The Best Vegan Carrot Cake
Topped with swirls of plant-based cream cheese frosting
Six or seven years ago, I made Ina Garten's recipe for Carrot and Pineapple Cake for a family Easter brunch. It is a delicious and moist layer cake chock full of shredded carrots, chunks of pineapple, raisins, and walnuts. I loved it. Unfortunately, no one else at the table did. You see, my family likes smooth cakes, without nuts, dried fruits, and other unidentifiable foreign objects strewn throughout the batter. And they never let me live this one down. Every time I'd bring a cake for a family holiday, the refrain would go, "I hope it's not a chunky carrot pineapple cake!" This cake was truly the butt of every joke. But you know what, I still love that cake. And when it came time to develop a vegan carrot cake of my own, I wanted it to taste exactly like the one I made for my family for Easter all those years ago.
Buyer beware: this is NOT a smooth cake. It is crunchy and chunky and chock full of shredded carrots, juicy pineapple, toasted pecans, and plump raisins. It is also incredibly moist, tender, lightly spiced with cinnamon, and topped with a very generous layer of tangy vegan cream cheese frosting. The frosting recipe is below for all subscribers, and the carrot cake recipe is further down for paid subscribers. I hope you enjoy it more than my family did :P
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes enough frosting for one 8-inch single-layer cake or 12 cupcakes
20 mins active time, 20 mins total time
Ingredients
57 g (1/4 cup) unsalted, margarine-style vegan butter (e.g. Violife) (see note below), room temperature
113 g (1/2 cup) vegan cream cheese (Kite Hill or Trader Joe's brands recommended) (see note below), room temperature
330 g (3 cups) powdered sugar
5 g (1 tsp) vanilla paste (see note below)
3.75 g (1 1/4 tsp) kosher salt (Diamond Crystal or see note below)
Instructions
Beat the vegan butter with a firm rubber spatula until it is creamy
Add the vegan cream cheese and continue beating until the mixture is largely homogenous
Switch to a whisk and mix vigorously to remove the large lumps
Add the powdered sugar and continue beating until the mixture is smooth
Add the vanilla and the salt, and the mixture should thin out a bit
Frosting keeps for up to 6 hours in an airtight container at cool room temperature or up to one week in an airtight container in the fridge; before using, allow the mixture to come to room temperature, then thoroughly beat it until it is smooth
Notes & Variations
Ingredient Notes
Kosher salt: I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which has larger crystals than other kinds of kosher salt, normal table salt or fine sea salt. As a result, when measured by volume (teaspoons/tablespoons) it will add less "saltiness" than an equal quantity of the other salts. If you are not using Diamond Crystal, I recommend measuring your salt by weight, in which case you won't run into this issue. Otherwise, use half the volume quantity of salt
Vegan butter: There are two main types of vegan butter: (1) margarine-style products that are basically butter-flavored vegetable shortening (e.g. Violife), and (2) cultured-style products made from cashew, coconut, or other kinds of fats (e.g. Miyoko's). I generally prefer the first type in cakes, muffins, and frostings, where the more obvious "butter" flavor and greater stability, and yellow color are beneficial. I prefer the second type in recipes where the fat will caramelize, such as cookies, pie or tart dough, and bread, as margarine-style butters can develop unpleasant burnt oil flavors when heated to high temperatures. Also, cultured-style butter can be browned similarly to dairy butter, while margarine-style butter cannot
Vanilla paste: I love seeing little black vanilla bean specks in my frosting, which is why I recommend using vanilla paste for this recipe. However, if you don't wish to buy this or don’t have any on hand, feel free to use vanilla extract
Vegan cream cheese: Unlike dairy cream cheese, vegan cream cheese products vary significantly in taste and texture, as they are often made with vastly different ingredients, including soy, cashews, and coconut. I found that the Trader Joe's and Kite Hill products has both an excellent taste and texture that very closely resemble dairy cream cheese. If you want to use another brand, make sure you taste it first before making the frosting
Things I Used
As an Amazon Affiliate and Food52 Curator, I earn a small commission on anything purchased through these links
Ingredients
Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste
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