Ultimate Carrot Cake: Top 8 Allergen Free

We’ve spent the past ten years perfecting the best carrot cake recipe. This top-8 allergen free cake is gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soy-free and corn-free. Say that ten times fast!

It is so moist and delicious, it’s amazing that it’s allergen-free. So good in fact, that we fool friends and family into believing it’s a regular, indulgent, run-of-the-mill carrot cake.

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Our favorite homemade gluten free flour blend and selection of key ingredients gives this cake such a moist texture. And the tangy dairy-free cream cheese icing makes it irresistible. Don’t believe us? Try for yourself!

Gluten Free Flours

Swap out your all purpose flour and try a gluten free flour blend instead. Your tummy will thank you. Commercial gluten free blends like Bob’s Mill 1-1 Gluten Free Flour Mix can be used for this recipe but we’ve had the best results with our own gluten free blend.

How to Make Your Own Gluten Free Flour Mix

Here’s the ratio of flour that works best for this carrot cake and can be used in any of the recipes on this blog:

Weigh out these ingredients using a kitchen scale and dump into a large bowl. Use a whisk to mix the flours and starches together. Store in an airtight container in your cupboard to use whenever you need a GF blend. 

Equipment Needed For This Recipe:

• stand mixer or electric mixer
• sieve or flour sifter
• bundt or other baking pan
• cooling rack
• plastic wrap or airtight container

Choosing a Baking Pan

There are many different cake pans to choose from and it’s all personal preference. If you want double layer cake, choose round pans as in any other cake recipe. You’ll have to adjust the baking time depending on the depth of the pan of course. We love using the bundt pan for this one. I just love the way it bakes evenly, pops out clean and still produces a moist cake.

Cake Ingredients:

Wet Ingredients

• *egg substitute (read the section below)
• 1/2 cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups gluten free flour blend (read the section above)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp xanthan gum

Applesauce Egg Substitute

There are no eggs in this his recipe so a little extra is required to do the job of the egg. The secret is applesauce and gluten free egg replacer. Commercial unsweetened applesauce will work but I prefer to make my own. It’s so easy and I love having extra applesauce to spoon onto my oatmeal or quinoa breakfast bowl in the mornings.

Egg Substitute Ingredients:

• 9 tbsp unsweetened applesauce

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 1 tbsp gluten-free egg replacer

• 4 tbsp warm water

How to Make the Egg Substitute:

1. Make the apple sauce: Peel and grate three apples. Put in a saucepan with 3 tbsps of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer, letting the apples soften until a sauce-like consistency is reached.
2. Mix the baking powder and gluten free egg replacer with warm water in a small bowl. Add the applesauce and mix together. The mixture should be a bit frothy. It’s now ready to add to your cake batter.

Carrot Cake Baking Instructions:

Pre heat oven to 350 F. Generously grease a bundt pan with virgin organic coconut oil. Vegan margarine can work for this as well but I’ve had the most success with coconut oil. The cake just slides easily out of the pan.

Combine the Wet Ingredients

In the stand mixer bowl, combine the egg mixture, white sugar and canola oil and mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour blend, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, xanthan gum and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stopping periodically to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula. Add carrots, raisins and vanilla and blend for around 30 seconds or until the batter is fully mixed through.

Bake Right Away

The best way to achieve a high cake rise is to put the cake batter into the oven immediately after combining the ingredients. Gluten-free baking is finicky at best and you want to take advantage of the chemical reactions taking place to make sure the texture of the cake is springy from a good rise.

Add cake batter to the greased bundt pan. Smooth it out with silicone spatula to make sure it’s distributed evenly around the pan. Place it in the preheated oven for 60 – 70 minutes.

Remove from the oven and check the doneness with a toothpick or skewer. If the toothpick comes out clean, it’s done. Allow the cake to cool for about 20 minutes before attempting to remove the cake from the pan.

Cooling the Cake

If you live in a really dry climate like we do, make sure to cover the cake with a clean kitchen towel. This allows the cake to cool down slowly and breathe without drying it out too much.

Also, the cake needs to be completely cool before adding icing. I usually bake this cake a day before I plan on serving it so I wrap it with plastic wrap or place in an airtight container once it has cooled completely (otherwise the plastic will trap in condensation and make it sweat).

Dairy-Free “Cream Cheese” Drizzle

People who try this cake are amazed that it is a “free-from” recipe. But when they find out that the tangy cream cheese frosting is dairy free,  that’s when jaws drop. Sure, if you or your guests don’t have any intolerances or allergies to dairy, you could go ahead and make a regular icing with cream cheese, sour cream and icing sugar but what’s the fun in that?

I love using Tofutti’s “Better Than Cream Cheese” dairy-free cream cheese spread for my icing and frosting. For this carrot cake, I wanted to have a pourable icing that I could make lovely drizzle with. If that’s what you want too, keep reading and follow the instructions below. If you prefer a stiffer, fluffier icing, I’ve got you covered! Check out my recipe post for Dairy Free “Cream Cheese” Icing.

Drizzle Icing Ingredients

Making the Drizzle Icing

1. Spoon the dairy free cream cheese, vegan margarine and vanilla extract into a medium bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat the mixture on high speed until smooth.
2. On low speed, add in the icing sugar to the wet ingredients a bit at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
3. Once incorporated, add the oat milk to the mixture and beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
4. Check the consistency and add more oat milk if you want a thinner icing.
5. Drizzle the icing onto the cooled carrot cake using a spoon or icing bag. It’s ready to enjoy!

Corn Allergy Considerations

If you, or someone you’re baking for has a food allergy to corn, you should know that many baking products have cornstarch added to help prevent caking. Some of these products may include baking powder, baking soda and confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar). With a little online research, I found fantastic gluten free, corn free baking powder and soda from Purest.

Making Your Own Icing Sugar

Cornstarch-free icing sugar is available commercially but often difficult to find. Don’t worry, you can create your own corn-free icing sugar by blending up white granulated sugar and tapioca starch in a high-powered blender.

We use our Vitamix for this and it’s super easy and quick. One cup of white sugar to one tablespoon of tapioca starch. Blend on high for 30 seconds and you’re done. I repeat this a few times so that I have extra sugar to use in future bakes. Just pour it into a ziplock bag or airtight container and store it in your pantry for the next time you need it.