This Vegan Carrot Sheet Cake is absolutely delicious. It’s so light, soft, airy and incredibly moist, easy to make and it’s topped with a smooth and ultra creamy cream cheese frosting, with carrots and walnuts. It’s vegan, dairy-free, egg-free.
Vegan Carrot Sheet Cake
Spring is here which means, roll on the carrot cake! Vegan carrot cake is one of the best sweet treats for your Spring / Easter celebrations. This easy cake recipe has all the delicious flavours of a tiered layer carrot cake, without the fuss! Sheet cakes are easy to make, prep and serve! You’ll love this recipe!
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Filled the fresh, grated carrots
- Perfectly spiced
- Vegan
- Easy to make
- Super easy to serve
- Great for celebrations, parties etc
- Frosting is ultra creamy
- Great for storing
- Can be made in advance
- No special tools or techniques needed
Vegan cream cheese frosting
When you thought carrot cake couldn’t get tastier, cue the frosting! Oh my goodness, cream cheese frosting should be illegal – haha. It’s one of the most addictive things on planet earth! I used a mixture of dairy-free cream cheese along with dairy-free butter along with icing sugar and a splash of vanilla. It’s light, cream, airy and pairs beautifully with the spiced cake. To make it look ready for spring, I coloured some frosting with food gel and piped on some mini carrots. It’s a great way of showcasing what flavour the cake is, also it looks super cute!
Vegan Carrot Cake ingredients:
Make sure to jot these ingredients down on your shopping list:
- Dairy-free milk
- Apple cider vinegar
- Caster sugar
- Self raising flour
- Ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger
- Baking powder
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Sunflower oil
- Carrots
- Dairy-free butter
- Dairy-free cream cheese
- Icing sugar
- Vanilla
- Food gels (linked here)
- Walnuts (optional)
How to make a Carrot Sheet Cake
- Cake batter
Make the carrot cake batter. Mix the dairy-free milk and apple cider vinegar together, set aside to curdle. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add in the buttermilk, oil and carrots into the dry and mix until smooth. Pour into the lined tin.
- Bake
Bake the cake in the middle of the preheated oven for the allocated time. Make sure to check the cake is ready and fully baked by inserting a skewer down the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean its ready, if there is batter left on the skewer, the cake will need more time to bake. Just keep an eye on it, and make sure the top doesn’t burn.
- Cool
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for around 10-15 minutes. Lift the cake out of the tin using the overhanging greaseproof paper and place on a wire rack and allow to cool fully. Once cool store the cake in a sealed container to keep it moist, and fresh before frosting.
- Frosting
Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Whip in the icing sugar and vanilla. Smooth some frosting over the entire cake to cover.
- Carrot decorations
Transfer left over frosting into two separate bowl. Colour one with orange and the other with green food gel for the carrot and leaves. Transfer into separate piping bags, fitted with small round tip nozzles or snip off the tip of the piping bag.
- Serve and enjoy!
Slice the cake into small squares using a large, sharp knife. Serve and enjoy!
Looking for more Easter recipes, check these out:
Vegan Chocolate Orange Marble Loaf
No-Bake Vegan Easter Egg Cheesecake
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Vegan Carrot Cake Sheet Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8–10 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
The BEST Vegan Carrot Cake Sheet Cake with ultra creamy cream cheese frosting. Best cake for Spring and Easter.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the cake
- 250ml of dairy-free milk
- 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
- 100g of caster sugar
- 250g of self raising flour
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 70ml of sunflower oil
- 60g of grated carrot
Ingredients for the frosting
- 80g of dairy-free butter
- 20g of dairy-free cream cheese
- 230g of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract / vanilla paste
- Splash of dairy-free milk if needed
- Green food gel
- Orange food gel
- Walnuts (decoration)
Instructions
Method (cake)
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC fan and line an 8 x 8 inch square cake tin with greaseproof paper. Allow the paper to hang over the tin slightly, this makes it easier to remove the cake when baked.
- In a bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined. Set aside for 10 minutes to curdle. This creates a vegan ‘buttermilk’.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift the sugar, flour, ground spices, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well to combine. Add the oil into the ‘buttermilk’ and whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just to combine. Fold in the grated carrot.
- Spoon the batter into the lined tin. Level it out with the back of a spoon or offset spatula.
- Place the cake into the middle of the preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes. You will know it is done when you put a knife or skewer down the middle of the cake and it comes out clean and it’s springy to the touch. If batter comes off on the skewer, it needs more time to bake. To prevent burning, top the cake with some greaseproof paper then return back into the oven.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully transfer onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool fully before frosting. You can even place the cake in a sealed container once cool then frost the day after. It’s a very light sponge so be careful with it when removing from the tin.
Method (frosting)
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and cream cheese, whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.
- Sift in the icing sugar and vanilla. Whip on high speed for a couple of minutes to incorporate it. Add a splash of dairy-free milk to get it to a smooth consistency.
- Remove 4 heaped tablespoons of the buttercream and separate into two bowls. Leave the majority of the buttercream white, colour one bowl with orange food colour and the 2nd with green.You don’t need much coloured frosting for this, only for the carrots on top, so only use what you need. The rest of the frosting can be swirled to the top of the cake.
- Transfer the orange buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small round or star-tip nozzle. Add the green into separate piping bags with a tiny bit of the tip snipped off.
- Using a pallet knife, carefully spread and swirl the white frosting over the entire cake.
- Pipe mini carrots with the coloured buttercream (watch the video tutorial here).
- Decorate with a sprinkle of chopped walnuts (optional).
- Slice and serve.
Notes
To store: Keep this cake stored in a sealed container in the fridge. Leave at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before serving. Best eaten within 3 days of making. Un-iced cake can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature for 2 days.
What food colour to use? Gels are highly pigmented which means you won’t need as much. I like to use THIS brand of food gels.
What dairy-free butter to use? My favourites are Naturli Vegan Block, Naturli Spread and Flora Plant Based Block Butter. All work amazingly in vegan buttercream!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20-25 minutes
- Category: Cakes and layer cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Just made this. Whilst the sponge is really beautiful and light, and in my opinion, there’s not enough carrot in it.
I’ve made this several times now and it’s my favourite carrot cake recipe-and I’ve made quite a few! The sponge is light with the perfect amount of spices which you can really taste. The buttercream whips up light and airy too and is the perfect amount for the sponge. Everyone who tries it really loves it. Thanks Holly for another great recipe.
Can I use olive oil instead of sunflower? any difference that affect the recipe? Thanks!!
I’ve made this cake 3 times now and it comes out perfect each time which is so rare with vegan baking! Absolutely love how easy this recipe is and the sponge comes out lovely and light but still moist. Delicious, thank you!
Author
awww i am SOOO happy you enjoyed lovely! xx
I’m an avid baker but don’t bake using vegan recipes often. I find it difficult to find good recipes online, especially vegan because comments tend to just always be positive, what you actually get is more of a gamble.
But I have to hand it to this one. The flavor is great but additionally the texture of the cake itself is quite nice, it is airy and really not too moist or too dry. Despite being airy it is not too crumbly so it does hold together if you want to stack cakes and make something tiered. I think adding some chopped walnuts or hazelnuts to the batter would be really nice as well.
The only things for me that could use improving are the mouthfeel (it gets really sticky and wet quickly when eating so you lose the texture quickly), and the frosting (Mostly tastes of butter and is more solid and heavy tasting than mascarpone would be, adding a syrup made from kirsch or lemon does brighten it up).
Overall would really recommend!