Traditional gluten-free carrot cake frosted with a whipped cream cheese buttercream. Brown sugar spice cake base filled with nutty pecans, shredded carrots, and you can even add raisins or coconut if you like. Moist and delicious!
I could not let the week before Easter pass by without sharing a recipe for gluten-free carrot cake. I had wanted to bake a carrot cake last year to share with you for Easter. I even bought all of the ingredients. But I was in my first trimester with Baby T and was just too exhausted and sick to even get off the couch and fix my family dinner, let alone make a gluten-free carrot cake.
I am a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, which is probably one of the big reasons that I like carrot cake. Load that baby up with all the cream cheese frosting! The cake is pretty good too, though. Moist, sweet, with the crunch of pecans and that chewy bite that comes from the carrots. If you are a fan of coconut or raisins go ahead and toss some in. The batter should be able to handle 1-1 ½ cups of add-in (which includes the ½ cup of pecans that I added.) so if you really want a nutty cake, add an entire cup of pecans! Want it all? Do ½ cup each of pecans, raisins, and coconut. Or do just pecans and raisins. Or leave out the pecans and other add-ins entirely and bask in the pure, unadulterated carrot-y goodness.
Layer cakes are really not that tricky to make. Check out my Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cake Recipe to see a photo-tutorial on how to stack and frost a layer cake. There are a few tricks that will make it a cinch.
You can also just bake the batter in a 9x13 pan and go the rectangle route. I think it would make an amazing poke cake! Just bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I'd start checking it about 30 minutes.
I would recommend baking the cake in 9inch round pans that are 3 inches tall. My pans were 2 inches tall and it didn't give the batter enough space to rise. The cake ended up being much taller than the pans, and very rounded on the top so I had to trim off quite a bit. If you only have 2 inch tall round pans like mine I'd suggest dividing the batter between 3 round pans and baking 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
📖 Recipe
Gluten-Free Carrot Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
Traditional gluten-free carrot cake frosted with a whipped cream cheese buttercream. Brown sugar spice cake base filled with nutty pecans, shredded carrots, and you can even add raisins or coconut if you like. Moist and delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar*
- 1 ½ cups oil
- 4 eggs
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 2 ½ cups my gluten-free flour blend **
- 2 ½ cups shredded carrots ***
- ¾ cup chopped pecans ****
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- 12 oz Cream Cheese, softened
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 2 lbs (32 oz) powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tablespoons milk or cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Lightly grease 2 9x3 inch round cake pans. (see post above if you only have 9x2 inch pans). Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer or a large bowl mix together the brown sugar, oil, eggs and milk until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, xanthan gum, and the gluten-free flour. Stir until combined.
- Add the shredded carrots and ½ cup of the pecans, chopped.
- Evenly divide the batter between the cake pans.
- Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool completely and then frost with cream cheese frosting and garnish with the remaining pecans.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Using a stand mixer or electric hand beaters beat the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy (5 minutes) add the milk or cream, powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth (additional 3 minutes.)
Notes
*2 cups firmly packed brown sugar is equal to about 16 oz by weight.
**16.5 oz my gluten-free rice flour/cake blend (approx 2 ½ cups)
***10 oz shredded carrots (approx 2 ½ cups)
****3 oz pecans (approx ¾ cup)
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 844Total Fat 68gSaturated Fat 20gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 44gCholesterol 150mgSodium 717mgCarbohydrates 54gFiber 2gSugar 39gProtein 8g
All nutrition info is a guestimate and will vary depending on the ingredients you use.
I used my rice flour/cookie/cake flour blend. For best results use my blend. If you want to use another blend feel free to experiment. Omit the xanthan gum if you use a different blend that already has it.
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Raia
Yuuuummmm.... But where's the pic with the sprinkles? 😉
flippindelicious
I need to add that Raia! How could I have forgotten? Because sprinkles are awesome. What a crime!
Audrey @ Unconventional Baker
I was thinking the exact same, Raia! 🙂
Beautiful cake! But it does need a touch of sprinkles if you ask me 😉
Julia @ Swirls and Spice
I love a good carrot cake, and this one does not look gluten free! What great results!
Elle @ Only Taste Matters
I love a good carrot cake! Thanks for posting!
Laura White
Hi there, this looks so lovely. I'd really like to make this as I love carrot cake.. I have recently started following you on Pinterest, but am often not sure about the conversions as I am based in England and used to grams and ozs. I think I can work out most of this recipe, but not sure about the oil quantity - do you know how many mls a US cup equals? Many thanks in advance, Laura
flippindelicious
Hi Laura,
Google tells me that there are 236.588 millimeters in a cup. Hope that helps!
Kim
Love carrot cake - one of my favorites. I am starting to try more GF baking recipes but am so confused as to all the different kinds of flours/flour blends. Would I be able to use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour in place of the flour in your recipe? It already contains xanthan gum, so I assume I would omit that?
flippindelicious
Hi Kim!
Try it and comment back telling everyone how it worked. All gf flour blends are different. I haven't used Bob's Red Mill's new blend yet, so I don't know how it would work. And you assumed right, if you are subbing a blend that already has xanthan gum in it omit whatever the recipe called for or you will have a gummy mess.
Lela
I cannot wait to try this carrot cake recipe! Your photos are making me so hungry and it's a little too late to whip up a cake. But maybe tomorrow. This weekend for sure. I'll let you know how much I love it when I try it. Thanks for sharing at Inspiration Thursday! Have a great week!
flippindelicious
Thanks Lela! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
NancyC
Carrot cake is one of my favorite desserts–this looks so yummy! 🙂
flippindelicious
Thanks Nancy!
Audrey
It is so hard to type with all of this drool on my keyboard! I love carrot cake. Especially with pecans.
Thanks for sharing on Tasty Tuesdays link up. Hope to see you back next week.
flippindelicious
Thanks Audrey! I love pecans in my carrot cake too.
Kristen Chidsey
This looks just too good to be gluten free!
flippindelicious
Thank you Kristen!
Megan @ MegUnprocessed
Carrot cake is one of my favs! This one looks amazing. Love the gf option!
flippindelicious
Thank you Megan!
Ashley - Baker by Nature
Oh how I would love a slice of this!!!
flippindelicious
Thank you Ashley!
Janet
This was so light ! I loved the suggestions about different add-ins with a total volume. I’ve added too many mix-ins to carrot cake and gotten a heavy cake. This was perfect. I used 1cup coconut and 1/2 cup dried cranberries. I also love orange so I used the zest of one orange. I could have used more orange. One thing I noted was that your layers baked high in the pans so I divided the batter among 3 -8 in cake pans and decreased the baking time. The result was a beautiful 3 layer carrot cake that was light and flavor able. It was delicious!
Janet Reifsteck
I used Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 and since some of my family is opposed to raisins, I substituted coconut which was in my Grandma's original recipe, along with the pecans. It was to die for. I made it several times last year during covid shut in. I'm bringing it to our Easter gathering this year! I know it will be a big hit. So happy to have a great homemade recipe that tastes like a the real thing!
flippindelicious
Hi Janet, I'm so glad you enjoy this recipe so much, and that it brought so much joy to your family this holiday, and during the shutdown. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know!!! -Brianna
Rebecca
I made this recipe last weekend for a friend's baby shower and it really was Flippin delicious! I made a 3 layer 9" cake. Everyone raved and had no idea it was gluten free. It came out moist with a beautiful crumb. I used Cup4cup flour, raisins, chopped pecans and 1/2 cup extra carrot. I cannot recommend this recipe enough!
flippindelicious
Hi Rebecca,
This is high praise! I love when no one can tell it is gluten-free and everyone can enjoy the same cake.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment and let me know how it turned out. It makes a huge difference and helps more people to find my recipes.
Thanks!
-Brianna
Kaitlyn
Looks delicious! Thinking about making this for my mom's birthday this year since she is a carrot cake queen! Has anyone tried adding pineapple? That's the only ingredient I can't find solid information on...
Happy baking, everyone! Thanks for sharing!
flippindelicious
Hi Kaitlyn,
You can definitely add pineapple! Just drain off as much liquid as you can. I've made it with pineapple before, and it is delicious! -Brianna