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Every season has certain foods associated with it (at least in my mind), and spring is definitely the time for carrot cake. Apparently, in medieval Europe, carrots were used to sweeten cakes when sugar was difficult to come by. Funny how our palates changed to place carrots firmly on the side of savory. Anyway, because I’m a weirdo, carrot cake is actually one of my favorite desserts, and so I wanted to create a low carb vegan carrot cake recipe to enjoy during the spring (and year-round!).
Traditionally, carrot cakes involve walnuts in some capacity, but since it’s pretty hard to find low carb or keto recipes that don’t involve nuts, I thought omitting them would be for the best. You can always add them in later! These low carb vegan carrot cupcakes are also gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free, so they should be suitable for most people with allergies! As a side note, they also happen to be paleo, and while that’s not my main goal, it is kind of neat.
As a side note, this is another recipe that got a makeover with updated pics, and this jaunt down memory lane makes me so happy! I’d love to hear if you make these, either in the comments below or on Instagram. 🙂
Notes on Baking Low Carb Vegan Carrot Cake:
- The granulated sweetener I always like to use is from Lakanto. If you want to try this one out, too, you can save 15% on their website using the code MeatFreeKeto (but no pressure!).
- The flax eggs really do need to sit for at least 10 minutes to gel up. I know it’s a pain, but that’s just the way it is, sadly.
- If you can’t have flax, chia seeds or psyllium husk will work in its place.
- These need to chill when they come out of the oven, for at least a half hour before you can even think about pulling them out of the pan. Baked goods made with sugar alcohols tend to need to cool a bit before they will set up. You don’t want crumbly carrot cake!
- You could easily add in a 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup of shredded coconut and/or 1/4 cup of dried raisins (if you aren’t as concerned about fruit sugar) to jazz this up.
- I love cinnamon. So much. If you’re not as big on cinnamon, feel free to halve the listed amount, or simply to exclude it altogether.
- For another flavor profile, try adding in the zest of one lemon and topping these with a lemon glaze (made with erythritol and lemon juice).
- I topped these with powdered erythritol and cinnamon. You could also top them with coconut cream, dried coconut or a crumble (like the one in this recipe for vegan keto coffee cake muffins).
- I also made this into a little cake by baking 2 batches for 40 minutes in standard loaf pans, letting them cool, and then chilling and frosting them with an avocado & coconut cream frosting.
- While I strive to provide accurate nutrition information, there are variations across brands and types of ingredients. So, if you’re using other brands than those mentioned, your macros may be different. All nutrition info is calculated from the USDA values for each ingredient, unless a brand is specifically mentioned (or no generic listing is available), and are for information purposes only!
Mini Low Carb Carrot Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup shredded carrots (112g)
- 2 flax eggs 6 tbsp non-dairy milk or water + 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 2-3 tbsp granulated sweetener
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup coconut flour (28g)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). If using a muffin tin, grease 8 wells of the tray or use 8 cupcake liners. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan.
- Make the flax eggs by whisking the 2 tbsp of ground flax with the 6 tbsp of unsweetened nondairy milk, and letting that sit for about 10 minutes, until it thickens a bit.
- Add carrots, flax eggs, coconut oil, granulated sweetener, and vanilla to your blender or food processor. Blend together until combined, though this doesn't have to be perfectly smooth. Small carrot chunks is totally okay.
- In a separate bowl, mix together coconut flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
- Pour the carrot mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until completely combined. It will be a really stiff batter that is basically a wet dough.
- Scoop mixture into the muffin tin.
- Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. and the entire top is cooked.
- Remove from the oven, and let cool for at least 15 minutes before inverting on a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
I decided to leave the old picture here for some nostalgia. Also, I really like that napkin from last time…
Do you think this would work as one larger cake? If so, what size pan would you recommend? Thank!
Hi Karyn! Good question – I think you could definitely make this into one larger cake. Either a 9″ round pan, or a standard loaf pan would work. If you wanted to make a full sized bundt cake, I think you would have to double the recipe and bake for at least 40-45 minutes (though, I’m not 100% on the timing!).
For other pan conversions, here’s a handy chart: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/264375440603989158/
Thanks so much for your comment! I’d love to hear how your cake turns out! 🙂
Liz
I made this as a cake in an 8″ round pan, adding some dates for sweetness. I think I didn’t bake it quite long enough as it came out a little overly moist but was still really delicious! Glazed it with coconut milk + cinnamon+ lemon juice+stevia and sprinkled dried coconut flakes on top. It made 12 decent size pieces of 8 huge ones.
This does sound delicious! It’s making me want to bake a cake this morning! 😀
Thanks so much for the comment! Just out of curiosity, how long did you bake the 8″ cake for? I usually only make this in a smaller pan and would love an approximate baking time!
I baked it 45 minutes and then turned the oven off and let it cool down in there BUT probably should have kept the oven on another 10 minutes or so (although too moist is better than too dry!). Saying that, my oven is an ancient gas one that leaks heat like crazy so I don’t think I can really give anyone else useful advice…
I made this as muffins, using flax eggs. The flavor is awesome, but they didn’t rise at all and are super moist inside. Any tips? Is this because I am not using eggs? I know vegan baking with coconut flour can be quite tricky but i would love a good vegan keto recipe…
Thank you!
Hi Maria! These actually don’t really rise, and are supposed to be pretty dense. They’ll get a little kick from the baking powder, which should fluff them up a bit, but not too much. I’m going to try to workshop this to see what could have gone wrong – my guess is that they just needed a little more time. Flax seeds tend to hold on to more water than eggs. I’ll whip up a batch and report back!! 🙂
I put in a good teaspoon of ground ginger. They are in the oven as I speak. The texture of the cake mix before it is cooked is so tasty.
😀 Yay for more ginger!! I hope they turned out as tasty as the batter!!
Do you think this would work using Avocado oil instead of Coconut oil? Trying to keep LDL cholesterol low (bf has hereditary high cholesterol).
Oh, yes! This is an awesome substitution. They might be a tiny bit trickier to remove from the pan, so you maaay have to add a teeeensy bit of oil to the sides to keep it from sticking (unless it’s a silicon pan), but otherwise it will taste awesome and have a great texture!
Any updates on these?
Is there a way to make them more fluffy?
Hi Sophia! These have been updated and should be fluffier!
Oh my goodness, these are ridiculously delicious. They also mostly fell apart. I’m going to to try making them again in cake pan and cook them for an hour or so. I confess I’m tempted to add some gluten. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Oh no! With anything sweetened with swerve, I find it has to cool completely and the pan has to be well greased, otherwise it’s crumble city. Sometimes I get too impatient, and end up with a whole lot of crumbs. 🙁
I’m glad it tasted good, though!
I’d be interested to see how it turns out in a cake pan! And if you can tolerate gluten, go for it! Haha, I wish I could!
Hi, Liz.
Nice recipe. Do you think I could use baking soda instead of the powder? I can’t use baking powder with aluminum and couldn’t find it around, just the baking soda. Thanks
Hi Barbara! Thank you for the nice comment! You could use baking soda instead, but in order for the cakes to rise, you should also add in vinegar or lemon juice to make sure the reaction takes place. Typically, to replace 1 tsp of baking powder, you would use 1/4 tsp of baking soda + 1/2 tsp lemon juice (or vinegar). 🙂 I hope this helps!
Hi! Would these work with powdered stevia as sweetner? It’s the only thing I have around. The recipe sounds amazing though, I’m excited to try it!
Hi Sara! You can definitely use powdered stevia, though in much different amounts. They won’t hold together quite as well, but should still be tasty. This site has a good chart for converting sugar/granulated sweetener amounts to stevia: https://sweetleaf.com/stevia-conversion-chart/
Hi! Your recipe sounds great! I can’t wait to try it.
I also loved the shape of your little cakes. The only thing I would mention is that it might not be the best choice to use an aluminum cake pan. During cooking, a certain amount of Aluminum is leached into food and aluminum has been showing up in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s and shows some connections with breast cancer as well. They do sell these little molds in silicon versions as well, so that might be a better option.
Thanks for sharing your great recipe!
These are so delicious! I’m doubling the recipe next time. Yes, I’m greedy.
Yay, so glad you liked this, Jani!! 😀
I doubled the recipe, so now I get more of them. Woot!