Vegan Carrot Cake with Coconut Yogurt Icing

This Vegan Carrot Cake is packed with all sorts of goodness, texture and flavors. You get bits of carrot, and everything else held together by a moist cake. It isn’t overly sweet like some dessert carrot cakes, and is finished off with a lush Vegan Coconut Yogurt Icing. 

This recipe for Vegan Carrot Cake packs in 4 carrots, whole wheat flour, oats, pecans and apple sauce

I love the crumb texture of this Vegan Carrot Cake. It isn’t a light fluffy cake with a monotonous texture (ahem, like a boxed cake mix).

Instead, you get bits of carrot, and everything else held together by a moist cake. Yum!

Also, you won’t get an overly sweet like some carrot cakes that you would have for dessert. Rather, it’s a delicious cake that can be served for breakfast without too much guilt.

How this vegan carrot cake is healthier than other recipes

I’m going to just say it before you see the full recipe. I know the ingredient list in this cake is long.

Part of the reason is because by making it healthier than a traditional cake, some extra ingredients are required to replace part of the normal ingredients.

But it’s worth it! And likely, you may already have all the ingredients you need for this vegan carrot cake in your pantry and refrigerator.

This recipe uses whole wheat flour as well as apple sauce

To make this vegan carrot cake healthier, I’ve really tailored the ingredients. For example:

• Instead of just all-purpose white flour, this cake uses both white and whole wheat flours.
• Rather than using all oil, I decreased the amount of oil and added in apple sauce.

You’ll also find lots of healthy ingredients in this carrot cake

The other reason for the long list of ingredients is because this cake has a lot of delicious textures. You have:

• the simple white flour,
• the earthy whole wheat flour,
• the dense bits of oats,
• the buttery pecans, and
• the moist bits of carrots.

How to quickly make this vegan carrot cake

Once you pull out all the ingredients you need for this cake, it’s time to get baking! Here’s the easy part.

To get the best texture for this cake, pulse everything together in a food processor until you get all sorts of bits that are the size of coarse coffee grounds.

Although everything is held together in a moist cake, you will be able to identify the different specks of texture .

This Vegan Carrot Cake isn’t overly sweet, but it’s rich in flavor

One of the things I love most about this cake is that it’s not too sweet. You get lots of flavor in other ways. I use 3 spices in this cake: cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, to pack in taste.

The ingredients in this Vegan Carrot Cake is like a big group of friends who work together to pull off a big surprise party — for your taste buds.

The Vegan Coconut Yogurt Icing is a must have for this cake

Lastly, a bright Vegan Coconut Yogurt Icing tops off this carrot cake. The tartness of the lemon very faintly peeks through, and adds an important bit of lift to this Vegan Carrot Cake.

Coconut yogurt makes a lush vegan icing for cakes

The coconut yogurt makes this icing creamer than others, and gives it more structure, so it sits beautifully on the carrot cake. It will form a nice thin shiny crust, but underneath the crust you’ll find a lush icing.

Since coconut yogurts vary in consistency, you want to slowly add in the lemon juice so that your final vegan coconut yogurt icing is not too runny.

Please keep in mind that you may not need all the lemon juice that the recipe indicates.

Tips for baking this vegan carrot cake

What I’ve found with vegan baking is that sometimes judging whether or not a vegan cake is done is difficult.

If you can take a cake out of the oven at the right time, perfect. Way to go!

But if you are not sure if the cake is done, like I often am, err on the side of the cake being overdone. This is true especially of this cake.

If this cake is underdone, it will be moist, but also a little gooey, which does not complement the coarse texture of the crumb.

If the cake is ever so slightly overdone, you may end up with a crispy exterior, but instead of a gritty sludge of an underdone cake, the inside might just be a tad more crumbly (not a bad thing at all!).

Making your own vegan buttermilk for this cake

I often get questions about adding vinegar to vegan cakes. I do it because essentially I’m making a “vegan buttermilk substitute.”

Since this is a vegan carrot cake recipe, whereas you might normally use buttermilk for a bit of creaminess and acidity, this recipe uses oat milk plus a bit of apple cider vinegar.

If the thought of just adding vinegar to a recipe is a bit strange to you, you can make a “vegan buttermilk substitute” by adding the apple cider vinegar to oat milk first, and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

However, to save hassle, I just add both ingredients into the cake batter at once and blitz together.

I really hope this healthy Vegan Carrot Cake recipe becomes a favorite weekend treat for your family. Any questions on how to make this recipe, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

A few other vegan recipes on The Worktop that you might enjoy:

• Vegan Cinnamon Muffins
• Vegan Blueberry Muffins
• Vegan Oatmeal Pancakes
• Eggless Banana Bread (adaptable for vegan)
• Egg Free Banana Muffins (adaptable for vegan)