My ultimate dairy free carrot cake and cream cheese frosting is the perfect Easter dessert. Filled with warm spices and topped with decadent cream cheese icing, you will be reaching for more.
Preheat your oven to 330°F and gather your equipment and ingredients. Eggs should be at room temperature.
Grease the sides and bottom of an 8 inch round deep cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
Making the Carrot Cake:
Add 225g self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp cinnamon and 0.5 tsp nutmeg to a mixing bowl and stir together.
Add 225g brown sugar and the zest from one orange to the mixing bowl. Mix together to combine.
Make a well in the middle of the mixing bowl and add 3 eggs, 150g melted butter and 250g grated carrots. Mix until fully combined. The mixture will be thick.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap on the counter a few times to level the cake batter.
Bake at 330°F for 60 minutes. The cake should be well risen, golden and firm in the middle. Check with a cake tester or toothpick. The cake may need a few extra minutes depending on your oven.
Remove the cake pan from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. If you want to ice to cake on the same day, remove it from the pan after 20 minutes and allow to cool completely before icing it.
Making the Cream Cheese Icing:
Add the cream cheese, half of the icing sugar, vanilla bean paste and 50g plant based butter to a mixing bowl. Mix to combine.
Add the remaining icing sugar and mix until smooth. The cream cheese icing will be slightly runny. Don't worry as we want it to be thin enough to spread on the cake. If you want to thicken it up more, add extra icing sugar.
Spread the cream cheese icing on the cake then decorate with extra orange zest, nuts or shredded coconut.
Serve immediately and enjoy!
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Notes
Yield: This cake makes 8 generous slices but you can easily get up to 20 servings if you cut the cake up into much small pieces. Prefer muffins? Bake for 18-20 minutes.
Top Tip: I am using a deep cake pan for this cake. You can split the recipe between 2 shallow 8-inch pans. Reduce the baking time to 25-30 minutes.
Eggs: I use large eggs in my baking, which are equivalent to approximately 50g once removed from their shell. You can also use a medium egg in this recipe. Want to make this vegan? Simply replace the eggs with 3 flax eggs, 2 ripened bananas, or 150g apple sauce.
Gluten Free: To make this cake gluten free, check out my handy GF self raising flour hack. (the flour can be made with wheat flour as well if you are not GF).
Storage: Store leftover cake in the fridge for 4-5 days. I usually cover mine with plastic wrap or foil. The icing will crust over when refrigerated. To serve after it has been in the fridge, slice the cake while cold then bring back to room temperature before serving.
Icing: Additional icing should be stored in the fridge in an airtight container. This icing recipe makes 500g of cream cheese icing.
Freezing: For freezing instructions check out my FAQ section.