• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

BAKED logo

  • Recipe Index
  • About Us
  • Work With Us
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

Home » Cakes and Cupcakes » Vegan Carrot Cake with Cardamon and Orange

Vegan Carrot Cake with Cardamon and Orange

Apr 11, 2020 · 5 Comments

Jump to Recipe

A simple vegan carrot cake with orange and cardamon and a maple sweetened coconut icing. Just the thing for afternoon coffee or a relaxed birthday party.

Square of carrot cake with icing on a small plate with fork, with more cake in the background.

This post was originally shared in September 2018. It has been updated as of April 2020 with improvements to the text and recipes, and a video has been added.

Vegan Carrot Cake

Traditional carrot cake recipes rely on a lot of sugar and a ton of oil, but this version is much lighter. We’ve cut some of the oil, using apple sauce to moisten, and maple syrup adds sweetness along with coconut sugar.

The addition of a good dose of cardamom and a hit of orange zest makes this recipe more modern and less like your mum’s carrot cake of yesteryear. Cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg are still in there, don’t worry! It’s still super cozy, a perfect cool weather cake for spring or autumn.

This is delicious with some maple sweetened coconut whipped cream but a simple glaze will work just as well. For something entirely different, but delicious, try icing yours with a chocolate ganache. Try topping the cake with some candied mixed peel to fancy things up even more.

Dry ingredients for cake in a large bowl, top down view.
Carrot cake ingredients on white background.

Making the Cake

We use a square baking tin but you can use an equivalent round one (23cm / 9 in.) if you prefer. Just mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, mix, and bake. No creaming needed.

To speed up the process, you can grate the carrots with the grating attachment in your food processor if you have one. Otherwise a good old fashioned box grater does the trick!

Baking time is just 30 minutes, so you’re about 40 minutes away from eating your very own vegan carrot cake right now. If you can’t wait for it to cool down first, just serve the whipped cream on the side.

The cake keeps well for several days without drying out thanks to the moisture from the carrots and applesauce. It’s a good choice even for small households – and you can easily make it into cupcakes! Just bake for about 20 minutes instead of 30 in a standard muffin tin.

Four images, clockwise from top left: whipped cream in a bowl, toasted coconut flakes, cake batter, and whipped cream close up.
Close up of baked carrot cake in a parchment lined square tin.

Substitutions

We love the orange and spice combination, but if you don’t have an orange, feel free to leave it out or replace with a bit of lemon zest. Since there’s no orange juice in the cake, it’s an easy switch. You can also use a bit of chopped candied peel instead.

Hate nutmeg? Ditch it. Cloves, allspice, and any other warming sweet spices – or a blend like pumpkin pie spice – work well in this cake. Alternatively, increase one of the other spices, like the cinnamon or cardamom.

If you have no pecans on hand, feel free to sub for another nut. We recommend walnuts at the top substitution, but hazelnuts are nice too. If you need to it be nut free, they can be left out or you can use sunflower seeds.

We call for almond milk, but other light milks like oat, cashew, and so on are all great. (not full-fat canned coconut milk). Light cooking oil typically refers to organic canola oil, grape seed, avocado, and other oils that don’t have a pronounced flavour on their own. Olive is probably a bit strong and coconut will make the cake too dense.

Other sugars like brown or cane sugar can be switched for the coconut sugar, but if you’re going to switch it, we prefer brown sugar for a similar caramel flavour to coconut. Make sure you’re using unsweetened applesauce or risk the cake being quite sweet.

We haven’t tried it, but we’ve heard from readers that this cake can be made gluten free using a gluten-free flour blend (we like the all-purpose GF from Bob’s Red Mill). If, for some reason, you have parsnips in the house but no carrots, you can also make a vegan parsnip cake.

Square slice of carrot cake topped with icing and toasted coconut in front of a green plant.

If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.

Continue to Content
Yield: Serves 9

Vegan Carrot Cake with Cardamon and Orange

close up slice of Vegan Carrot Cake with Cardamon and Orange

Our favourite vegan carrot cake, fancied up with fragrant cardamon and zesty orange.

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

  • Dry:
  • 2 ¼ cups (338 g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¾ tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp ground cardamon
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
  • Wet:
  • ½ cup (113 g) unsweetened apple sauce
  • ½ cup (100 g) coconut sugar
  • ¼ cup (63 ml) maple syrup
  • 1 cup (250 ml) almond milk
  • ⅓ cup (83 ml) light cooking oil
  • 1-½ cups (150 g) finely grated carrot
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • ½ cup (56 g) chopped pecans

Instructions

    1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a 9 x 9 inch (23 cm) square baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
    2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
    3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the apple sauce, coconut sugar, maple syrup, oil, almond milk, and orange zest. Stir in the grated carrot.
    4. Pour the wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined.
    5. Transfer batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly touched.
    6. Cool in the baking pan for 10 - 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
    7. Eat as is for breakfast or an afternoon snack, or top with vegan cream cheese icing or coconut whipped cream and toasted coconut.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

9

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 323Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 458mgCarbohydrates: 49gFiber: 3gSugar: 21gProtein: 4g

This is an approximation of the nutrition offered in this recipe, and is created using a nutrition calculator.

© Sophie Mackenzie
Cuisine: American / Category: Cakes and Cupcakes
Previous Post: « How to Make Coconut Whipped Cream
Next Post: Sourdough Sandwich Bread »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bryan says

    September 23, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    this looks really good! I’ve always been a sucker for carrot cake. I’ve never actually taken the time to make it myself though. I’ll definitely be trying this recipe soon though

    Reply
    • Sophie Mackenzie says

      September 26, 2018 at 9:03 pm

      Thanks Bryan! It’s totally my fav too. Once you start making your own, it will be hard to stop :)

      Reply
  2. Chantale says

    November 18, 2018 at 5:16 pm

    Hi! I have been making this recipe as muffins, and with different combinations of nuts or seeds with chocolate chips instead of pecans. I also substituted the flour for a gluten free type. Thanks for the good recipe! xx

    Reply
  3. Sashmita says

    May 09, 2020 at 1:43 am

    Hi there, Really looking forward to bake this cake. Would be really helpful if measurements can be given in grams as well, especially for baked goodies 😊

    Reply
    • Kelly Neil says

      May 09, 2020 at 1:00 pm

      Awesome, thanks so much Sashmita! We are working diligently to include grams in all of our recipes, however, are still in the process of updating older recipes. We’ll put this one next on the list! Thanks again for visiting!!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

ABOUT US

BAKED is a collaborative, creative project by some of your favourite Canadian bloggers. Tune in each week as we bring accessible baking straight to your home kitchen. Through BAKED, there will be something for everyone.
Join Our Mailing List
Get our recipes & baking tips direct to your inbox each week!

Get Baking!

A close up of a seedy sourdough bread.

How To Stretch And Fold Sourdough

Shortcrust pastry after pre-baking.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (Pâte Sucrée)

Mincemeat in a deep bowl.

Homemade Mincemeat

A vanilla cupcake topped with buttercream and rosemary trees on a small platter.

The Best Vanilla Cupcakes

Footer

© 2020 Baked The Blog. This site uses affiliate links.

Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Copyright© 2021