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A healthy carrot cake recipe that is gluten free, is very easy to make, is frosted with a delicious cream cheese frosting. This simple gluten free carrot cake is made with almond flour and can be easily made dairy free with the swap of cashew cream cheese frosting. Perfect for birthdays or holidays like Easter!
Yes, it’s okay to call it healthy because it’s jam packed with good for you ingredients like fresh carrots, almond flour, raisins (aka fruit!!!), walnuts or pecans, and no refined sugar.
Just close your eyes when it comes to the cream cheese frosting and we can pretend the whole thing is full of nutrients 😉
But since I was being so good with the entire cake, I figured having a little bit of an indulgent cream cheese frosting would make this healthy carrot cake perfect.
If dairy isn’t your thing, you can easily go dairy-free and make my homemade cashew cream cheese frosting which is equally as good, in my opinion!
I’ve always been a carrot cake lover, like hard core obsessed with the flavor combination and my eyes would always light up whenever I saw it on a menu.
Ingredients for Healthy Carrot Cake:
Almond Flour – the only flour you need for this cake is almond flour! It makes a perfectly fluffy texture, and keeps the whole cake low-carb if you’re watching your carbs! Almond flour is one of my favorite gluten-free flours to bake with.
Pumpkin (yes! really!) – pumpkin doesn’t have much of a strong flavor but adds in beautiful color and makes the cake perfectly moist and fluffy. This time of year you can find canned pumpkin in the baking aisle of your grocery store.
Maple Syrup – my choice of natural sweetener for this cake! You could also use honey or agave if you do not have maple syrup.
Eggs – I haven’t tried this with any egg replacer and I sadly don’t have faith that it would work without eggs! You really need them to hold this cake together!
Almond Butter – helps keep this cake nice and moist! I use regular unsalted almond butter for this recipe, but if you use salted, just use a little bit less salt in the overall recipe
Coconut oil – my favorite oil for baking, in place of traditional vegetable oil or butter!
Grated Carrots – quickly grated up some big carrot sticks in my food processor.
Raisins + Walnuts – these are optional, but highly suggested! You can also use pecans if you don’t have walnuts.
+ spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
I top this cake with a homemade healthier cream cheese frosting, and it uses ingredients like cream cheese, powdered sugar, a little bit of butter. You can easily swap this out for my cashew cream cheese frosting if you are dairy free.
Why is this carrot cake healthy?
The ingredients in this gluten-free carrot cake are fresh, natural, and all real food. That’s why I feel good when I’m eating it! Instead of using butter, white flour, and traditional sugar, I use coconut oil, almond flour, and maple syrup.
I even gave this cake to my parents who love traditional baked goods, and they both thought it was so good!
How do you make healthy carrot cake?
Super easy! All you need it do is combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, and then add the two together.
Once those are combined, add in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts.
Separate into two separate 8 inch cake pans and bake! While it’s baking you can prepare the cream cheese frosting.
Once the cakes are completely cooled (must be completely cooled or else the frosting will cause the cake to get soggy!) frost them by adding frosting to the top layer of the first cake.
Then add frosting to the top layer, and frost the sides if you wish. I added crushed walnuts and coconut shreds to the top of mine!
What’s the best way to store healthy carrot cake?
If eating the same day, keep it out at room temperature! After 12 hours, I would store in the fridge. You can also pop it in the refrigerator right after frosting it and just take it out about one hour before so it comes closer to room temperature!
If you make this recipe, be sure to comment below and let me know how it was! Also tag @erinliveswhole on Instagram and use the hashtag #erinliveswhole so I can see it and feature you!
If you liked this recipe, you’ll want to try these!
Healthy Carrot Cake
A healthy carrot cake recipe that is gluten free, is very easy to make, is frosted with a delicious cream cheese frosting. This simple gluten free carrot cake is made with almond flour and can be easily made dairy free with the swap of cashew cream cheese frosting. Perfect for birthdays or holidays like Easter!
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 1.5 cups almond flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp dried ginger
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin – (can get year round in baking aisle of your grocery store!)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted.
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups finely grated carrots
- 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
- 2/3 cup raisins
- coconut + more walnuts for sprinkling
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 (8oz) blocks Neufchatel or reduced fat cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
Can also use this vegan cream cheese frosting
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease two 8 inch cake pans. I also line the bottom with parchment paper cut into circle shape.
2. In a small bowl, mix almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
3. In a large bowl, whisk eggs together with maple syrup, coconut oil, almond butter.
4. Add in pumpkin and vanilla and whisk until well combined.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir well.
6. Stir in carrots, raisins, and walnuts and then divide the batter between the two pans.
7. Bake for 34-36 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cover halfway through with aluminum foil if getting dark.
8. While baking, prepare frosting. Using a hand mixer, blend together cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt until creamy. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
9. Let cakes cool completely before frosting, the icing will melt into the cakes if not completely cool. You can frost it however you want and there will be enough if you want to cover the entire cake in frosting.
10. Top with extra walnuts and coconut.
*Notes for how to store the cake in post!
Notes
This will make a double layer cake with enough frosting for the whole cake and middle layer!
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Daisy Zambrano says
Made this for my mom this Mother’s Day and it was absolutely incredible! My whole family loved it.
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Daisy, so happy you all enjoyed it!! 🙂
Krista Neubert says
My daughter wanted a “healthier carrot cake” for her 21st birthday. We made this and it was absolutely perfect!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Krista, so happy you all loved it and happy belated to her!!
M says
What would you convert cooking time/temperature to for cupcakes? Thanks!
Erin says
Hi, I’d reduce baking time by about 15 minutes! Let me know how they come out!
Alyson says
I made this for Easter this year, and it was a huge hit! The carrot cake was absolutely delicious! My family could not get enough of it!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Alyson, so happy it is such a hit!! 🙂
Aleksandra says
I’ve made this 2 years in a row now for my husband’s bday/Easter and will continue making it bc it’s soo good. I have to admit I was pretty skeptical reading the ingredient list (even though none of Erin’s recipes have ever done me wrong) but was afraid it would be too nutty or have a weird consistency- but it’s perfect. First attempt I made a layer cake & this year I halved the recipe which made 12 cupcakes (tons of icing). The icing is just as good, too!! We all agreed the cake was better but cupcakes are a bit easier to assemble. I throw in some chopped crystallized ginger & this year used butter vs coconut oil, which made it super moist. bonus points that nobody knew it was GF but I could still eat it. Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Aleksandra, so happy you love the cake to much two years in a row! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Abbey says
Just made for Easter! I’m celiac so I loved this recipe for myself but the whole family raved about the cake!!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Abbey, so happy everyone loved it!! 🙂
Azia says
Hi! Any replacement for coconut oil?
Erin says
Hi Azia, yes, any neutral oil will work great here! Let me know what you use and how your cake comes out!
Murray says
100/10! LOVE this cake!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Murray, so happy you loved it so much!! 🙂
Erica says
Omg. Turned out sooooo yummy! I made a few adjustments and they were amazing! I used pistachios instead of walnuts just because I prefer the taste. Also added two scoops of collagen for a little protein, and made them as muffins instead of a cake. Despite all my tweaks, they turned out great haha. Will be eating these for breakfast all week 🙂
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Erica, so happy you loved it so much!!
Teresa says
Not sure what I did wrong. First off, the flavor was great, but I needed to use egg replacer and I cooked it in 1 pan as it didn’t look like enough for 2 pans. It was very wet and even after leaving it in for well over an our, it still didn’t get better.
Erin says
Hi Teresa, you can’t use egg replacer for this recipe. So sorry!!
Maris says
I made this for Easter and everyone raved about it! I loved that there was no added sugar in this cake – it wasn’t even missed. And the icing was to die for! I will make this again for sure. Thanks Erin!
★★★★★
Erin says
Hi Maris, so happy everyone loved it! 🙂