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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Hello Anthea,
I hope you are doing well. I wanted to reach out and firstly say, thank you so very much for your recipes; they are exceptionally superb! You are one of my top 3 favorite bakers when I am looking to bake for my family. We truly love your work! 😊👌💖
If it isn’t a bother to you, I would greatly value your perspective on this, should you wish to share. I plan to make mini loaves of bread and I wanted to use a recipe of yours, preferably a carrot cake flavor. I have made your carrot cake recipe before, which turned out marvelously delicious! I would like to ask, based on your expertise, would this recipe “Vegan Carrot Cake Loaf” be suitable for a mini loaf pan?
I look forward to your reply!
Kind Greetings,
Mg
Hi Mg! Aww you’ve made my day, thank you so much for your ongoing support. I appreciate it a lot and it’s people like you who motivate me to keep going! From experience, this recipe should work well in mini loaf pans. I’m not 100% sure of the bake time as I haven’t tested it but I would try baking them for around 40 minutes. I hope that helps and please let me know how you go!
Hi Anthea I would love to make this recipe and I bet it will be perfect like all the rest I made from your site. I just have one question. Is it possible to remove the nuts in it because my child has a severe allergic to all the nuts.
Hi Matea, I’m so glad you’ve made a few of my recipes and enjoyed them! Yes, you can definitely make this loaf without nuts. I’ve done this a few times and it just takes a few less minutes to bake. I hope that helps!