use a food processor because it is a lot faster and easier to shred the carrots.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and add raisins and nuts. You can use different kinds of nuts including walnuts, pecans, or almonds in this gluten free carrot cake.
Mix all of the ingredients together.
Top tip:
Don't overmix the cake batter. The cake will be lighter if you just mix it enough to blend the ingredients!
Tip the baked cake layers onto a cooling rack so they can cool off.
Frosting tip:
Make sure the baked layers are completely cooled before you add frosting and assemble the gluten free carrot cake. If the cake is at all warm, it will melt the cream cheese frosting, making your layers slide around and possibly tip over!
Whip up your cream cheese frosting. I topped this gluten free birthday cake with coconut too, but feel free to skip the coconut if you don't want it.
If you want to try to make a fancy Carrot Cake Roll, you will want to check out this Gluten Free Carrot Cake Roll (aka Log Cake) recipe!
Why do carrot cakes fall?
If your carrot cake has fallen in the middle, this is usually because you over-mixed the batter. Always mix the batter until it is "just mixed".
Is carrot cake healthier than regular cakes?
I get asked this question a lot. The truth is it depends. Is this cake healthier than most? Maybe. I add almond flour for a bit of protein to balance out the sugars. I also use coconut oil instead of butter.
The downside is sugar and this cake and the frosting have sugar.
Things needed to make this easy carrot cake recipe:
- This brand of gluten free flour blend. (*If your blend doesn't have xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon!)
- Almond flour, mentioned above.
- If you don't want to make a multi-tiered layer cake, you can make this in a regular rectangular cake pan, or even a bundt cake pan.
📋 Recipe
Gluten free carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting
An easy gluten free carrot cake recipe with a dairy-free option.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups gluten free flour blend
- 1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 3 eggs
- 6 ounces coconut oil, melted
- 6 ounces almond milk
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 8 ounces cream cheese, Frosting
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, Frosting
- 2 cups powdered sugar, Frosting
- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the cake pan with coconut oil to prevent sticking.
- Shred washed and peeled carrots.
- Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk to blend.
- Add wet ingredients and shredded carrots to a medium bowl and mix well. Add raisins and nuts, mix.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. Don't overmix the batter.
- Bake the cake in the oven.
- When the cake layers are finished. Let them cool on a cooling rack.
- Add the frosting ingredients to a mixer (except the coconut) and mix until thick and creamy.
- When the cake is cooled. Add a layer to a plate and add a little frosting on top of that layer. Top with the next layer and repeat until you get to the last layer. Add frosting to the top and then sprinkle with unsweetened coconut. (Feel free to frost the sides if you would like!)
Notes
Use dairy-free cream cheese to make this recipe dairy-free!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: gAmount Per Serving: Calories: 834Total Fat: 38gSaturated Fat: 22gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 70mgSodium: 405mgCarbohydrates: 119gFiber: 3gSugar: 94gProtein: 8g
Please note this nutrition information is calculated by a recipe plugin and is an estimate based on the ingredients used in this recipe.
(*Note, this post was updated from an older 8/2017 post.)
Nicole Dawson
I can never get enough of carrot cake, especially when paired with cream cheese frosting!
Sandi Gaertner
Carrot cake is one of our favorites too!