Vegan Carrot Cake!

A deliciously spiced and sweet vegan 6″ carrot cake, with a vegan buttercream frosting piped on top for decoration

This recipe has been requested so many times now, I can’t keep up. We all know how much I adore carrot cake, so here is my delicious vegan carrot cake for anyone who can’t eat dairy or eggs – it’s sweet, delicious and incredibly moreish. 

Vegan bakes

It’s been a while since I have posted a vegan bake, but I am so excited to share another beauty of a recipe with you. My favourite vegan biscoff cupcakes are always so popular and I just want to devour the lot, as well as my vegan biscoff cake. I just adore baking, and it’s so easy to make vegan versions. 

I have shared some other delicious vegan bakes such as my vegan chocolate chip cookies, and my vegan brownies, but this beauty?! This carrot cake?! It’s something that has been requested over and over again as you all know that carrot cake is my favourite cake of them all. 

Carrot Cake

When it comes to carrot cake, I just can’t resist it. It’s an incredibly moist and delicious sponge and it’s so hard to get it wrong. The charm of a carrot cake is that it’s usually so easy to mix the mixture together with just a bowl and a spoon, and I love that. 

I love the ever so slightly spiced flavour of a carrot cake sponge, counteracted with the sweetness of the buttercream frosting on top – it’s light, it’s flavourful, and it’s always a banger no matter what. 

This recipe is for a 6″ cake, as I didn’t want to keep producing the same size carrot cake in different forms – I’ve done my classic carrot cake, and my gluten free carrot cake, and they are both 8″ cakes, so this time I went for 6″. 

Sponge mixture

The ingredients are quite simple when it comes to this recipe, and it sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t – it’s a super easy to mix together cake recipe that you will all adore. 

• Oil – in baking, I tend to use sunflower oil or vegetable oil as they are flavourless, other oils may carry a flavour with them
• Vegan milk – I use any from almond, soy, oat or similar – I find almond the best 
• Sugar – I adore using light brown soft sugar as it creates a wonderful flavour in the sponge
• Carrots – the obvious part – I grate mine up to have 150g worth to add in grated
• Raisins/Nuts – these are optional, but I love adding raisins or nuts to this bake
• Flour – I use self raising flour as I want the raising agent part
• Raising agents – I also add in some bicarbonate of soda so that there is some extra fluffiness in the sponge
• Vinegar – this reacts with the bicarb to create the texture you are after, I always use white wine vinegar
• Flavours – a little cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. You can use more or less of one, to your taste 

Decoration

I know that stereotypically you can use a cream cheese frosting for a carrot cake, but I adore a buttercream with it as well. I tend to use the flora plant block for buttercream at the moment, and I find it helps to produce a thick and creamy frosting, perfect for this cake. 

I always beat my vegan butter on its own for a while first to make sure that it’s smooth, and then I add in the icing sugar. Icing sugar IS vegan, if you buy the correct product. Royal icing sugar is not, but that is not what you want – you want basic icing sugar. 

I then add in a little vanilla extract for some sweetness because I adore it, but this is optional. You can add in some flavours such as the ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg if you want instead, but I love to sprinkle on a little spice at the end for decoration instead. 

I used my favourite 2d closed star piping tip in a large piping bag to create a ‘rope’ decoration, and it was so pretty – but of course you can decorate the cake however you want instead… there are no rules! 

Tips & Tricks 

• I use these 6″ cake tins
• I used this 2d closed star piping tip for the decoration
• I used this large piping bag for the decoration
• This cake will last for 4-5+ days in the fridge or at room temperature on a cool day 
• The raisins and nuts are optional and interchangeable 
• The spices are also optional and can be swapped about as well for your taste

Vegan Carrot Cake!

A deliciously spiced and sweet vegan 6" carrot cake, with a vegan buttercream frosting piped on top for decoration

Print Pin Rate

Category: Vegan

Type: Cake

Keyword: Carrot

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cooling & Decorating: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 4 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 10 Slices

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Cake

• 75 ml sunflower oil
• 250 ml vegan milk
• 200 g light brown soft sugar
• 150 g carrots (grated weight)
• 100 g raisins/nuts (optional)
• 200 g self raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg

Topping

• 150 g vegan butter
• 300 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line 2x 6” cake tins with parchment paper
• Add the oil, milk, sugar and carrots to a bowl and stir together
• Add the raisins/nuts, flour, bicarb, vinegar, and spices and mix together
• Pour into the lined tins and then bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean
• Leave to cool fully
• Beat the butter on it’s own, and then add the icing sugar and vanilla
• Beat until smooth and then decorate your cake - I used a 2d closed star piping tip
• Sprinkle on sprinkles or some spice for decoration 

Notes

• I use these 6" cake tins
• I used this 2d closed star piping tip for the decoration
• I used this large piping bag for the decoration
• This cake will last for 4-5+ days in the fridge or at room temperature on a cool day 
• The raisins and nuts are optional and interchangeable 
• The spices are also optional and can be swapped about as well for your taste

ENJOY!

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