This gluten-free Carrot Cake is a family favorite. It’s a healthy dessert for cookouts, picnics, and graduation parties. Made with almond flour, this cake is high in protein and good fat, so you won’t be left with a high-carb hangover after eating it.
I went on a gluten-free diet in 1998, when I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I went on a grain-free diet in 2001, and haven’t looked back. My digestion really improved when I gave up typical gluten-free flours like rice flour, that are high in carbohydrates. I’m so glad that I made the switch to paleo baking way back when!
If you are on a nut-free diet, try my incredible Nut-Free Carrot Cake.
Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- 1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 5 large eggs
- ½ cup agave nectar or honey
- ¼ cup grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 3 cups carrots, grated
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup walnuts
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg
- In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, agave, and oil
- Stir carrots, raisins, and walnuts into wet ingredients
- Stir wet ingredients into dry
- Transfer batter into 2 well greased 9 inch springform pan
- Bake at 325°F for 35 minutes
- Cool cake for 3 hours, then remove from pan
- Serve
In other news, my spring has been filled with baseball. As I mentioned, I am coaching my son’s little league team and it is quite a hoot. We won again yesterday, though more importantly, the boys are playing as a team and have great spirit. It is somewhat amazing to see how focused 9 year olds can be and how supportive they are of each other. This coaching deal has been a real treat for me.
We like to smother this Carrot Cake with any of the healthy frosting recipes below for an incredible show stopping dessert:
Karen Couch says
My husband who’s not gluten free loves this cake! I am making this cake for a friend’s daughter’s bridal shower this Sunday. Her daughters are gluten and dairy free and my friend was besides herself as to what to make. So I offered to make this cake and your Lemon Basil Cookies as well! Thank you Elana for your wonderful and simple recipes!
Elana says
Karen, you’re very welcome! I hope you have a fantastic time at the bridal shower and I think this cake will be perfect for it! I’m so happy that you are finding my recipes to be wonderful and simple :-)
Judy says
I LOVE this recipe! Every time I make it people rave about it and these are people without gluten restrictions. The density of the cake and the almond flour just pairs really well with the carrots, walnuts, etc. The last time I made it was for our company holiday party, I paired it with your recipe for the coconut cream frosting. The entire cake disappeared! Tomorrow is supposedly national carrot cake day… I’m gathering ingredients! Thank you so much for your recipes Elana. I refer to your website often, especially for treats and they are just the best!
Elana says
Judy, I’m so thrilled to hear that you LOVE this recipe and that it gets rave reviews from people without gluten restrictions!
Deb says
Made this for New Year’s Dinner! Loved it. I used 6 eggs the batter seemed a little dry. Turned out relish.Also used dates and tart cherries instead of raisins! Thanks so much!!
Elana says
Deb, great to hear you loved this!
Sharan Chapin says
I have been craving carrot cake. We can’t eat almond flour, so how much coconut flour would you use in its place?
Elana says
Sharan, here’s a link to my Nut-Free Carrot Cake for you:
https://elanaspantry.com/nut-free-paleo-carrot-cake/
Enjoy!
Elana
Karin says
I made this with your cream cheese frosting and it was heavenly! thank you. I added Xantham Gum as the lady at the health shop told me it helps flour free cakes. Turned out very well although i think i undercooked it as i didnt split the pans so i should have baked it a little longer, still yummy.
Elana says
Karin, thanks for your comment and it’s good to hear about your experiment with the ingredients, although there is no need to add any gums to my recipes :-)
Amy Strubhart says
I made this last night and baked it as a bunt cake and it came out delicious. I baked it for 35 minutes because of it being a little thicker baked in a bunt pan. Does anyone know the nutritional facts for a slice of this?
Elana says
Amy, for more info on that please see this post:
https://elanaspantry.com/nutrition-information/
Have a great day!
Elana
Melissia says
Just made these as muffins (15 of them) baked for 27 mins. I used 2 full cups finely shredded carrots, ½ cup golden raisins and ½ cup diced dry pineapple. The recipe in your cookbook called for 2t sea salt ( which I thought was a lot) but here it was 1t ( which I did). When there is a discrepancy which resource trumps the other? Was out of walnuts so omitted. They are delicious! Debating on making a frosting or not.
Elana says
Melissia, the book recipes trump the blog recipes. So glad you liked this :-)
Manuela Pearson says
…hello
can I use coconut flour in place of almond flour, and if so, how much coconut flour?
thank you
Elana says
Manuela, for more information on that type of substitution go here:
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-baking-almond-flour-vs-coconut-flour/
Enjoy!
Elana
KG says
This was so delicious! Always looking for more recipes almond flour so I can use my huge bag of honeyville almond flour. Thank you! Also LOVE your chocolate chip cookie recipe that’s on the back of the honeyville almond flour bag. I made this carrot cake as more of a breakfast cake/bread (no icing). I like it because it’s not too sweet and you can really taste the nutmeg and cinnamon. Next time I’ll try it as muffins! I shredded the carrots using my food processor with the shredding attachment.
Elana says
KG, thanks! So glad you like it :-)
KG says
Made this recipe as muffins and they turned out great! I used an ice cream scooper to scoop the batter for each muffin and the above recipe made 19 muffins. Baked them at 325 for 25 minutes and they came out perfectly.
Also trader Joe’s sells organic raisins that work well.
Amanda Kleckner says
Do you know if it would be okay to not add and raisins?
Elana says
Hi Amanda, I haven’t tried that so not sure. If you do experiment please let us know how it goes.