Healthy Carrot Cake
Published 3/28/2021
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Our healthy carrot cake recipe is ultra moist and made with whole ingredients such as white whole wheat flour, maple syrup, warm spices, and applesauce.
We know you guys love carrot cake recipes because some of our most popular recipes on FFF are our Chocolate Chip Carrot Cake Loaf and Oatmeal Carrot Cake Cookies!
This recipe was modified on April 7, 2020. It has now been tested multiple times to ensure it works and tastes delicious!
Healthy Carrot Cake = Cake for All Seasons
So I’m trying to figure out what season carrot cake belongs in. Is it a winter cake? A summer cake? An Easter cake? The world may never know.
I’m dubbing it a year-round cake because carrots are pretty much always in season. How do you feel about that?
This healthy carrot cake recipe is probably the easiest carrot cake you’ll ever make and it is so good! Here’s why you should make it:
Why Make This Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe?
- Whole Grains: in this healthy carrot cake recipe, we’re using half white whole wheat flour and half all-purpose to make sure it’s light and airy.
- Lower in Sugar: this recipe uses a combination of brown sugar and maple syrup. It’s not overly sweet, but still so yummy.
- Lower in Fat: we subbed out some oil for applesauce, to make sure this healthy carrot cake still comes out moist, but not packed with fat.
Is carrot cake healthy?
For the most part, carrot cake is made with butter, sugar, and flour, making it a decadent dessert especially when served with classic cream cheese frosting!
This carrot cake recipe, however, is made healthier with real-food ingredient swaps such as white whole wheat flour, coconut oil, maple syrup, and applesauce.
Healthy Carrot Cake Ingredients
You likely already have everything you need for this carrot cake in your kitchen because it’s made from pantry staples.
One thing we try and do here at Fit Foodie Finds is bake with similar ingredients in all of our recipes so you aren’t scrambling to find weird/hard-to-find ingredients! Here’s the basis of what you need:
- carrots
- white whole wheat flour
- all-purpose flour
- brown sugar
- carrot cake spices
- pecans
- raisins
- applesauce
- eggs
- vanilla
- maple syrup
- almond milk
- coconut oil
best cream cheese frosting
This recipe uses a variation of our Greek yogurt cream cheese frosting. It’s simple, not too sweet, and something you definitely don’t want to skip.
- cream cheese
- Greek yogurt
- maple syrup
Easy Method
Whether you’re making this carrot cake recipe for Easter, a family birthday, or just because. It’s rather simple to put together.
- Grate Carrots: first, peel and grate 2-cups of carrots. We suggest doing a fine to medium grate.
- Wet Ingredients: Combine all wet ingredients minus the coconut oil in a large bowl. Make sure to add the coconut oil last so that it doesn’t coagulate.
- Dry Ingredients: Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix: Add wet ingredients to dry and mix to combine. Finally, add in melted coconut oil and mix again.
- Bake: Transfer the carrot cake batter into a greased 9×9-inch pan and bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes.
- Frost: Let carrot cake cool completely and then frost with Greek yogurt cream cheese frosting.
Can I make this cake vegan?
While we haven’t tested this recipe with flax eggs, we are confident that it will work. Follow our How to Make a Flax Egg recipe! In addition to a flax egg, you can replace the Greek yogurt with a non-dairy yogurt or even more mashed banana.
Can I sub a different flour such as almond flour or coconut four?
The short answer to this is NO. Coconut flour and almond flour can NOT be swapped 1:1 with white whole wheat flour. You’ll need to find a grain-free specific carrot cake recipe if you want to go that route.
Storage
Cover carrot cake with a piece of plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 3-5 days.
Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Dry
- 3-4 large carrots, peeled and grated (2-cups packed)
- 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/3 cup raisins
Wet
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup fat-free cream cheese
- 1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, or more to taste
Instructions
Healthy Carrot Cake
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and spray a 9×9-inch pan with coconut oil cooking spray. Set aside.
- Next, peel and grate 2 to 3 large carrots. Place grated carrot on 2 pieces of paper towel and squeeze out as much of the moisture as possible. Save the juice and drink it! It’s good for you 🙂
- Measure out 2 cups of grated carrots and then place into a large bowl along with the rest of the dry ingredients and mix.
- In a medium bowl, mix together wet ingredients minus the coconut oil.
- Add wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. Finally, add in melted coconut oil and mix again.
- Transfer batter into a 9×9-inch pan and into the oven. Bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes.
- Let carrot cake cool for at least an hour before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- While the carrot cake is cooling, make healthy cream cheese frosting. Place all ingredients into a medium bowl and mix until smooth.
- Once the carrot cake is cool enough, frost, top with optional ground cinnamon and chopped pecans, slice, and enjoy!
Tips & Notes
- This recipe was updated on April 7, 2020, as many people had problems with the cake being too dense. For the original recipe click HERE.
- Nutrition information does not include optional toppings.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Don’t forget to tag your posts on social media with the hashtag #fitfoodiefinds, we’d love to see what you’re up to!
This looks very good! Can I use ricotta for the frosting, instead of cream cheese? Thank you!
Hmmmm not sure I would use ricotta for this!
I recently nominated you for the Bloggers Recognition Award. If you would like to accept, visit my blog post for more information: http://bit.ly/2guVqsh
Never loved carrots! But this carrot cake is so moist and delicious that I can’t stop making it!!
It always turns out perfect. This one goes in my permanent file, and it’s EASY!!
Julia, so glad you love this recipe!!!
I just made this! overall it was well received, but I found it a bit too moist. Could have been poor measurements on my part, or the fact that I used whole wheat ‘pastry’ flour. Looking back at the recipe, I’m still not sure which flour I should have used — whole wheat, or white?
The frosting turned out better than I’d imagined… I was all set to add icing sugar but didn’t have to! Overall would try again but try to dry it out a little…
Hi! Do you think I could bake it in a 8×8 round pan? And for how long? Thanks
Hi Christelle! I definitely think you can. You’ll just need to increase the bake time. Start with 5 minutes and check it from there!
Can I sub alomnd milk with soy milk?
This was so good! I unfortunately was not crazy about the frosting.
I also accidentally put store bought shredded carrots instead of grating my own – oops! But even with this flaw, I loved it!
Looking forward to making it again.
I also used 1/3 less fat neufchâtel cream cheese for the frosting so I am not sure if that made a difference?
Hi lee looks great can we sub with another to make it paleo ? Almond flour or coconut and measures pls ?
Hey Sasha! I definitely wouldn’t try subbing to make it paleo. The recipe would have to be completely changed for those measurements!
Great recipe. I don’t eat eggs so I substituted with applesauce and it was delicious.
Even more than the cake I really enjoyed the frosting!
Yay! So glad your substitution worked. Do you mind sharing how much applesauce you used?
Thank you for this awesome recipe! It’s a cold, snowy, icy day here in GA and I was ready to bake something yummy. This was it! Delicious, and easy. ???
WAHHHHH! So glad you loved it. Stay safe out there 🙂