A delicious moist & spicy gluten-free carrot cake, smothered in delicious cream cheese frosting!
Gluten free carrot cake
Lets talk carrot cake – its yummy, its delicious…. can you tell its my favourite! As carrot cake to me is the ultimate all time flavour of heaven, why not enjoy a gluten free version. There is not reason why gluten free bakes cant be as yummy as normal bakes. For this cake, you will not tell the difference. Its still moist and yummy and everything a carrot cake should be.
I would seriously recommend this recipe to those who know gluten-free people, or have gluten free people in the family – you can all enjoy it. It’s a simple yet delicious bake and I adore it. My other go to gluten free recipes would have to be my gluten free brownies or my gluten and dairy free chocolate cake, for the same reasons that they are just absolutely scrumptious.
Gluten free flour
I just used any standard gluten-free self raising flour that I found in my local supermarket and it worked so much better than I thought. I do prefer the doves farm brand above anything else, as I find because it has xantham gum added in, it’s perfect.
If you are using a normal gluten free self raising flour then you may want to add in 1/2tsp of xantham gum to help bind the ingredients – carrot cake is a naturally softer sponge anyway, so this does help it.
Usually with gluten free bakes, I try and simply swap the ingredients for the gluten free version. However, please do double check the other ingredients you are using as brands/supermarket own products can all differ – and you don’t want any cross contamination.
Carrots, raisins and nuts
The carrot in the cake brings out so much moisture and deliciousness that you can’t tell the difference between this cake and a regular carrot cake. Genuinely, carrot cake is my favourite cake that is out there as it’s hard to get it wrong, and I just adore it so much for that.
I did decide to only use the carrot & raisins in this cake, as in my other carrot cake recipe I used nuts – and both combinations are DELICIOUS! You can of course add nuts in if you wanted – I’d add 100-200g of a chopped nut of choice, my preference being walnuts because they are a classic addition to a cake like this.
Cream cheese frosting
For the frosting, I decided to do cream cheese frosting as it’s delicious with a carrot cake related bake like this beauty. I have a post all about cream cheese frosting on my blog as it is notoriously tricky, but honestly?! Mine is pretty amazing.
- Butter – For this frosting you MUST use block butter. Margarine/spreads do not work with cream cheese frosting as they are too soft.
- Sugar – as always, icing sugar guys.
- Cream Cheese – I often use Philadelphia to make my cream cheese frosting, you just need to make sure whatever soft cheese you use is full-fat.
- Flavours – I like to add for flavour as per usual, but this is optional – I used vanilla and some ground cinnamon.
Recipe Updated February 2023
Every now and again I will update recipes to what I prefer, but the original recipe will always stay on the page and here it is:
The original recipe was: 210g unsalted butter, 300g caster sugar, 3 large eggs, 300g gluten free self raising flour , 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp baking powder, 450g grated carrots, 150g sultanas. Beat the butter and sugar together until combined, add in the eggs, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, carrots and sultanas and combine. Split between 2x 8″ tins and bake for 30-35 minutes.
The decoration was: 200g unsalted butter, 450g icing sugar, 1-3tbsp whole milk and 2tsp ground cinnamon – beat the butter on it’s own for a few minutes, then add the icing sugar and cinnamon. Add the milk 1tbsp at a time, if needed.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake!
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Ingredients
Cake
- 225 ml sunflower oil
- 275 g light brown sugar
- 5 medium eggs
- 325 g gluten free self raising flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 300 g grated carrots
- 100 g raisins
- Zest of 1 orange
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 175 g unsalted butter room tempreture
- 175 g icing sugar
- 350 g cream cheese
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
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Preheat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and grease and line two 8″ cake tins with parchment paper
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Add your grated carrots, eggs, sunflower oil, light brown sugar and orange zest mix until combined
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The, add your ground ginger, ground cinnamon, raisins and gluten free self raising flour and mix again
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Once the mix is combined, pour into the cake tins
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Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the cake is cooked – test using a cake skewer, it should come out clean
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Leave the cakes to cool in the tins.
Cream cheese frosting
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Beat the room temperature unsalted butter for a couple of minutes until it’s smooth and supple
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Add in your icing sugar, ground cinnamon and vanilla extract and beat until combined
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Add your cream cheese and beat to combine again
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Pipe the frosting onto the cakes and decorate however you wish
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Enjoy!
Notes
- Recipe updated February 2023 – original recipe on the blog post.
- I used the doves farm gluten-free self-raising flour that I found in my local supermarket – it doesn’t really matter which one you use because the carrots create so much moisture that the texture of the flour is the same as if you used regular self-raising flour! So that’s always a bonus.
- This cake will last best in the fridge – for 3 days.
- I use these tins!
ENJOY!
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