Oil-Free Vegan Carrot Cake with Oat Flour

5 from 16 votes

Oil-Free Vegan Carrot Cake with Oat Flour

This oat flour carrot cake is moist, lightly-sweetened, fragrantly spiced, and packed full of fiber-filled oat flour, fruits, veggies, and nuts. It also happens to be oil-free, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, whole grain, and full of whole food plant-based goodness.

Prep Time1 hr

Cook Time45 mins

Cooling and Frosting Time2 hrs 30 mins

Total Time4 hrs 15 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: carrot cake, gluten free, oat flour, oil free, vegan

Diet: gluten-free, oil-free, vegan, wfpb

Servings: servings

Calories: 386kcal

Author: Amber Asakura

Equipment

Food processor with grating attachment or hand-held grater
Spice grinder or high speed blender if you're making your own oat flour
2 round cake pans 8" or 9"

Ingredients

Add-ins

2 cups grated carrots this is about 3 large or 5 small carrots, ends trimmed, washed and finely grated, for 1x batch, weight/volume does not have to be exact
1 cup walnuts coarsely chopped
8 oz can crushed pineapple do not drain
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut weight varies greatly based on moisture content
⅔ cup raisins

Flax Egg

3 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
9 Tablespoons water

Vegan Buttermilk

¾ cup unsweetened plant milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Dry Ingredients

1¾ cups oat flour
1 cup coconut sugar see notes
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Volume - Weight

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line the sides and bottoms of two 8" or 9" round cake pans with parchment paper. (See the notes section below for instructions on measuring and cutting your parchment paper and for other pan size options.)
Grate your carrots using a handheld grater or the grating attachment on your food processor and transfer them to a medium bowl. (I use the large grater for the carrots, but if you don't want big carrot pieces, you can use the fine grater.)
Chop your walnuts by hand or by pulsing a few times in the food processor with the S blade attachment and add these to the bowl of grated carrots, along with the pineapple and its juice, the shredded coconut, and raisins.
In a medium bowl, combine the flax and water and set it aside to thicken. (Make sure this bowl is big enough to hold all your wet ingredients. We'll be adding them all to this bowl eventually.)
Measure your plant milk into a liquid measuring cup and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Set this aside to curdle.
Whisk the oat flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set it aside.
Give the flax mixture a stir. Then add the milk and vinegar mixture, applesauce, molasses, and vanilla to the bowl with the flax mixture and stir to combine. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
Fold in the grated carrots, pineapple, walnuts, coconut, and raisins. Batter will be thick.
Divide the batter equally between your two lined baking pans. Each pan will hold about 3 cups of batter. Spread the batter to the edges of the pans and smooth it into an even layer. (See the notes section below for instructions if you are using the 100% oil-free method of lining your pans.)
Bake the cakes for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (While the cake bakes, make your frosting.)
Cool the layers in the pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then, invert the layers onto the rack (removing the pans and parchment paper) to cool completely before frosting the cake.

Notes

I used two 9” layers for the photos. The layers will be thicker if you use 8” pans.

Lining your pans: To get the right size of parchment to line the bottom of your round pans, place one pan on a sheet of parchment paper and trace around it. Then cut out the shape, cutting slightly inside the line you drew so you’re not transferring the ink or pencil lead to your cake.

Next, measure the circumference (the length around your pan) and height of your pan. Cut a long strip of parchment (or multiple shorter strips) as wide as the height of your pan and an inch or two longer than the circumference so there is a slight overlap when you place the strip(s) inside the pan. See the photos in the blog post for guidance. Repeat these steps for the second pan, obviously. ;)

You can use a tiny bit of coconut oil to get the parchment to stick to the pan, but it's doable without it. If you're not using oil to hold your parchment paper in place, place a parchment circle in the bottom of the pan, then pour in half of the cake batter (about 3 cups) without spreading it. Add the parchment strips to the edges, one section at a time, and hold each strip in place with one hand while you use the other hand to spread the batter to the edge. See the photos in the blog post for guidance.

For a 9” x 13” cake: Grease or line the baking dish with parchment paper. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool and frost the cake in the pan.

For cupcakes: Line 18 muffin cups with cupcake papers. Prepare the batter as directed and scoop a rounded ¼ cup (or about 75g) into each cupcake paper. Bake cupcakes for 30 minutes and cool completely before frosting.

Coconut sugar note: You can use date sugar, brown sugar, or cane sugar in place of the coconut sugar.

Storage: The unfrosted room-temperature cake layers can be individually wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated overnight before being frosted. The cake can be frosted straight out of the fridge.

The frosted cake also keeps well in the fridge. I suggest keeping it covered with a dome lid or a large upside-down bowl to keep it from drying out, especially if you frost it like I did with the cake edges exposed. I suggest eating it within 3-5 days for the most freshness.

The unfrosted cake can be frozen. Wrap individual cake layers tightly in two layers of plastic wrap and freeze them for up to two months. Allow the wrapped cake layers to thaw in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight before you frost them. The thawed cake can be frosted straight out of the fridge.

I have also frozen individually-wrapped slices of the frosted cake. The quality diminishes slightly, so I wouldn't do this if you're serving the cake to people, but it's great if you like to keep a stash of emergency cake around for yourself!

Nutrition information was calculated for the cake only and does not include frosting. If you use this healthier cream cheese frosting recipe and cut the cake into 12 pieces, the frosting will add about 114 calories. See the frosting recipe for full nutrition estimates for that, and add the cake and frosting amounts together to get your total. :)

Whew, that was a lot of notes, huh?!

Nutrition