Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe - Simply Plant Based Kitchen (2024)

by Kim | Desserts, Kid Friendly, Party Food, Plant-Based Recipes | 53 comments

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Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe - Simply Plant Based Kitchen (1)

I think my favorite part of a WFP diet is that I can have my cake and eat it too. In other words, I can eat dessert and STILL lose weight and improve my health. I don’t have to feel guilty because it is made from whole food plant based ingredients! It makes it really easy to stick to this way of eating for life knowing that I can really enjoy DELICIOUS foods and especially dessert!

As you may know, being “vegan” does not necessarily equate to good health. The term vegan refers to not eating meat or dairy products. A vegan can eat processed foods and oils and not have as much health benefit. However, a whole foods plant based diet is focused on eating the most nutrient dense foods – whole foods. No meat or dairy (or very limited) and no processed foods including oils. This recipe does not contain any butter, eggs, white flour, or sugar. Instead it uses banana, dates, raisins, and oat flour as its base. It tastes great and won’t raise your blood sugar like regular carrot cake!

My oldest son is my pickiest eater, but he loves this carrot cake recipe. It makes me happy that I can get some vegetables into him without a fight! My husband tried it last night for the first time and he said he was very surprised at how good it was. Score!

Make Oat Flour from Old-Fashioned Oats in your blender

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This recipe calls for old-fashioned oats to be ground in your high powdered blender. Old fashioned oats are also called rolled oats. Don’t use quick oats or steel cut for this recipe. I have a Vitamix blender and it takes literally seconds to do this! It’s really easy to do, but you could always buy oat flour in your local grocery store baking aisle as well. You could also try using a food processor, but personally haven’t, so let me know in the comments if you do and it works.

You’re going to love the icing, too. It is SO yum! Feel free to use the icing recipe on any dessert recipe you have! The coconut flour can be left out if you want to have to a vanilla only flavor.

Related reading – Top 6 Reasons you should be come a Nutritarian

Making your own fresh shredded carrots

I highly recommend using organic carrots. They really do taste better. I don’t buy a ton of organic fruits & vegetables, but I do for the carrots. Hopefully you have a food processor so you can shred the carrots really easily. I always peel mine and cut off the tops and then throw them in the processor with the “shred” disk. Any extra shredded carrots I don’t use for the recipe, I keep in a ziplock bag for salads!

I don’t recommend buying the bags of shredded carrots you see in the salad section. Those are dry & not very fresh. This will affect no only how moist your cake is, but also the nutrient density!

Ripen bananas in 30 seconds

Also, I learned that If you don’t have ripe bananas, you can microwave them for 30 seconds to ripen them up! That’s what I had to do this last time because my banana was slightly green. Make sure you poke holes all over the banana with a knife. I did 2 rounds of 30 seconds in the microwave on high.

My youngest isn’t a fan of walnuts, but I am and of course he needs to eat them for the healthy omega-3s, so I chop them up super fine so he doesn’t even notice.

Definitely go easy on the cloves. I think I did a little bit bigger pinch that I should have this last time, as it was very strong! Still good though!

It keeps for up to 5 days in the refrigerator, although it will probably be gone before then!

Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Ingredients

1 1/2cupsunsweetened almond or soy milk
4 1/2ouncespitted dates, chopped
3/4cupraisins
1/2cupsliced ripe banana
1teaspoonpure vanilla extract
1 3/4old-fashioned rolled oats not quick oats
2teaspoonsbaking powder
1teaspoonbaking soda
2teaspoonsground cinnamon
1teaspoonground nutmeg
1pinchground cloves
1 1/2cupsshredded carrots,organic tastes best
1/2cupfinely chopped walnuts

Turn this Carrot Cake into Muffins!

This recipe can easily be use to make muffins or cupcakes. Just fill a muffin tin 3/4 of the way with this carrot cake batter. Use a silicone muffin mold so that you don’t have to use oil or muffin liners.

Other WFPB Dessert recipes you might like –

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Learn about how you can eat MORE and LOSE weight on a plant-based diet. But, there are many common mistakes I see people make all the time. Don’t let that be what holds you back from success! Click here to register for this FREE Plant Based Diet Masterclass for a limited time!

Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe - Simply Plant Based Kitchen (2)

If you try this recipe let me know what you think in the comments!

Print Recipe

4 from 4 votes

Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake with Coconut Vanilla Icing

This whole food plant based recipe is dairy free and oil free.

Prep Time45 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 25 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Gluten Free, Nutritarian, Vegan, Whole Food Plant Based

Keyword: Carrot Cake, dairy free, Dessert, Eat to Live, Gluten Free, Healthy, no oil recipe, Nutritarian, Vegan, whole food plant based

Servings: 9

Calories: 264kcal

Author: Kim Murphy

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk
4 1/2 ounces pitted dates, chopped
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup sliced ripe banana
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 old-fashioned rolled oats not quick oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots organic tastes best
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Coconut Vanilla Icing

5 ounces pitted dates, chopped
3/4 cup raw cashews unsalted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut flour optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 8 X 8 baking dish with cooking spray or use a silicone baking pan.
In a medium bowl, combine dates, 1/4 cup of the raisins, banana, vanilla, and milk. Soak for 15 minutes.
Peel 3 medium organic carrots and cut off the tops. Using a food processor, shred 1 & 1/2 cups of carrots. You may have a some extra left over. You can save the extra in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for salads.
Using a high powered blender, blend oats until they become flour. Pour oat flour into a large bowl. Add baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and stir until combined.
Pour the date liquid mixture into the high powered blender and blend until smooth. Pour smooth date mixture into oat mixture and combine. Add 1/2 cup of raisins, walnuts, & shredded carrots and stir until well combined.
Pour batter into baking pan and cook for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Coconut Vanilla Icing

While the carrot cake is cooking, place dates, cashews, and vanilla extract in the blender. Cover with just enough water and let soak for 45 minutes.
Blend until smooth and creamy. Add the coconut flour (if desired) and blend again. If it is too thick you can add more water and if it is too watery you can add more coconut flour.
After cake has cooled, spread icing over cake.

Nutrition

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3K Shares

Diane Lustrion February 19, 2019 at 11:09 pm

I made this today…SO good
Reply
- adminon February 20, 2019 at 2:02 pm
  I’m so glad you liked it!
  Reply
  - Lauraon March 12, 2022 at 3:01 pm
    Yummie! Can you freeze it? Even though I could devour it in 5 days I probably shouldn’t.
    Reply
    - Kimon April 11, 2022 at 5:44 am
      It is pretty delicious! Yes, you could freeze it.
      Reply
- emma anywhereon April 23, 2020 at 8:21 am
  I don’t have raisins ??I m gonna use cranberries or I could add more dates?? Thx
  Reply
  - Kimon April 28, 2020 at 9:06 am
    Absolutely!
    Reply
Rebeccaon February 23, 2019 at 7:05 pm
Is there something else I can use instead of coconut flour?
Reply
- adminon February 23, 2019 at 7:29 pm
  You can actually just leave it out. If you need something to thicken it then you could use any type of flour like oat, whole wheat, almond, etc.
  Reply
- adminon February 25, 2019 at 9:58 am
  You can actually just leave it out if you prefer. Use as little water as possible to cover the dates & nuts so it isn’t to runny. Or if you need to thicken it up you can use any other flour you have on hand. The coconut flour just gives it a coconut flavor.
  Reply
  - Elaineon April 15, 2020 at 11:36 am
    Hello! I made this today as cupcakes and I left in the oven for about 25 min and didn’t cook through at all. I had to put everything in the trash. I’m very disappointed. Any thoughts why it happened?
    Thanks!
    Reply
    - Kimon April 16, 2020 at 12:53 pm
      I’ve never made this recipe as cupcakes, but being that there is a lot of moisture from the carrots I would cook them for 10 minutes longer and see if that helps.
      Reply
BSon February 24, 2019 at 4:40 pm
Is there a subsitute for the bananas? (banana allergy) maybe applesauce?
Reply
- adminon February 25, 2019 at 9:56 am
  Yes, I think the apple sauce would probably work!
  Reply
- jaimieon July 10, 2020 at 8:47 pm
  Just made this as muffins and they are so good! The frosting is amazing. I did have to cook the muffins a full 45 minutes which was longger than anticipated,but I had also just pulled my carrots from the garden so they had LOTS of moisture. I sprinkled some coconut flakes on top and highly recommended trying it. Thanks for the recipe!
  Reply
  - Kimon July 11, 2020 at 12:28 pm
    So glad you liked it! Yes, even the muffins take about 45 minutes to cook and not be soggy. The carrots have lots of moisture!
    Reply
  - Melanieon April 7, 2022 at 6:27 pm
    I used beets instead of carrot and pears instead of banana. I just felt like I needed some beets…lol! I left out the raisins because I was out. It was really fantastic, and the texture was really nice! I like things earthy, so it was perfect with the beet and pear. Fyi, mine fully baked in 35 min. I also added a 1/4 tsp of sea salt.
    Reply
    - Kimon April 11, 2022 at 5:47 am
      What a unique twist on this. It sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.
      Reply
- Kelly Keyon September 16, 2020 at 8:54 pm
  I made this for my son’s 21st birthday. He loves plant based desserts. It was just what he wanted. Thanks for the recipe!
  Reply
  - Kimon September 17, 2020 at 10:45 am
    You’re welcome! I’m so glad he liked it!
    Reply
BSon February 24, 2019 at 4:46 pm
If I wanted to add pineapple, would I need to change quantities of something else?
Reply
- adminon February 25, 2019 at 9:57 am
  Yum! pineapple sounds good! I don’t think you would need to change anything else. You just might have to bake a few more minutes because it might be wetter. Use a toothpick to test the doneness.
  Reply
Mayraon February 25, 2019 at 9:41 am
Is there a substitute for raw cashews? I only have roasted and salted
Reply
- adminon February 25, 2019 at 9:56 am
  You can use the roasted and salted, it just won’t be as healthy with the unsalted version. It will still work and taste great!
  Reply
- Jennyon August 30, 2019 at 9:17 am
  You can also use cashew butter, that is my hack since I never know when I am going to need cashews and my ninja doesn’t make the sauce totally smooth,
  Reply
  - adminon August 30, 2019 at 9:22 am
    Great idea with the cashew butter!
    Reply
Tammyon September 6, 2019 at 5:50 pm

This was delicious. I skipped the frosting and just ate it plain. Texture was really nice and just the right Smith if sweetness. Thank the for a great recipe.
Reply
- Tammyon September 6, 2019 at 5:52 pm
  Autocorrect typos 🙁
  Reply
- adminon September 11, 2019 at 8:23 am
  Thanks for your comment! I’m glad you liked it!
  Reply
Hollyon November 1, 2019 at 10:32 pm
What can i use instead of dates?
Reply
- Kimon November 3, 2019 at 4:07 pm
  You can use more raisins, maple syrup, or coconut sugar which are all unrefined.
  Reply
- Tonyaon September 19, 2022 at 7:01 pm
  If I use maple syrup or coconut sugar, how much should I use?
  Reply
  - Kimon September 23, 2022 at 3:58 pm
    Hi Tonya, I would suggest starting with a few tablespoons and taste for sweetness.
    Reply
Hannahon January 27, 2020 at 12:16 pm

I had really high hopes making this, but it has come out sooooo wet and stodgy! I followed the recipe exactly and even cooked for over an hour, but it’s just not good : ( Any suggestions? Thanks!
Reply
- Kimon January 29, 2020 at 11:51 am
  Really? I’ve never had any issue with this recipe turning out soggy. I’m not sure where it went wrong for you. I’m sorry!
  Reply
Triciaon February 7, 2020 at 6:50 pm
may I use pineapple in place of raisins? How much pineapple should I use?
Reply
- Kimon February 11, 2020 at 9:22 pm
  Yes, but the pineapple is going to be much wetter than the raisins so you might need to cook it for longer. I would use either the same amount of pineapple or less.
  Reply
MaryAnn Joneson February 12, 2020 at 10:20 pm

I made these today. Following the recipe exactly. Worth every minute. I didn’t frost them since last didn’t have those ingredients. Yummy
Reply
- Kimon February 13, 2020 at 6:17 pm
  Thanks for your comment!
  Reply
Donnaon February 26, 2020 at 8:50 am
How much store bought oat flour should I use if I don’t want to grind the old fashioned oats?
Reply
- Kimon March 4, 2020 at 2:23 pm
  The same amount. It’s not too much difference.
  Reply
  - Sherryon August 4, 2020 at 6:20 pm
    How will this as cupcakes, hold up on a dessert table??? Thank you for a reply.
    Reply
    - Kimon August 4, 2020 at 6:49 pm
      It works! It does take a good 40 minutes, just like the full cake to cook because they are so moist.
      Reply
Nicoleon May 8, 2020 at 10:14 am
Hey Kim! I’m a fellow blogger and I wanted to let you know I loved your recipe so much that I made it and advertised it on my blog! Thank you so much for this.
Reply
- Kimon May 8, 2020 at 10:20 am
  Thank you so much! That really means a lot!
  Reply
Leanne Kendallon May 12, 2020 at 9:46 pm
Hi Kim! What would you suggest as a cashew replacement for someone with a nut allergy?
Reply
- Kimon May 13, 2020 at 8:27 am
  Leave out the nuts in the cake and maybe try using avocado instead of cashews for the cream? It won’t last as long, but will give it that creaminess.
  Reply
Alexaon May 7, 2021 at 8:09 pm
I made this for Mother’s Day! My mom’s favorite treat! She especially enjoys the icing. So so good! Even my family not doing the WFPB life enjoy it and are quite surprised by it. Thank you so much!
Reply
Anna Lewison July 16, 2021 at 10:20 am
can i put this in a 9×13 pan instead of 8×8? i need to make 2 and it needs to feed 35-40 people any suggestions?
Reply
- Kimon August 27, 2021 at 1:01 pm
  Sure!
  Reply
Daveon January 22, 2022 at 2:15 pm
I made this today and it is amazing. I avoid coconut due to saturated fat, so I left the coconut flour out of the icing, yet it was still perfect! Thank you so much for putting this recipe together! I will definitely make this again!
Reply
- Kimon January 28, 2022 at 7:28 am
  Hi Dave, thanks for the feedback, I always love hearing how it turns out!
  Reply
poochyfaceon November 4, 2022 at 11:56 am
Made it today and I found it to be super good. Next time I will put apple sauce instead of banana. It’s better for me with gout. But it was really good. Thanks
Reply
- Kimon November 11, 2022 at 6:08 am
  Applesauce would be a good alternative to use.
  Reply