Elana's Pantry

New York Times Bestselling author Elana Amsterdam founded Elana’s Pantry, the go-to website for easy, healthy, grain-free, Paleo recipes, in 2006

Nut-Free Paleo Carrot Cake recipe

Nut-Free Paleo Carrot Cake

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This Nut-Free Paleo Carrot Cake recipe made with coconut flour could not be simpler to throw together. You toss the ingredients in a food processor, transfer to a pan, and bake.

Of course, if you’ve been here before, you know my specialty is easy paleo recipes. If you’re new, be sure to check out my Paleo Cashew Bread recipe made with 5 healthy ingredients. We love Paleo Cashew Bread toasted, and after toasting use it to make Paleo PB&J’s! We also use Paleo Cashew Bread to make grilled cheese, and for a quick, fun paleo breakfast, “egg in a hole.”

Like my healthy bread recipes, this Nut-Free Paleo Carrot Cake is lightly sweetened. Additionally, I made this carrot cake recipe without nuts so that those with nut allergies could enjoy it too. Many paleo dessert recipes use almond flour and most carrot cake recipes contain nuts, so I thought it would be nice to change it up and make a carrot cake recipe with no nuts. This recipe makes a fabulous Easter cake and is also rather lovely for Mother’s Day.

Nut Free Paleo Carrot Cake
Serves: one layer of cake
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a food processor combine coconut flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon
  2. Pulse in eggs, coconut oil, and honey
  3. Remove blade from food processor and stir in carrots and currants by hand
  4. Grease a 7 inch springform pan with coconut oil and dust with coconut flour
  5. Transfer batter into prepared pan
  6. Bake at 350°F for 45-60 minutes
  7. Cool for 1 hour
  8. Serve

Please note, this Nut-Free Paleo Carrot Cake recipe makes one round cake. If you would like to create the gorgeous layer cake in the photo above, make the cake recipe above two times.

I have tested this Paleo Carrot Cake recipe in many different sized cake pans.  My favorite way to bake it is using the 7-inch cake pan as indicated in the instructions for this recipe. When made in a 7-inch cake pan the batter stacks up and the cake looks impressively tall and very festive. The 7-inch cake pan is smaller than the traditional 8-inch cake pan which surprisingly yields a much flatter cake. It doesn’t look quite as pretty, however, it also worked well.

For a traditional carrot cake, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting. If you’re only going to frost the top and center of the cake, as I did in the photo above, make one batch of Cream Cheese Frosting. If you want to frost the sides, make two batches. For those in need of a dairy-free carrot cake, top this with my incredible Coconut Whipped Cream recipe, and some toasted shredded coconut.

Here are some other easy paleo cake recipes for you:

Comments

  1. I have made this cake about 15 times and everyone loves it especially with the maple frosting.
    However, having made it with coconut flour and almond flour, I personally prefer almond flour.
    I also substitute currants with chopped dates and I also had chopped pecans.
    Thanks for all your grain free cake recipes, they’re great!

    Reply

  2. I just made this tonight and it was delicious! I added a half cup of walnuts along with the currants. I made it with the cream cheese frosting. I made one 7 inch cake. Thank you for all your great recipes!!

    Reply

  4. I just made this recipe, as a birthday cake that both people and pups could enjoy – all the ingredients in the cake were dog-friendly, except i substituted shredded coconut for the currents. It was so moist and delicious, and healthy to boot! Thanks for a great recipe!!

    Reply

  5. I’ve been on a candida diet for several months and I had a craving for carrot cake. I made this with duck eggs and I substituted the honey for 1/4 cup of coconut nectar. I also added a little liquid stevia since I was cutting back on the other sweetener. I added nutmeg, ginger, unsweetened shredded coconut, sprouted sunflower seeds and goji berries rehydrated in fresh orange juice. The seeds gave it a yummy crunch without adding nuts (which I’m allergic to). It was delicious! My dinner guests loved it and said they would never guess it was low sugar and paleo.

    Reply

    • Carmen, that’s so awesome! I love that your dinner guests loved this so much that said they would never guess it’s low-sugar and paleo :-)

      Reply

  6. What can be done to make this sweeter? More honey? And A cup and a half of carrots, it seemed, too much. I just put a cup in. Just tried to make for a potluck and my family “liked” it but both husband and child said that it needs to be sweeter. First “baked” paleo recipe I have tried since starting Paleo in February of this year due to a year of on and off intestinal problems. Two friends recommended I try Paleo and I am having success. I am trying to mainstream our household so want to have success in making baked goods that taste good and are moist. Thank you!
    Also, didn’t have time to make the coconut whipped cream, but did notice that I could not find vanilla stevia in my regular grocery store.

    Reply

    • Hi Nancy, thanks for letting me know the results of your experiments with this recipe! Many of the ingredients I use in my recipes are not available in stores so I buy them online. If you click the green text in the ingredients portion of the recipes you will be taken to a place where you can order them :-)

      Reply

    • I have been on and off paleo for 5 years. When you first start this way of eating, things don’t seem sweet, however, the longer you avoid refined sugar and grains, the more sensitive your palate becomes to sugars. I think that your family might need a little longer to adapt to this new way of eating. Also, I suspect if they are still eating in a non-paleo way, then some of the paleo recipes are never going to seem sweet enough. Hope that is helpful.

      Reply

    • Liquid stevia will help to sweeten without adding more sugar. I do agree with the other comments, once your palette adjusts to lower sugar and more natural sugars this cake will taste sweet enough:)

      Reply

  8. I am so happy to have found you, I’m almost in tears, happy tears. Never thought I could ever eat carrot cake without guilt.

    Reply

  9. I just made these as muffins with no frosting. They were delicious and moist and sweet enough! Loved them!

    Reply

  10. Hi Elana, I’m putting on a baby shower for about 25 people, could this recipe be adapted for a 9×13 cake pan or small cupcakes very easily? What are your thoughts on this?

    Reply

    • Kay, I haven’t tried that so not sure what adjustments would need to be made. If you do experiment please let us know how it goes. Happy baby shower :-)

      Reply

  11. Elana,

    If I wanted to use pure stevia powder, how much would be needed to match 1/3 cup of honey? Also would I need to adjust any other ingredients to account for less bulk of the honey?

    Reply

    • Sean, thanks for your comment! I haven’t tried that so not sure, if you do experiment please let us know if it works :-)

      Reply

  12. This is one of my favorites, but I just learned I cannot have almond or coconut flour due to SIBO. I’d love to try it with tapioca flour. Would I need to reduce the number of eggs?

    Reply

  13. Just made this and it was spectacular. Better after chilling over night. Was visiting Mom in Albuquerque. Go figure, no coconut flour at any grocery very close, but found some Nutiva Hemp Protein at a GNC and substituted that. So good that I’m nervous to try the coconut flour now that I’m at home. Making again tonight for tomorrow’s Christmas Dinner.

    Reply

  14. I thought that this was alright for what it was. It really tasted, to me, like a slightly grainy egg souffle with some carrots in it. With a decent amount of cream cheese icing (I used greek yogurt cream cheese to make it a bit healthier) it was pretty good. I liked it and finished the entire cake over the course of a week.

    I’d never say, as an avid home baker, “this is better than real carrot cake!” However, the fact that it is so much better for you is attractive to me at this point in my life.

    Reply

    • Nikki, I’m sorry this was not amazing, we like this even more than the real thing because it is so moist. If you make it again, for best results follow the recipe without making any substitutions and also use the recommended brands of ingredients that are linked in the highlighted green text in the ingredients portion of the recipe :-)

      Reply

  15. I over cooked the cake so it came out more like bread but was still tasty. We made French toast with it the following morning and it was phenomenal! This will be one of my go to recipes for Sunday morning breakfast from now on. YUM

    Reply

      • I just made cupcakes using this recipe. I wondered if they would stick in the cupcake tins, so I added a little more coconut oil than called for, plus greased my non-stick pans. No luck – they still stuck to the bottom! Has anyone else had an issue like this? I ended up just tipping the cupcakes upside-down and icing over the jagged bottoms, which hid it well, and they were delicious. Any suggestions are welcome, as I really liked them as cupcakes!

        Reply

        • You can lightly grease the bottom of the pan, then line with parchment paper, then lightly grease the parchment paper. For cupcake tins its a little labor intensive to cut out the parchment paper, but it works perfectly.

          Reply

        • I made two cupcakes because I wanted to try some before serving the actual cake-if the actual cake came out tasting like cardboard. I just put some of the batter in a cupcake tin in cupcake liners. They didn’t peel back from the paper so well and both child and husband said they needed to be sweeter.

          Reply

          • Nancy, thanks for your comment. I haven’t tried making this as cupcakes so not really sure how that would go. Thanks for filling me in on the results of your experiment!

  17. I wish to remove the sugar completely. Having experimented with coconut flour, do you have any advice on where to start in adjusting the ratio liquid ingredients to dry ingredients when removing the 1/3 cup of syrup? Thanks

    Reply

    • I use coconut nectar because of its very low glycemic index. It has a nice rich flavor too, which is similar to the brown sugar in a regular carrot cake. I would say use 1/3 c plus 1 tbsp. Other than that you could try mashed banana but that probably would change baking time and possibly consistency. Maybe ever more carrots, just make sure they are very sweet carrots.

      Reply

  18. I like your cakes :) this one sounds great! I’m just concerned about backing with honey. Please can you tell me what do you think about this?

    Reply

    • what can I use to replace the coconut products…they give me pain in stomach. I can eat nuts without any issues. All oils bother but I have no problem with butter , or light mayo. A lot of people now dont eat carrots which I don’t understand …they say they are high on the glycemic idex but it is better to have that than candy or processed foods since it grows in the ground. I love them grated in everything.

      Reply

      • another thing you can try to replace coconut oil is avocado – I know it sounds really odd, but they are rich in oil and if you have a very ripe one you can whip it up like you would for guacamole, and they are so bland when mixed with these other ingredients you won’t even know it’s avocado. If you can eat even light mayo my guess is you could do this without side effects. Good luck. I hope that works because this cake really is yummy.

        Reply

  19. I love this recipe. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and we chose to go the natural way instead of chemotherapy and surgery. Part of her treatment was a strict diet avoiding all sugars. After months of this diet she mentioned me that she wished she could eat some dessert. That’s when I found this gem and baked it for her. She absolutely loved it!

    The only changes I made where; I put in half the currants and added 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts and a bit of nutmeg.

    Thanks for all the recipes on this site. I’ve done several for her.

    Reply

    • Efrain, you and your wife sound like such a lovely couple. My thoughts are with both of you! Glad to be a part of the healing journey with you and your wife via this cake :-)

      Reply

  20. What other oil can be used instead of coconut oil. We can have coconut, just not the oil? We can’t do avocado oil either.
    Thanks. And do you think you could substitute agave for honey?

    Reply

  22. Hi I would love to make this but I have a sneaky question. I wanna to make it nutty! Could I substitute the flour for almond meal and if so what would the ratio be and how many eggs would I use? :)

    Reply

  24. I made this last night and it was great! It was my 1st time trying an all coconut flour recipe. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the egg to flour ratio but I’m glad I trusted Elana enough to give it a whirl! It is so low sugar and high protein that i didn’t feel to guilty about having it for breakfast this morning. Thanks Elana, my horizons have been expanded!

    Reply

  25. Hello!
    I added a little bit of coconut sugar to sweeten it up a bit, it was great!
    Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes, they’re sigh a huge help as I transition my diet.

    Have a wonderful day!
    Kind Regards,
    Jenn

    Reply

  26. can i substitute the eggs for chia seeds???? My daughter is allergic to eggs, soy, whey, milk and cheese, turkey and chicken on top of having celiacs. I need help with recipes so I can feed her well

    Reply

  27. I did not see any nutritional information on the carrot cake recipe. I’m most interested in the carbs as I am a diabetic.
    The cake turned out really well. I added additional cinnamon as well as nutmeg, allspice and pumpkin spice. The house smelled fantastic! Thanks for sharing these recipes with us!

    Reply

  29. Thank you so much. This recipe was awesome. I had so many compliments. I was afraid it wasn’t going to taste any good because it was “healthy” and had pretty bad experiences with recipes I find on a blog. My cake came out really moist :)

    Reply

    • Hi Rena, I live in Boulder and often bake these recipes when we are in Vail with no changes needed. Enjoy!

      Reply

  32. This recipe looks delicious Elana! I love that you use coconut flour versus the almond flour I see in most paleo recipes. I also love that it doesn’t require a lot of sweetener. I will definitely be giving this recipe a try. Thank you!

    Reply

  33. Thank you Elana. I prepared this delicious cake yesterday and cannot stop talking about it. Also, cream cheese icing is the best idea ever.

    Reply

  34. Yum! This is one of my favorites. Especially when paired with the dandelion tea you have me hooked on!

    Reply

  35. This was amazing — I ate most of it in 2 days. I did add some pineapple to make it a bit more flavorful. Will definitely be making this again, only not so often, because I’ll end up weighing much more than I do now.

    Reply

    • Hi Keith, Would you be able to tell me what type of pineapple you used (canned or fresh/tidbits ….) and the amount of pineapple that you used? I would like to include pineapple in my next carrot cake. Thanks

      Reply

  36. I make this as muffins for Easter Dinner I was invited to! Everyone LOVED them. I will make again and be careful to do a tiny taste test of batter so I will know what might be tasty to add. Mine were a tiny bit dry and I really sort of knew they were but next time I will add a little Applesauce and nutmeg to make even tastier! I had never heard of the Zante Currants, but I will definitely use them a lot now. Thank you so much for the recipe and EVERYONE absoutely LOVED the icing. All in all I was asked to LEAVE the extras so I know they loved truly loved them. I like the one reviewer who mentioned adding pineapple…..YUM

    Reply

      • I made it as a cake. It would work as muffins in the really small tins. I did t have the currents but I had dates. I chopped them really small and they worked very well. It was a bit dry do I either overcooked it or the applesauce would be good to add. I would also cut it in half next time and front between the two layers. The cream cheese frosting was perfect for the carrot cake!!!! And super easy to make- I did it all with my hand mixer!!!!

        Reply

  37. Love love love this carrot cake! I really went out on a limb with this one, because I don’t own a food processor nor springform pan. So I whipped the eggs by hand, melted the oil and honey into a syrup, added 1T vanilla extract and pre-mixed all of the dry ingredients before adding to the wet. I baked it in a glass Pyrex loaf pan at 375F for 60 minutes. You might say I baked a bread except that it was sooo sweet. We really enjoyed the carrot cake with afternoon tea. I’m hoping tomorrow’s slice will toast nicely in the toaster oven. Thanks again for yet another wonderful recipe!

    Reply

  39. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Elana! I made this cake as shown for Easter & will be making it again, upon request, for an upcoming birthday celebration. Not only was your timing impeccable, the cake is, too … thanks again! :)

    Reply

  41. We enjoyed your cake yesterday. I could not put my hands on a 7″ springform pan so I used my tube pan and baked it 30 minutes. It came out perfect if a little shorter than yours. The cream cheese icing made it perfect.

    Reply

    • Hi Erin! Thanks for taking initiative in adapting this recipe to your needs and for sharing your results!!! AWESOME.

      Reply

    • Yes, I have. It smells funny when you bake with it. I use it fermented to make things like grain free idli and dosas ( gram flour and urid dal mix ). Ive also created a recipe for Autumn buns ( instead of hot cross buns ) but I mixed the gram flour with buckwheat flour.

      Reply

  44. HI Elana,

    That was something a very handy recipe to be tried on this Easter.
    Nut free paleo carrot cake, look way delicious. Just taking a bite in my own imagination.

    I can’t wait to try out these, just now as I showed upon your delicious recipe to my mother
    and she was totally on for it.

    Thanks for your recipe. Happy Blogging.

    Shantanu sinha

    Reply

  45. Have you ever tried pineapple in your carrot cake recipe? Or would that moisture not work? Love your recipes!!
    Patty

    Reply

    • Hi Rhonda, I haven’t tried making this cake without coconut flour, so not sure, if you do please let us know how it goes :-)

      Reply

  48. Hi I am making this cake for my mum who is gluten free but I would also like my little boy to have some (we are doing baby led weaning). He is too young to have honey yet so I want to use another sugar free alternative. Do you think this would work with mashed banana instead? Would I need to add any further liquid?

    Thank you, can’t wait to try it!

    Reply

  49. This was phenomenal. I doubled it and baked a high, darling 3 layer cake in a 5-6 in pan. I’ve been on a strict candida diet but decided to have a little cheat with this cake (and cream cheese) frosting for Easter and this was an excellent choice. Thank you!

    Reply

  51. good morning! would like to try your carrot cake for Easter dessert tomorrow…can you tell me if it would bake well as a sheet cake instead of individual layers? thanks!

    Reply

  52. Hi Elana’s,
    Do you know how much the 1/2 cup of coconut flour weighs?
    I have read that it depends a lot on how you fill your measure as to how well the recipes with coconut flour work. That is the weight varies with how loosely the measure is filled. How much air is in it. And that this can have a considerable effect on a recipe. No other flour is a sensitive to liquids, I guess.

    Thank you for sharing your lovely recipes. My 3 grandsons a coeliac and cannot eat legumes either. So your recipes are a godsend for healthy treats for them.

    Marthea, from Sunny Western Australia.

    Reply

    • Hi Marthea, thanks for your comment. My recipes are simple enough that you won’t need to weigh the ingredients to make them. Your grandsons are so lucky to have you and it is amazing that you make these healthy treats for them :-)

      Reply

  53. I can’t wait to try this. I am gluten free and made a carrot muffin the other day using flax meal…..ugh. Horrible. Love your blog and your journey has been so helpful for me!

    Reply

  54. Thanks for this recipe! I don’t have a 7″ springform, just a 9″. I do have a 7″ Pyrex. Any special suggestions for making this cake in a non-springform pan?

    Reply

    • Hi Sarah, I haven’t tried that so not sure how it will work, if you do experiment please let us know how it goes.

      Reply

  55. I am on a low carb and sugar free diet, trying to get off my diabetic meds. I would like to know how many carbs are in your recipes. Is there any way you can include that in the info you give?

    Reply

  56. Thanks Elana. I’ve been making your carrot cake with almond flour for years, and love it. However, I have recently developed an allergy to almonds. ? I can’t wait to try this tomorrow! Yay!

    Reply

  57. Thank you so much for sharing all of these wondrous recipes!
    I am not totally Paleo with my food plan.
    And yet I feel good when I stay away from grains.

    Blessings to you,

    Debby in Arizona

    Reply

  58. My husband loves carrot cake, but can’t do coconut – can I substitute almond flour? Or….?
    Thank you!

    Reply

  59. Elana. Thank you so much for this recipe. I LOVE carrot cake and am gong to make it for tomorrow as we have company coming over. Thank you so much for your recipes. I have bought your book to :-). Happy Easter.

    Reply

  61. I was just wishing for carrot cake and hadn’t taken the time for look for GF/grain free yet. Perfect timing. Thanks!

    Reply

  62. hi elana,
    I think I will try this recipe and make muffins instead. do you have any recipes that use zanes protein powder and ground flax seed? I want to make some really healthy muffins for snacks that would also work for breakfast too. trying for high protein and fiber using liquid stevia as sweetner. if you get any ideas let me know and I will continue to experiment too. my hubby is such a good sport! LOL!!
    thank you,
    marian

    Reply

    • Hi Marian, I haven’t tried making this recipe with protein powder, ground flax, and stevia. If you do please let us know how it goes!

      Reply

  63. Elana,

    Thanks for this really yummy recipe!! Your timing is perfect, as we’ll make it for a family birthday gathering this Saturday!

    Have you tried the batter in 6″ pans? We happen to have two of these and I’m wondering how they’ll do.

    Thanks,
    Shari

    Reply

      • Elana,

        I made this cake last night (with extra large eggs) and had additional batter for 6 regular-sized muffins (which I cooked for about 25 minutes)!! This morning I realized I could have decreased the recipe by the difference in volume between the 7″ and 6″ pans. How do you suggest estimating this? How do you determine recipe volume in your testing (before publishing the recipes)?

        Thank you for this additional work. This bring a whole other level of skill to these posts.

        Blessings,
        Shari

        Reply

  64. I made this today in an 8×8 le creuset baking dish. Nice and tall and DELICIOUS!! I had raisins, not currants and added a handful of granola for that nutty crunch.

    Reply

  65. THANK YOU for making one of my favorite desserts nut-free and grain-free. I’ll have to try this with the nondairy frosting you recommended.

    Reply

  66. When I clicked on the coconut oil to see which brand you rec, Spectrum said on its suggestions that’s it’s for med heat, up to 280 degrees. This cake states is baked at 350 degrees. Wondering if another brand of coconut oil was used, or if you did use this brand & it turned out fine cooking it at a higher temp ? Thank you.

    Reply

    • Hi Terissa, yes, I used Spectrum coconut oil and it worked perfectly every time, and we’ve made this cake over a dozen times so far!

      Reply

  67. Thank you so much for this recipe without nuts. My husband LOVES carrot cake and I never make it anymore because I only have recipes with almond flour. Can’t wait to try!

    Reply

  68. Love it when a recipe is that easy! I’ve actually never made carrot cake before, but after looking at this, might have to try it soon. Looks delicious!

    Reply

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