This Vegan Carrot Cake Loaf takes a classic carrot cake batter and turns it into a delicious loaf cake that's perfect for slicing and serving with a cup of tea or coffee. Get the recipe below.
Vegetable cakes
Vegetables and cakes aren't necessarily two words you hear together. One being sweet, the other being savoury, you'll normally find them on two separate plates.
But, that doesn't have to be the case. Vegetables can bring a slightly earthier flavour to a cake and they're great at adding moisture for a moist sponge. There are lots of vegetables that can be used in cakes - beetroot, courgette and parsnip all work really well.
But, carrot cake is the king of all vegetable cakes.
Carrot cake
Carrot cake is exactly what it says it is - a cake made from carrots. The bright orange vegetable adds a natural sweetness which makes for a more complex flavour profile.
As if adding carrots to a cake wasn't enough, carrot cake is also commonly topped with cream cheese frosting. That's right, more savoury ingredients!!!
More carrot cake recipes
Make it vegan
Making a carrot cake suitable for vegans is easier than you think.
Loaf cakes don't require a lot of lift so we let the raising agent in the self raising flour do all of the hard work that eggs would ordinarily do. We also use plant milk for the moisture the eggs would normally bring.
Instead of butter we use oil. It's that simple!
For more information about making vegan substitutes when baking, check out my big vegan baking guide.
Add-ins
It is not enough to just stir grated carrot into a cake batter. To take your carrot cake to the next level add mashed pineapple and chopped pecans.
You could also add fruit like raisins and sultanas, or use a different type of nut. The choice is yours.
Vegan ceam cheese frosting
Cream cheese frosting is the perfect topping for carrot cake. It's not as sweet as regular frosting and so it doesn't overpower the subtle flavour of carrots found in the cake.
There are lots of different ways of making cream cheese frosting.
I find that vegan cream cheese is softer and more watery than regular cream cheese so I use more butter than cream cheese.
But, if you wanted a more cheesey topping you could switch the quantities round. Just be aware that this will make the frosting much softer.
The recipe
Vegan Carrot Cake Loaf
Equipment
- 1 Loaf tin
Ingredients
- 250 g self raising flour
- 125 g light brown sugar
- 125 g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 0.5 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 0.5 orange zest only
- 150 g pineapple chunks drained weight, mashed
- 150 ml vegetable oil
- 125 ml plant milk
- 0.5 vanilla paste
- 2 carrots grated
- 75 g pecans roughly chopped
For the cream cheese frosting
- 200 g icing sugar
- 100 g vegan butter
- 75 g vegan cream cheese
- 0.5 orange zest only
Instructions
- For the cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and prepare a loaf tin by lining it with grease proof paper.
- Sift the flour, sugar, spices and orange zest into a large bowl and whisk to ensure they are well combined.
- Roughly mash the pineapple before adding to the bowl along with the vegetable oil, plant milk and vanilla paste.
- Mix the ingredients so they are just coming together before folding in the grated carrots and the chopped nuts.
- Spoon the cake mixture into the line tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes (until the cake is springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean).
- Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin
- Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating.
- For the frosting
- Add the icing sugar, butter, cream cheese and vanilla paste to a large mixing bowl.
- Gently beat the ingredients together by hand until you have a thick, smooth consistency. (If using electric beaters be very careful not to over mix as this will destabilise the frosting).
- Sprinkle over the orange zest and serve.
Nutrition
More vegan cakes
The cake collection
For the full range of vegan cakes on the blog, check out the cake recipe collection.
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