Description
Gluten free and refined sugar free carrot cake with the easiest cream cheese frosting!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/3 cup butter, melted (or sub coconut oil) ⠀
- 2 large eggs ⠀
- 1/3 cup maple syrup ⠀
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar ⠀
- 1/4 cup plain or vanilla greek yogurt (can sub dairy free yogurt or sour cream)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 + 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots
- 1 + 1/3 cup fine almond flour
- 1/3 cup + 3 tbsp oat flour ⠀
- 1/3 cup gluten free old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 + 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg ⠀
- 3/4 tsp sea salt ⠀
- 1 tsp baking soda ⠀
- Optional add ins: raisins, pecans
For the frosting:
- 1/2 cup plain greek style yogurt
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp coconut sugar
- Small splash of vanilla extract
- Cinnamon and coconut sugar for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line an 8x8in square baking dish (or a standard 9in cake pan) with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk the butter, eggs, maple syrup, coconut sugar, yogurt, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the shredded carrots.
- Mix in the remaining dry ingredients, and stir until a smooth batter forms. If adding, fold in your pecans and/or raisins here.
- Pour the batter into your parchment-lined baking dish and use a spatula to spread it evenly.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (using a round cake pan will need more bake time). Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully lift by the parchment paper to transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing. Don’t skip this cooling process, or your cake will not hold together well or be cooked all the way in the center!
- While cake is cooling, whisk the frosting ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. If frosting is a bit too thin, add more yogurt as needed. Once cake is cooled, spread frosting on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and coconut sugar (optional). Slice into 12 squares. Once frosted, store leftovers in the refrigerator (or leave unfrosted on the counter).
Notes
* I have not tested this with any flour substitutes! I cannot guarantee what results you will get if you do!
Absolute best carrot cake I’ve ever had in my life! This is for real lifechanging. We made it for Easter and we couldn’t believe how delicious it was, especially for everyone in my family who loves traditional cream cheese frosting! Carrot cake is my dad’s favorite dessert of all time and he loved it so much. My mom and I love all your recipes but think this one wins. Will be making this again and again!
★★★★★
Yay! This makes my day- thank you so much Jess! I honestly can’t stop eating this one 🙂 So glad you guys loved it too!
Best recipe I’ve ever made
★★★★★
So good and easy to make!! Mine took a little longer then 25 minutes. So delicious and perfect for Easter!!! It’s a guilt free dessert that still taste amazing. Would make it again.
★★★★★
Loved making this! It was so simple and turned out great! I’m a sucker for frosting so I doubled the amount to make a thicker layer.
★★★★★
I love that you doubled the frosting!! It’s my fave part 🙂 Thanks so much Emma! xo
So good & so easy to make! I was skeptical of the frosting at first but the flavor was amazing and my family had no idea it was yogurt based. Can’t wait to make it for ever Easter 🙂
★★★★★
I loved this! Carrot cake is my boyfriends favorite dessert and he really enjoyed it! I made a vegan version using flax seeds for the “egg” and used vegan butter and vegan greek style yogurt. It turned out so nicely!
★★★★★
This was amazing! I love all of your recipes and this once, to no surprise, was just as good as the others! My family could not get enough of this yesterday for our Easter dessert ???? thanks, again!
★★★★★
I made this for Easter and it was absolutely amazing! Even my boyfriend who usually refuses to eat gluten free foods loved it!!
★★★★★
Seriously stop what you’re doing right now & make this carrot cake! It is unreal! I promise you won’t regret baking & eating this cake
★★★★★
Delicious, super moist, and not too sweet!
★★★★★
So so yummy!! I ran out of yogurt so I ended up going with a traditional cream cheese frosting, but the cake base was to die for. My brothers who refuse to eat anything gluten free or remotely healthy loved this, as did the rest of my family. Will be making again and again – next time with the yogurt-based frosting! Thanks!
★★★★★
I made these for Easter and my entire family was obsessed! I made them dairy free and used cashew milk yogurt and they turned out amazing!
★★★★★
Made this for my whole family on Easter and they loved it!! Need to make this again ASAP
★★★★★
Best carrot cake I’ve ever made and so easy to make also!!! Was definitely a big hit at my home.
★★★★★
So delicious! My sister in law and I made it together last night (me in Chicago, she in Salt Lake City) and both batches turned out amazing!! Will make again. Also toddler approved.
★★★★★
So yum and so easy to make loved it! It’s my best dessert out of the fridge and with some morning coffee in bed ♥️
★★★★★
Best carrot cake we’ve ever had!
★★★★★
So good! I made the cake with df cashew yogurt but kept the Greek yogurt in the frosting. Turned out great – love this recipe!!
★★★★★
This recipe is amazing! Perfect carrot cake flavor. I was looking for a slightly healthier carrot cake for Easter since we’d already had a lot of sweets, and this was perfect. I had oat flour but ran out of rolled oats so I subbed in shredded coconut for the 1/3 c rolled oats, and it turned out great – though a little fudgier in the middle than the original recipe because the oats weren’t there to soak up liquid. Thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
super Easy recipe to follow and make. I added crushed pecans to ours and it was delicious! Very moist. Everyone loved it so it went pretty quickly!
★★★★★
This is the best guilt free carrot cake that I’ve made! So yummy!!! Easy and quick recipe with staples that you’d have at home. Next time I might just double the frosting 🙂
★★★★★
I love everything about this recipe! first off it tastes amazing like… how is this healthy!! it’s also super easy and quick to make, will be making this many many more times!!
★★★★★
I made this for Easter and it was delicious! Will definitely be making again.
★★★★★
Perfect dessert or breakfast in my case!! Loved it! Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Loved this recipe!! Made this for an Easter treat and it was honestly better than I was expecting. My boyfriend didn’t believe me when I told him it was a healthy version.. that’s when you know it’s good. If you can somehow not eat the entire cake in day 1 you’ll be rewarded because it’s even better the next day after sitting in the fridge *drools on keyboard* Thanks Mia!
★★★★★
Hi there – I was excited to try making this over the weekend, but couldn’t find oat flour at the store 🙁 Are there any substitutions you recommend?
Hi! I’ve been making my own by grinding up rolled oats in the blender 🙂 If you can get your hands on oats I definitely recommend that!
Loved these!!
I subbed the oat flour for cassava (all I had), and they still turned out great. A little fragile when cutting, and baked for about 24 min.
★★★★★
So delicious! Perfect spring dessert!
★★★★★
This recipe is so delicious – I’ve made it multiple times! Even my family (usually very skeptical of “healthier” recipes) devours this.
★★★★★
The best carrot cake that you wouldn’t even know is gluten free or made with yogurt frosting! Made this for Easter and my whole family raved about it, so so good and love that it doesn’t leave you with that “I just ate cake” feeling afterward!
★★★★★
Sooo good! Another fav for the family. The icing dud better after being in the refrigerator a bit.
★★★★★
Such a good recipe. I never considered myself a big carrot cake person before but this recipe has changed my mind. The cake is moist, flavorful and the texture is so good! Not sure anyone would think twice that this is a gluten free cake. I also love the frosting so much I always make a double batch for each cake so my frosting layer is super thick. Can’t recommend enough.
★★★★★
Amazing recipe!!! Loved every bite.
★★★★★
Have made this several times now – it has been requested many times after the first! So good! I make it vegan with coconut oil, flax egg, and coconut yogurt with great results 👌🏼
★★★★★
This was ABSOLUTELY MY FAVORITE CARROT CAKE EVER! Healthy or not! The only changes I made was going half n half on butter and coconut oil and using agave nectar in place of maple syrup. I added raisins, pecans, and a couple tablespoons of unsweetened coconut flakes and this tasted just as good as any carrot cake I’ve ever had. I’m definitely saving this recipe to make for later! 🤩 Good grief thank you so much!
★★★★★