With this healthy carrot cake recipe, now you can keep up your clean eating lifestyle and still eat your cake, too! This is the perfect light dessert for Spring!
Alright, peeps. We've hit carrot cake gold up in here.
Clean. Healthy. Carrot. Cake. Gold.
Yep, and it's amaaaaazing.
Now, to be honest, I'm not a huge cake person.
Sure, I'll enjoy a cheesecake now and again, a birthday cake...maybe.
But I don't tend to eat much cake.
Instead, I prefer healthy pumpkin breads, chocolate chia pudding, these chocolate peanut butter cups, and little coconut bites for my sweets.
Out of all the cakes, though, carrot cake is my fave.
There's something about the earthy, naturally sweet flavors of the carrots mixed with the warm cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves that I find really delicious and almost comforting. It's like a combo of Winter flavors with Spring produce.
And, now that I think about it, it reminds me of being a kid again.
Alas, being a kid and eating cake is A LOT different than being an adult and eating cake.
Cue the collective [adult] sigh.
As a kid, you don't really care about calories or sugar or even gaining weight. You don't look at cake as something evil or harmful.
As a kid, cake is cake, ya know?
As an adult, however, there's a lot more baggage when we have cake. There's the guilt, pleasure, flavors, textures, weight loss goals, macros, and all the in-between.
Yep, I think "baggage" pretty much sums this up nicely.
That's why I love love LOVE this healthy carrot cake recipe.
Now, you can enjoy the cake as if you were a kid, maintain your healthy lifestyle, and not feel guilty that you're not making a good choice.
This carrot cake recipe includes no refined sugars, no refined flours, no processed ingredients. Just pure and whole goodness in carrot cake form.
This, my friends, is one good choice.
Recipe Substitutions
- Gluten-Free: You can easily switch the whole wheat flour with a gluten-free alternative, such as arrowroot flour, almond flour, gluten-free all-purpose flour or tapioca flour to make a gluten-free carrot cake.
- Dairy-Free: You can swap out the Greek yogurt for coconut yogurt in the cake and frosting recipes.
- Raisins: These can be left out if you don't care for them, but they do add a bit of sweetness and moistness to the cake.
Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe
Equipment
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Ingredients
For The Carrot Cake:
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup plain unsweetened almond milk
- 2 cups carrots about 3 medium, grated
- ½ cup raisins
For The Frosting:
- 1 ½ cups plain greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and coat a 9x13 baking pan with coconut oil.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, ground cloves, and set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract, pure maple syrup, greek yogurt, and almond milk.
- Add the wet to the dry and stir until just incorporated. If needed, you can add ¼ cup additional almond milk to loosen. The consistency should be thin enough to easily pour. See the photos or video in this post for more details.
- Fold in the carrots and raisins.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Depending on oven, this may take a little longer. ,
- Allow to cool completely to room temperature before frosting.
- To prepare the frosting, stir together the greek yogurt, pure maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Spread on top of the cooled cake.
- Let the frosting set for 1-2 hours before slicing and serving.
Karen
Is there a substitute for whole wheat pastry flour?
Katrina
The BEST! Perfect blend of flavors and so satisfying!!
JS
This surprised me with the depth of flavour and colour - a deep golden brown tasting of a spicy autumn season (or maybe i added a tad more of ginger…). My colleagues gobbled this down with gladness and it was so easy to whip it up. Grating the carrots took me longest. I added walnuts to my cake and loved the crunch. 5 stars.
Thi To
Am I the only one found that it need 45 minutes in the oven rather 25 minutes? After 25 minutes it was wet and raw at the middle. Did I missed something? It smelled amazing though and the taste is there 💯
Lacey Baier
Were you using a 9x13 pan? I've retested this again, and it still just requires 25-30 minutes to be perfect.
Maira
Hi, Lacey! How many grams is 1 slice? so that I can measure it in my kitchen scale
Vic
I stumbled across your blog while looking for healthy carrot cakes - I had a few carrots in the fridge that were about to go bad. I really enjoyed reading about the different ingredients you tried during your tests, and learning about your journey to getting to this recipe. The way you then wrote the instructions for the recipe, with every step in simple language and in order, made it easy for me to follow, and not mess it up. The only thing I missed was the almond milk, which I replaced with coconut milk. My first carrot cake was a glorious success - I couldnt believe it myself! Moist, flavoursome and very aromatic. I'll be checking the rest of your recipes for sure. Keep it up!
Lacey Baier
Vic, you made my day with your comment. Thanks so much for the kind words. I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe!!
Claudia GR
Hello,
Will the frosting hold if I spread it between layers of cake? Or does this frosting start to melt at room temperature?
Lacey Baier
It's not quite thick enough to hold up, but I'm sure it would be tasty!
Sharon
My family loves this carrot cake. I haven't tried the yogurt frosting yet but I plan to do that when I make it the third time. The first time I made this, I didn't have the maple sryup. I substituted treacle. It came out great. I just made this again yesterday and put in a bundt pan. Sprayed the pan, and it came out without sticking. The cake was delicious both times, and I can't wait to make it again. Thanks for such a fantastic recipe.
Lacey Baier
Hooray! Thanks for letting me know how it went 🙂
Colleen
Best carrot cake ever! Better than the full fat and gluten version. Husband (who is a carrot cake lover) was highly impressed with this recipe. Do not omit/substitute anything This recipe is perfect as is. 🙂
Lacey Baier
Thank you so much!
Eesha
Unreal! Tastes just like a normal carrot cake and I can enjoy it without feeling like I’m eating something very unhealthy! Thanks for this amazing recipe! Even the frosting was great!
Lacey Baier
Woohoo!