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The ultimate gluten free carrot cake is loaded with fresh carrots and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Plus, you can even bake it into cupcakes, and easily make it days ahead of time.
This is the recipe that makes a carrot cake lover out of anyone, even if you think you aren't much of a fan. In fact, I often get requests to make it as a birthday cake from converts!
My take
Nicole's Recipe Notes
- Taste and texture: Light and fluffy cake with a moist and tender crumb and tons of carrot flavor.
- Extra moist: This moist and tender cake is made with oil instead of butter, but the added moisture from carrots keeps it from tasting oily
- Tons of carrots: 3 cups of freshly grated carrots add just enough moisture to help tenderize the cake without making it soggy.
- Versatile recipe: Make 2 round cakes, or 24 cupcakes (just reduce the flour by 1/4 cup for cupcakes). Change up the mix-ins from white chocolate and pecans to chocolate chips or raisins.
Key cake ingredients
- Gluten free flour: Be sure to choose one of my recommended blends of all purpose gluten free flour, which is a blend of individual flours that together behave like wheat flour.
- Baking powder/baking soda: Aid in rising and browning in the oven.
- Cinnamon: This warm spice adds depth of flavor.
- White sugar: Adds sweetness and tenderness.
- Brown sugar: Adds sweetness, tenderness and moisture to this cake.
- Eggs: Provide structure and provide a lot of rise in this moist cake.
- Oil: Makes for an even more tender cake than butter would without adding any flavor to compete with the carrots and cinnamon.
- Milk: Adds moisture and richness.
- Apple cider vinegar: Helps the cake rise by reacting with baking soda and helps tenderize the crumb. Can be replaced with regular white vinegar or fresh lemon juice.
- Carrots: Add sweetness, tenderness, and natural flavor that complements the cinnamon.
- White chocolate chips: I like just a few white chocolate chips in carrot cake since they add richness and some texture without the prominent flavor of regular chocolate chips. You can use a mixture of chopped pecans and white chocolate chips, all chips, or even chopped walnuts or raisins.
How to make gluten free carrot cake
This recipe makes 2 8-inch round cakes. If you plan to make cupcakes instead, use 1/4 cup (36 grams) less of the gluten free flour blend.
Begin by whisking the dry ingredients (gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon and white sugar), then adding the brown sugar and breaking up any lumps.
Next, add oil, eggs, apple cider vinegar, and milk, and mix into a soft batter. Add lots of grated carrots, and white chocolate chips plus optional pecans (or your favorite mix-in).
Divide the soft batter evenly among two greased and lined round cake pans. Bake at 350°F for about 35 minutes, rotating the pans about halfway through baking. Let the cakes cool for a bit in the pans before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Let the cakes cool completely before frosting. To make a cream cheese frosting, beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, then beat in confectioners' sugar until you reach a scoopable but soft consistency.
To frost a layer cake, turn one cake upside down, place about half the frosting on top and spread into an even layer. Top with the second cake, also upside down, and then the rest of the frosting. Spread onto the sides and across the top as evenly as you can. A swoopy pattern on top makes it look professional with much less skill!
substitutions
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free cake
Making carrot cake with oil instead of butter makes these carrot cake cupcakes quite easy to convert to dairy free as well as gluten free. Just use a nondairy milk, like almond milk.
You can either replace the white chocolate chips with more nuts, make your own vegan white chocolate and chop it up, or use nondairy semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Dairy free frosting
I've successfully made cream cheese-style frosting dairy free by using 4 ounces Daiya nondairy cream cheese, 8 tablespoons (96 g) nonhydrogenated shortening, and 6 tablespoons (84 g) Earth Balance nondairy butter in place of the butter and cream cheese.
I find that nondairy cream cheese has a strong taste that can become unpleasant if used in large amounts, so I don't use a whole 8 ounces of it in place of 8 ounces of conventional cream cheese.
An easy gluten free dairy free alternative to making your own frosting is to buy a can of Pillsbury brand cream cheese frosting. It's gluten free, and contains no dairy ingredients (but does contain soy).
Egg free
Replacing all 4 eggs in the cake recipe will be hard, but I think it's worth trying with 4 “flax eggs,” or even the equivalent of 4 eggs from JustEgg brand plant eggs (in the refrigerated section of the grocery store).
Nut free
Just use 2 more ounces of the white chocolate chips in place of the chopped pecans, and eliminate the pecans as decoration.
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
Grating carrots
You should always grate your carrots fresh, rather than used a prepared bag of grated carrots, for carrot cake. The prepared ones are almost always quite thick, and they're too dry.
If you don't want to use a box grater, try making quick work of the job by grating them in your food processor with the grater plate or blade.
Measuring gluten free flour
Always measure your dry ingredients, especially your gluten free flour blend, by weight, not volume. It's impossible to avoid human error when measuring by volume, no matter your level of baking experience. That can lead to a dry cake if you overmeasure, or one that doesn't rise as expected.
Testing for doneness
The cakes are done baking when they're uniformly light brown on top, and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. This is a really moist cake, so the “toothpick test” isn't that reliable.
Reduce the yield
To make 1 single cake instead of 2, or 12 cupcakes instead of 24, reduce the “yield” in the recipe card to 4 slices. And since you reduce the amount of flour in 24 cupcakes by 1/4 cup, for 12 cupcakes, reduce the flour by 2 tablespoons (18 grams).
Try some mix-ins
You can use any combination of dry mix-ins that hold their shape in your cake. Here are some suggestions:
- Soft nuts, like pecans or walnuts, roughly chopped
- Raisins (I like white raisins here, but Thompson seedless raisins are also an excellent choice)
- White, dark, or milk chocolate chips
Gluten Free Carrot Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment or handheld mixer
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 ¼ cups (315 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (112 g) neutral oil, (like sunflower or grapeseed oil)
- 4 (200 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup (4 fluid ounces) milk, at room temperature
- ½ cup (55 g) chopped pecans, plus more for decorating (optional)
- ½ cup (3 ounces) white chocolate chips, (See Recipe Notes if omitting pecans)
- 3 cups (270 g) peeled and grated carrots, (from about 3 large carrots)
For the cream cheese frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 cups (460 g) confectioners’ sugar, plus more as necessary
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease two 8-inch round baking pans and set them aside. If making cupcakes, grease or line two standard 12-cup muffin tins, and set them aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and granulated sugar. Whisk to combine well.
- Add the brown sugar, and whisk again to combine, working to break up any lumps in the brown sugar.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the oil, eggs, vinegar, and milk, and mix to combine.
- Add the grated carrots to the mixture, plus the (optional) pecans and white chocolate chips, and mix until evenly distributed throughout. The batter will be thick, but relatively soft.
To make a cake.
- Divide the batter evenly among the two prepared baking pans, and spread into an even layer in each.
- Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cake is uniformly light brown on top, and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan rotating the pans once during baking (35 to 40 minutes).
- Remove the pans from the oven from the oven and allow the cakes to cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make cupcakes.
- Fill the wells of the prepared muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full with batter, and shake the pan back and forth to distribute the batter evenly in each well.
- One at a time, place the muffin tins in the center of the preheated oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out with no more than a few moist crumbs attached (about 20 minutes).
- Remove the tin from the oven from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining muffin tin.
Make the frosting.
- While the cakes or cupcakes are cooling, in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a handheld mixer), place the cream cheese and butter.
- Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add the salt, and 3 1/2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Mix on low speed until the sugar is absorbed. Turn the mixer to high speed and beat until the frosting is thickened and fluffy.
- Add more confectioners’ sugar as necessary to thicken the frosting enough to hold its shape when scooped with a spoon.
To frost a layer cake.
- Turn one of the cooled cakes, top down, onto a serving platter.
- Spoon about half of the frosting onto the top of the cake.
- Spread the frosting into an even layer on top of this cake.
- Top with the second cake, top-down and press to adhere.
- Spoon the remaining frosting on top of the cake.
- Spread the frosting on the top and sides of the cake. It's easiest to create a swooping pattern on top of the cake so it doesn't have to be super smooth and perfect.
- Top with more chopped pecans, if desired. To make the cake easier to slice, chill for about an hour in the refrigerator before slicing and serving.
To frost cupcakes.
- Spoon or pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.
Video
Notes
- Reduce the flour blend by 1/4 cup (35 g) to 2 cups (280 g). The rest of the recipe remains the same.
- You may want to halve the frosting recipe, as you need less frosting. Unless you really want to pile it on (which I heartily recommend).
If you're not using pecans in the cake, use double the amount of white chocolate chips, raising the amount to 6 ounces. Nutritional information is an estimate per slice of layer cake with frosting, assuming the cake is sliced into 8 equal slices. It is created using an online nutritional calculator as a courtesy and should not be relied upon.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Making cupcakes with this recipe
To make 24 gluten free carrot cake cupcakes, reduce the amount of flour called for in the recipe by 1/4 cup (36 grams), for a total of 2 cups (280 grams). Line the wells of 2 cupcake tins with greaseproof paper liners, and fill the wells about 3/4 of the way full. They should be done baking in about 20 minutes.
make ahead/leftovers
Storage instructions
The cake is moist enough to store it at room temperature, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, up to 1 whole day in advance. Don't refrigerate it, though, as the refrigerator tends to dry out baked goods.
You can wrap individual slices of the frosted cake in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for about 2 days.
You can make the carrot cake layers even weeks ahead of time by wrapping them tightly and freezing them. Defrost in the refrigerator before frosting and serving.
You can also freeze leftover frosted slices of cake. Just wrap each slice tightly in freezer safe wrap, then freeze. Defrost at room temperature.
The frosting can also be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for a few days. Let it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour until softened, and then mix it again with your mixer until you reach the proper consistency for spreading or piping it.
FAQs
You can definitely assemble the dry ingredients, up to and including the brown sugar, whisk them together, and store them in a sealed container. I would store them at room temperature, though, in a dark pantry, since the refrigerator will cause the brown sugar to clump.
If your cake is crumbly, you may have overmeasured your gluten free flour blend, or used a blend with a gritty rice flour.
I'm afraid this cake can't be made without a rice flour-based all purpose gluten free flour, no. You'd need a completely different recipe. Our superfood muffins come close!
I love a carrot cake with pineapple, but that's a different recipe because it adds a ton of extra moisture that this recipe can't handle. Try our Entenmann's style gluten free carrot pineapple cake recipe.
Yes! If your pan is 9-inches in diameter, rather than 8-inches, it will make shorter cakes that bake faster. Begin checking at 25 minutes.
I use this recipe and made cupcakes for Easter and people didn’t even know they were gluten-free. They are so delicious. I highly recommend it.
So happy to hear it, Melissa! That’s the best, when gluten eaters and gluten free happily eat the same cupcakes. Thank you for sharing that!