Vegan (& Gluten Free) Carrot Cake!

This amazing carrot cake is perfectly spiced and full of carrots, pineapple, coconut, raisins, and walnuts! The cake texture is fluffy and lovely too! Here are the ingredients you will need to make it:

You will need to use Freely Vegan GF flour (not available yet), make your own gluten free flour with The Plant Based Egg, or use wheat flour and add The Plant Based Egg to your dry ingredients (see the recipe notes for wheat flour directions.) Using the right egg replacement (and not using flour that contains xanthan or guar gum) is essential if you want a light and fluffy cake. The Plant Based Egg replaces eggs when baking with wheat flour, and it replaces both gums and eggs in gluten free baking. It will be available to order online next week at www.freelyvegan.com! Some of you will be tempted to try my recipe without The Plant Based Egg, but I do not recommend doing so. I do have a limited number of bags and the ability to email an invoice prior to that if anyone needs to order The Plant Based Egg right away. Please send early order inquiries to theplantbasedegg@gmail.com.

The first thing you will need to do in making your cake is to drain and press your crushed pineapple. Drain it in a strainer, then firmly press the pineapple to get out as much liquid as possible. Weigh or measure it after you press out the liquid:

You’ll also need to cut up your raisins. (Leaving them whole makes it hard to cut the cake.) I leave the smallest ones whole, cut the medium-sized ones in half, and the larger ones in thirds:

Add the vinegar to the plant milk (I use Silk Original Soymilk) and stir together. This will curdle the milk and it will work like buttermilk in the recipe:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add the baking powder, soda, and apple pie spice to the flour, then whisk it all together. (If you are using wheat flour, add The Plant Based Egg now as well.)

Add the vegan sugar, vegan light brown sugar (I make my own), salt, vegan butter (I use Earth Balance Buttery Spread), vanilla, and unsweetened applesauce to a large mixing bowl:

Mix on high speed for three minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed:

This cake is made with the creaming method, and those directions would usually say to beat in the eggs next and then alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients. Because we are not adding eggs, we will beat in 1/3 of our liquid now and then alternate the dry and wet ingredients as usual. (The reason we do this is to always keep the right consistency in the batter and not let it get too thin or too thick.)

Note that after each addition of the liquid, the batter will look curdled. This is expected.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to your bowl, then beat it in on medium-low speed:

Add half of the remaining liquid and beat it in:

Add half of the remaining flour and beat it in too:

Beat in the rest of the liquid:

Finally, add the rest of the dry ingredients and beat again:

Let your cake batter rest while you get your pans ready. (The batter needs to sit for ten minutes, so do this even if you got your pans ready beforehand.) Grease and flour three eight inch round cake pans:

Trace around a pan, and cut out three circles of parchment:

Line each pan with a circle of parchment:

Your batter will have thickened up a bit while it was resting:

Add the grated carrots and fold them in:

Add the unsweetened coconut flakes, walnuts, well-drained pineapple, and the raisins:

Fold them in as well:

Divide the batter equally between the three prepared cake pans. (Weighing them is the best way to be sure they are equal.) Spread the batter out evenly.

Put the pans in your oven, then immediately reduce the heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the cakes for 38 to 42 minutes, until they are golden brown, the edges are pulling away from the pan, and the tops bounce back when lightly pressed (press the center of the cake). You can also test to see if a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Place the pans on cooling racks, and let the cakes cool in the pan for ten minutes before turning them out:

Place a rack over a cake, hold on to both sides of the rack and the pan at the same time, and invert the cake still in the pan onto the rack. Remove the pan. I recommend using one rack per cake. I did get two on one rack, but it took two people to flip them without losing a cake onto the floor!

Gently peel off the parchment circles, then allow the cakes to cool completely before assembling and frosting your layer cake:

Note: You can also use this recipe to make cupcakes, and one batch will make 24 to 30 cupcakes depending on the size of your muffin tins. Line your pans with cupcake liners and fill them about 3/4 full with batter. Follow the same oven directions and preheat your oven to 375 degrees and then turn the heat down to 350 degrees as soon as you place the pans in the oven. Bake for about 28 minutes, until the tops are golden brown and they bounce back when lightly pressed. Let them cool in the pan for five minutes, then remove the cupcakes to a rack and let them cool completely before frosting them.

You can frost and decorate your layer cake any way you like! If you want to decorate yours like I did, follow the remaining instructions as well.

I made a batch and a half of my vanilla buttercream recipe while my cake was baking and I also finely chopped up more walnuts. I used at least another cup, but didn’t weigh them. I started with what is shown below and had to chop up more to fully cover the sides of the cake.

Line the edges of a cake plate or stand with four strips of waxed paper as shown:

Place one layer of cake in the center of your plate or stand, being sure that the waxed paper stays in place:

Frost the top of the first layer with a 1/2″ thick layer of buttercream. Add the second layer, and frost the top of it too, then add the third layer of cake:

Frost the sides and top of your cake, reserving some buttercream to tint for the carrots:

Press the finely chopped walnuts onto the sides of the cake:

I followed the directions on Handle The Heat for piping frosting carrots.

I piped on eight carrots, but the slices of cake were big enough for two people. You might want to pipe on 16 smaller carrots if you want a whole carrot on each slice.

Carefully remove the waxed paper strips and serve your cake:

Enjoy!