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:
Jeff Kamprath says
I made the carrot cake and the coconut cream frosting. The cake was great, really great. The frosting didn’t work right. Couple of things. The canned cocounut milk was separated into liquid and solid when I opened it, but I reconstituted it by mixing it with a whisk before using it. Everything else went right until the freezer step. At an hour and a half, the frosting was only turning white on the sides and of course, it was freezing, so I took it out and mixed it all up. It never got fluffy. It looked more like tapioca pudding. We ate it anyway. My goodness that Agave nectar is sweet. So, I would like to try this frosting again. What happened? What do I do different?
Carrot Cake says
Your photograph makes your cake look so moist! I wish I could taste some right now! Delicious looking, Yummy!
Tanya says
YUM! I love carrot cake; it’s my favorite. This carrot cake looks heavenly. I can’t wait to make it. Thanks for the great recipe.
Michelle says
Take two for this cake worked a treat for me!! :) I used almond meal and it was great – made it for dessert and it was very well received. Yum.
Catherine says
Just made this tonight! It was wonderful! :)
Dara says
I tried the carrot cake recipe. Substituted crushed pineapple and coconut for the raisins. Turned out good- but very cinnamon-y. Is it really 1 Tbsp of cinnamon or meant to be 1 tsp?
thanks
Dara
Ps so glad I happened in on your site. I was looking for ways to work with coconut flour which seemed to be the “miracle” I was looking for. Your recipes have inspired me to get going and start messing with recipes again! Finding coconut is a bit blah on it’s own- but feel mixing it with the almond flour might just do the trick. Will keep you posted. ciao
Jenn says
I made this cake last week and absolutely fell in love with it! Sooo good! I wanted to make it again this week but was lacking some ingredients. I currently have crazy amounts of squash coming from my garden that I didn’t know what to do with so I decided to make your cake again with a different twist. I made a cranberry and squash cake with orange zest. Oh my… awesome both ways! You have definately made it into the family cookbook that I will pass down to my kids.
marie says
Well, I made the carrot cake for a friend’s birthday this weekend and we all agreed, it was delicious. And when discussing what went into it I said it had a lot of all the food groups. Since I hadn’t had dinner I had two pieces that night!
Everyone seemed to like the coconut frosting, but me. The nice thing about cream cheese frosting is that you don’t have to melt it down and really see just how much oil is going into it… It kinda grossed me out when I made it. I only put a thin layer in between and on top, but my friend bought coconut milk ice cream and I thought that was a really good compliment if you just wanted to skip the frosting all together.
I know that it’s hard to figure out nutrition amounts, but if there’s a suggestion on how to do it for this cake, sans frosting, I would love to know how. Any suggestions?
elana says
marie, Thanks so much for your comment. Please see my faq’s for the answer to your nutrition inquiry. You may also want to ask that question in my forums.
Paul says
Hi,
Any idea how you would substitute regular sugar in this recipe? As we have a fructose intolerant person so they can’t eat the agave nectar or honey.
Thanks,
Paul
elana says
Dear Paul, thanks for stopping by. Please see my faq’s for the answer to this and other common questions. Also, you may wish to post this question in my forums there are lots of super knowledgeable people over there.
colormepink says
I modified this recipe to make apple spice cake this weekend- it turned out great. I used one large Empire apple (I made a half-recipe)- I’ve never shredded an apple before and wasn’t sure texture-wise how it would turn out so I sliced it thin and then sliced into matchsticks. I omitted the raisins and reduced the salt to half. I still love the carrot version- it was one of the first of your recipes I tried after I found your blog last year. Thanks for sharing so much with us, I’m looking forward to the cookbook!