Vegan Carrot Cake Loaf
Easy vegan carrot cake loaf with the classic flavors of carrot cake, but with the one-bowl simplicity of banana bread! This moist quick bread uses brown sugar and lots of warm spices for the best flavor. It’s delicious by itself or topped with a soft dairy-free cream cheese frosting!
Why you’ll love this recipe
TEXTURE: This vegan carrot loaf is denser than carrot cake but is fluffier than banana bread or pumpkin bread.
EASY TO MAKE: Perfect when you’re craving the classic flavors of carrot cake, but without the hassle of decorating and layering it!
Simple ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Shredded carrots. You can use a box grater or food processor to shred your carrots (I used a food processor).
A combination of brown sugar for flavor and granulated sugar to make sure the loaf isn’t too dense. Alternatively, you can use all brown sugar for a heavier bread, or all granulated sugar for a cakier loaf.
Warm spices, including ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and ground ginger.
How to make carrot cake loaf
This is a quick and easy loaf to make! In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. If you’d like to add any nuts, coconut or raisins, add them with the wet ingredients.
Initially, your cake batter will look quite thick. However, once you stir all the ingredients, the batter will loosen up. The sugar and carrots need a minute to liquify and soften!
Baking the loaf
This vegan carrot cake loaf is straightforward to bake. However, all ovens are different so here are my top tips:
- If your oven has a strong top heating element, the top of your loaf may brown quickly. If it does, carefully tent your loaf pan with aluminum foil.
- Don’t underbake your carrot loaf. The loaf is ready when you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out with only a few moist crumbs, and the middle feels firm to the touch. If your carrot loaf is underbaked, it will sink and be dense and gooey.
Serving and decorating
For a quick vegan carrot bread, serve slices at room temperature or toasted with some non-dairy butter. I love serving it with a dollop of yogurt.
For a more indulgent dessert, you can top the cake with:
- Dairy-free cream cheese frosting
- Vanilla or lemon buttercream frosting (the lemon partially mimics the tanginess of cream cheese)
- Lemon glaze, from my lemon olive oil cake recipe.
- Chopped pecans or walnuts
- Mini buttercream carrots (as seen in my vegan carrot cake recipe)
- Caramelized apples (from my apple bread recipe).
Customizing this recipe
I have not tested it. However, my apple bread recipe is very similar to this one and works well with a combination of almond flour and gluten-free all-purpose flour.
For a denser loaf that’s more like carrot cake bread, you can reduce the granulated sugar to 1/4 cup (50g) but keep the amount of brown sugar. You can also use all coconut sugar or a granulated sugar replacer, for slightly different results.
Yes, however these flours are more absorbent than all-purpose flour so I recommend adding an extra dash of non-dairy milk to the batter.
Yes, you can bake the cake in a longer loaf tin (just check your loaf earlier than the 1 hour mark). It will also bake well in an 8-inch square pan or round pan, and you’ll need to bake it for around 1 hour.
Alternatively, check out my carrot cake muffins, layered carrot cake or carrot cake cupcakes.
More carrot cake recipes
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Vegan Carrot Cake Loaf
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose plain flour, spooned and leveled (note 1)
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar, or use more brown sugar
- ½ cup (95g) packed brown sugar, or use more granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
Wet ingredients
- 2 cups (200g) coarsely grated carrots, (around 1-2 large carrots)
- 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk
- ½ cup (120g) neutral flavored oil, or a light olive oil
- ¾ cup (90g) chopped walnuts, or pecans, optional (note 3 for other add-ins)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, regular vinegar or lemon juice, optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To decorate (see note 3 for frosting without cream cheese)
- 3 tablespoons (43g) vegan block butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (80g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (150g) powdered sugar / icing sugar, or as needed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (25g) chopped pecans, or chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (355°F). Line an 8-inch (20 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper.
Make the vegan carrot cake loaf:
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk until there are no lumps. Add all the wet ingredients (including the carrots and optional nuts) and mix until just combined. Initially, the batter will be thick, but it will loosen after a couple of minutes as the carrot and sugar will soften.
- Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan.
- Bake the cake for around 60-65 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the center of the loaf and it comes out clean. A few moist crumbs on your toothpick are fine but make sure there's no wet batter on it.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
Make the cream cheese frosting:
- Add the vegan butter to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat until it's light and fluffy. Add the vegan cream cheese and beat until there are no lumps.
- Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until just combined. If your frosting is too runny, add a little more powdered sugar or a few tablespoons of cornstarch. Chill the frosting until needed.
Serve the cake:
- When the loaf has completely cooled, spread the frosting on top. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts or pecans, or as desired.
- Slice and serve the loaf at room temperature.
- Store the unfrosted loaf in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. If you topped your loaf with cream cheese frosting, you can store it at room temperature for 1-2 hours or in the fridge for around 2 days. Allow the cake to come to room temperature before serving. If you used regular buttercream, store the cake at room temperature for 1-2 days.
Notes
- For the best results, measure the flour accurately otherwise, your cake may be dry and dense. If using measuring cups, use the spoon and level method where you fluff up the flour in its bag, use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. I don’t recommend using the measuring cup to scoop flour out of your container as it will collect too much flour which results in a dry cake. Alternatively, use the grams measurements.
- If you’d like to add raisins or coconut, I recommend reducing the nuts to 1/4 cup (30g) and adding 1/2 cup (75g) raisins (that have been soaked in water) or 1/2 cup (45g) coconut.
- If you don’t have cream cheese, I recommend making a simple lemon buttercream. Whip 1/3 cup (75g) vegan block butter until pale and creamy. Add 1 1/2 cups (150g) powdered sugar and 2 or 3 teaspoons lemon juice and whip until it’s light and fluffy. For more alternatives, see the blog post.
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Absolutely delicious 😋
Will definitely be making this again. Thanks Anthea! 🥕
Hi Isabelle, I’m thrilled you enjoyed this!! Thanks so much for your kind feedback, I appreciate it a lot 🙂
I used carrot pulp (instead of shredded carrots) and whole wheat flour. To account for the whole-wheat flour, I added an extra 1/4 cup of non-dairy milk. I have an old-fashioned oven, so I baked the loaf at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. The bread turned out tasty and moist. Meanwhile, I reduced the granulated sugar to 1/4 cup, per your suggestion, and the bread was not overly sweet. Thank you for an excellent recipe! Making carrot bread is my preferred way to use the carrot pulp left after juicing.
Hi Greg, great to hear that this worked well with carrot pulp, whole wheat flour and reduced sugar! Thanks so much for letting me know and for leaving your feedback 🙂
Can you use almond milk?
Hi Corinne! Yes, you can use almond milk 🙂
The cake is very good, but the amount of sugar in this recipe is crazy. It’s super sweet, I would cut the sugar in half at least.
Hi Nata, thank you for sharing your feedback, we understand everyone has different preferences for sweetness! You could definitely halve the granulated sugar to 1/4 cup (50 g), though the loaf will be a little denser. You could also skip the frosting or reduce the icing sugar to 50 g (another reader had success with this but we haven’t tested it). Thanks!
How to store in the freezer with the frosting and then how to serve
Hi Renu! For best results, we recommend freezing the cake and frosting separately in airtight containers. When you’re ready to enjoy it, defrost both overnight in the fridge or leave them at room temperature for about 1–2 hours. The frosting texture might change slightly after thawing, but once it reaches room temperature, you can give it a quick whip to bring it back to life (it’ll still taste absolutely delicious)! Hope this helps 😊
Hice la receta y salió muy buena!!! Reemplace harina común por harina de almendras y premezcla sin gluten .
Hi Gabriela! We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe and that it worked for you using a mix of almond and gluten-free flour instead!
Absolutely brilliant- vegan and non-vegan alike, we all love this carrot cake, better than our standard non-vegan carrot cake.
Thank you.
Hi Jonna, that makes me so happy to hear and what a lovely compliment!! Thanks so much for your feedback!
La mejor puntuación para tus recetas
Gracias a tus recetas empecé a trabajar para una pasteleria importante. Graciass de corazón. Tus recetas son mágicas
I’m so glad you find my recipes helpful! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Absolutely delightful! I didn’t make any icing, but the cake is delicious on its own, even though I had to use mixed spice instead of cinnamon (we’d run out!). I also didn’t have a loaf tin, so put most of the mix into an 8” dish, and even had enough to make a little side cake, probably about 4”. The big one took about 45 minutes and the little one about 25… The small one was gone in about 0.5 seconds of it coming out of the oven. :’) Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Danielle, I’m thrilled you loved this cake and that it worked well in different cake pans! Mixed spice would be lovely with this cake and I absolutely hear you on smaller cakes magically disappearing when they’re fresh from the oven (they’re always more delicious that way haha). Thanks so much for letting me know!
Excellent recipe! I used carrot pulp from juicing and it was so moist! The frosting was the perfect sweetness!
Hi Laura, oh that’s amazing! I’ll have to try it next time I juice carrots. Thanks so much for letting me know 🙂
dear anthea, thank you!
tried this with whole wheat flour and agave sirup, amazing!
Hey!! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it! Agave would’ve added a lovely flavour too. Thanks so much for leaving a comment over here!
I made this carrot cake for a boardgames day with friends and everyone loved it! Someone even told me that they’re not usually fond of carrot cakes but this one was great, and he even had 2 pieces.
It was very easy to do, I only used light brown sugar as I didn’t have granulated or brown, and I added golden raisins in the batter. Also it needed a bit more time in the oven (75 min) but I guess it depends on the oven and the flour. I used only 50g of powder sugar for the icing as I’m not into very sweet icing and it was perfect. I’ll definitely make it again !
Where I used to work ages ago, 20 years, we used to sell this kind of cake, it was a juice stand and someone once asked me for the remains, what comes out from the carrot juice, just perfecto for this cake, now im vegan and recentlly made autmil cookies so this was easy and nice to have in the morning with tea with soy drink, muffin style no topping. Thank you.
Hi Rotem, glad that you enjoyed this recipe as breakfast muffins! Thanks for your feedback 🙂
I’ve tried this recipe and it works 🥰..
The taste, the texture was soo nice and delicious. I’ve got compliments from my colleagues..
I will try this recipe again🥹🥰♥️
Hi Leidy, aw that’s wonderful to hear, and how thoughtful of you to bake for your colleagues!! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment here 🙂
Do you have a gluten free option?
Hi, this recipe is almost identical to my apple loaf recipe which has worked well with a 1:1 combination of almond flour and gluten-free all-purpose flour. However, I haven’t tested it for this recipe.
The best cake I ever baked! So moist and delicious, my family was stunned and it was all gone within a day! Thank you!
Aw, what an amazing compliment!! I’m so happy that you loved this cake and thank you soooo much for your lovely feedback!!
Love your recipes!! Thanku so much for lovely recipes. Can we make this loaf gluten-free as well? What would be the ratio of the gf flour and without eggs recipe please.
Hi Priya, thanks so much for your support! I haven’t tested this exact recipe with gluten-free flour. However, this recipe is almost exactly the same as my apple cake loaf recipe and I was able to make that one with 1 ½ cups (150g) almond flour and 1 cup (160g) gluten-free all-purpose flour and no other changes. I imagine it would work similarly for this carrot loaf. I hope that helps!