This carrot cake is moist, perfectly spiced, and topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting for the perfect Spring dessert! Plus, it’s made as a sheet cake so it’s much more approachable without any special frosting techniques.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Carrot Cake Recipe Ingredients
- Recipe Variations and Modifications
- How to Make Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Recipe Tips
- How to Serve
- How to Store and Reheat
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Favorite Dessert Recipes
- Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing Recipe
This recipe is…
There’s nothing like taking a bite into a delicious piece of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Everything from the warm spices, toasted nuts, and sweet cream cheese frosting, make for the perfect springtime treat. Since this gluten free carrot cake recipe is a sheet cake, it’s simple to make and takes little to no time to be ready for your guests. Everyone will love how moist and flavorful it is and won’t know it’s gluten free either!
If you’re looking for more springtime desserts, we have lots to choose from. This Strawberry Yogurt Pie is easy to make and packs all the fresh ingredients for perfect warm weather gatherings while these Gluten Free Lemon Bars are oh-so-buttery you’ll have trouble keeping them around for long. Lastly, nothing says sunshine and warm breezes quite like this Easy Peach Cobbler Dump Cake that everyone will enjoy.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s a sheet cake – we chose the sheet cake route over a more traditional, 2 or 3-tiered round cake so you only need to worry about one bake, and you don’t need any fancy frosting techniques to master!
- It is moist and fluffy – this cake is perfectly light and fluffy with the carrots and pineapple also helping to make it super moist.
- It has pineapple – the “secret” ingredient to this simple carrot cake recipe is crushed pineapple because it adds moisture to the cake, along with a bit of sweetness and acidity that offsets the other spices perfectly.
- You can make it in one bowl – we developed this recipe so that you only need to use one bowl to make it – no need to dirty multiple dishes.
Carrot Cake Recipe Ingredients
For such a luscious springtime sweet, you won’t need too many complicated ingredients for this easy carrot cake recipe. Grab some flour and butter of course, along with a few other go-tos that will make this cake next level. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Flour – this recipe calls for a gluten-free flour blend (King Arthur Measure for Measure and Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 are our favorites). If you aren’t gluten-free, use any all-purpose flour that you have.
- Butter – you’ll need 1 1/2 sticks of melted butter for this recipe but you can also substitute ghee or avocado oil if you prefer.
- Shredded carrots – we recommend hand-grated carrots because they are much thinner than store-bought, pre-shredded carrots and create a better texture for the cake.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Make it dairy-free – you can substitute avocado oil for the melted butter, and almond milk for whole milk. For the frosting, you can either use Kite Hill almond cream cheese in place of the cream cheese called for here, or you can use this dairy-free cream cheese frosting recipe.
- Make it nut-free – we love a bit of crunch in carrot cake and recommend using chopped walnuts or pecans but you can omit the nuts altogether if desired or needed.
How to Make Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Now that you know why you need this cake in your life, let’s jump into making it! Follow our simple steps below on how to make carrot cake.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13″ pan with parchment paper, or grease well with butter or oil. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.
Step 2: Add the eggs, butter, and vanilla into the bowl with the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer until fully combined.
Step 3: Pour the milk into the batter and mix until it is smooth, then stir in the carrots, walnuts, and pineapple.
Step 4: Pour into the pre-greased pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is browned and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Step 5: Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on high until a creamy consistency is achieved. Add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese mixture one cup at a time, then beat to combine.
Step 6: Let the cake cool for at least one hour before frosting, then frost it and garnish with additional walnuts or pecans.
Recipe Tips
- Take the time to grate the carrots by hand to create a better texture for your cake.
- Make sure your spices are fresh. The spices are really what makes carrot cake so delicious. Before using yours, just give them a quick smell to make sure they are still fresh. If you can barely smell them, it’s time for new ones!
- Don’t pack the ingredients. This really goes for every baking recipe, but it’s important to make sure that when you are measuring flour you use the measuring cup to scoop up the flour, then level it off with a knife, instead of packing it in. If you’re doing this but still not getting the results you want, you can also use a digital food scale to measure your ingredients by weight for more accuracy.
How to Serve
This gluten free carrot cake is complete on its own, served with your choice of beverage, such as a glass of cold milk or a cup of hot coffee or tea.
How to Store and Reheat
Cover any leftover cake (or place it in a closed container) and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. Let it sit out before serving to bring it to room temperature.
If freezing the cake, cut it into slices and either wrap each in a freezer-safe wrapping or an airtight freezer-safe container for up to 2 months. Thaw slices in the refrigerator or at room temperature before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
We haven’t tested this cake without eggs, but think that a flax egg or egg replacer may work.
Yes! You can absolutely leave the nuts out of this recipe.
While this cake doesn’t taste like pineapple, if it isn’t your thing, we recommend replacing it with about 3/4 cup of applesauce instead.
Yes, you can add more mix-ins to this cake! Raisins and shredded coconut are both great additions.
A crumbly carrot cake might mean too much of the gluten free flour blend was used. Be sure to measure everything possible by weight for more accuracy and not by volume.
More Favorite Dessert Recipes
If you tried this Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2¼ cups gluten-free flour blend
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 2½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- Pinch of cloves
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted (may substitute ghee or avocado oil)
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk or almond milk
- 2 cups shredded carrots
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts or pecans, plus additional for topping, if desired
- 1 cup crushed pineapple drained
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (use Kite Hill for dairy-free)
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened (may substitute ghee)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13″ pan with parchment paper, or grease well with butter or oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.
- Add the eggs, butter, and vanilla into the bowl with the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer until fully combined.
- Pour the milk into the batter and mix until it is smooth, then stir in the carrots, walnuts, and pineapple.
- Pour into the pre-greased pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is browned and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, then let cool for at least one hour before frosting.
For the frosting:
- Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on high until a creamy consistency is achieved.
- Add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese mixture one cup at a time, then beat to combine.
Recipe Notes
- Take the time to grate the carrots by hand to create a better texture for your cake.
- Make sure your spices are fresh. The spices are really what makes carrot cake so delicious. Before using yours, just give them a quick smell to make sure they are still fresh. If you can barely smell them, it’s time for new ones!
- Don’t pack the ingredients. This really goes for every baking recipe, but it’s important to make sure that when you are measuring flour you use the measuring cup to scoop up the flour, then level it off with a knife, instead of packing it in. If you’re doing this but still not getting the results you want, you can also use a digital food scale to measure your ingredients by weight for more accuracy.
Nutrition
I just made this cake for my daughter’s first birthday! I used coconut sugar instead of other forms, but did everything else according to the recipe. It was moist and flavorful! I had to stop myself from eating the whole thing. I have not put icing on it yet, but plan to use different sugar in that as well. Thank you for another fabulous recipe!
We love to hear that, Abigail! Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us. Happy birthday to your daughter! -Team FF
Could you substitute coconut sugar for the brown sugar?
Sure!!
This looks great! What is the bake time if I wanted to make this in 2 9” pans?
Made this recipe as an Easter treat this year. Seriously amazing! My husband never cared for carrot cake and he could not stop eating it. You would not guess it’s gluten free at all. This has become one of my favorite cakes! It’s even delicious cold from the fridge!
We’re SO glad, Kiara!! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Do you have to use gluten free flour?
Nope! You can use regular flour if you have that. We don’t recommend subbing almond flour though!
Made it today in a bunny shape! Yum!
How creative…I love it!
This cake is amazing! I made it with shredded apple and used flax eggs and it was still absolutely delicious. I will be eating it slowly by myself as my husband won’t eat carrot cake and my 8 month old is too young to have it.
So good to know…thank you for sharing! A carrot cake all to yourself sounds like a delicious situation to be in!
We made this last night and it’s so moist and delicious! Only had 2 cups GF flour so added 1/4 almond flour – the cake is still so moist and delicious! When we have more GF flour on hand we’ll try out the original to compare – but it was so tasty this way too! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing…that’s good to know!! We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Melanie!
I made the recipe exactly as listed, but poked holes in it and poured weetened condensed coconut milk over it. Absolutely delicious!!
Yum!! We’re glad you loved it, Tamra! It’s definitely one of our new favorites!
Could this recipe be made into cupcakes? Thank you !
They can! Enjoy, Michelle!
Awesome thanks so much Brandi!!
Of course!