Healthy Carrot Cake

4.20 from 36 votes
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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!

carrot cake on plate
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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

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
carrot cake wet ingredients in bowl

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.

  1. Grate Carrots: first, peel and grate 2-cups of carrots. We suggest doing a fine to medium grate.
  2. 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.
  3. Dry Ingredients: Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  4. Mix: Add wet ingredients to dry and mix to combine. Finally, add in melted coconut oil and mix again.
  5. Bake: Transfer the carrot cake batter into a greased 9×9-inch pan and bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes.
  6. Frost: Let carrot cake cool completely and then frost with Greek yogurt cream cheese frosting.
healthy carrot cake

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.

4.20 from 36 votes

Healthy Carrot Cake Recipe

Our healthy carrot cake is ultra moist and made with whole ingredients such as white whole wheat flour, maple syrup, warm spices, and Greek yogurt.
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 40 minutes
Total: 1 hour
Servings: 9
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Ingredients 

Dry

Wet

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 ๐Ÿ™‚
  • 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

Calories: 308 kcal, Carbohydrates: 52 g, Protein: 11 g, Fat: 7 g, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 32 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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About Lee Funke

Lee is the founder of Fit Foodie Finds and based in Minneapolis, MN. She started this website in 2010 as a way to share her love for real food and wellness. The internet has changed so much since then and so has Fit Foodie Finds. Today we're a female-run recipe website publishing hundreds of tried and true recipes developed and tested by our team.

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Jen
Jen
July 24, 2022 8:17 am
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
Love this recipe! It was easy to make and Iโ€™m so happy with how it turned out! THANK YOU xx

Emily Richter
July 25, 2022 11:04 am
Reply to  Jen

Yay! So glad you loved this carrot cake, Jen ๐Ÿ˜€

Bethany
Bethany
April 14, 2022 8:43 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
I am not usually a huge fan of carrot cake, but this recipe is making me rethink everything!! It tastes amazing, not too rich or sweet, and is topped with the perfect light frosting, cinnamon and chopped pecans. Yum!!! ๐Ÿคค๐Ÿคค

Emily Richter
April 15, 2022 8:11 am
Reply to  Bethany

Yay! So glad you enjoyed this carrot cake as much as we do, Bethany ๐Ÿ˜€

Sarah
Sarah
April 7, 2022 9:12 am
Recipe Rating :
     

1 star
Waste of quality ingredients! Do not make this recipe! Why is it still here when the reviews of so bad??

Emily Richter
April 12, 2022 10:46 am
Reply to  Sarah

Hi Sarah, We’re so sorry to hear this! Wondering if you made any modifications? Or what issues you had? Would love to get to the bottom of this for you ๐Ÿ™‚

Katelyn
Katelyn
July 26, 2021 7:45 pm

Hi, can I swap out the whole wheat and all purpose flour for Bobโ€™s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Flour?

Emily Richter
July 27, 2021 2:06 pm
Reply to  Katelyn

We haven’t tested this, but it should work as long as you’re using Bob’s GF 1:1 flour! Let us know how it goes ๐Ÿ™‚

mel
mel
April 24, 2021 1:44 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

1 star
DON’T MAKE THIS RECIPE. This recipe should be taken down if it is not correct. It turned out so dense and dry even though I used the second recipe. The Icing is a joke. It was so liquidy. I wasted a whole bunch of ingredients hoping to make a birthday cake.

Vanny
Vanny
March 2, 2021 3:52 am

how do you recommend storing?
in fridge or leave out in a sealed container ?

Louise Gibbons
Louise Gibbons
September 25, 2020 8:54 am

I really donโ€™t like cinnamon What else could I use ? Or would it be ok to leave it out ?

Kanchan Khetrapal
Kanchan Khetrapal
May 28, 2020 6:48 am
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
Super Easy to follow and the best part was that in the result! Cake was to die forrrrrrrr.
Thank you so much.

P.S. – I tried it with flaxseeds instead of eggs.
(2 tbs of Flaxseeds + 6 tbs of Water = Mix and leave it in the fridge for 10 mins)

Sara
Sara
May 23, 2020 1:12 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

2 stars
I made the cake, turned out very dense .. is there any chance you can make your measures in grams rather than cups?

bakeress
bakeress
May 19, 2020 9:41 am

if all i have is self raising flour on hand how much of the all purpose flour do i substitute for self raising and do i now not put any baking powder?