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    Home » Baking

    Super Delicious Vegan Carrot Cake using Aquafaba

    Published: Feb 17, 2016 · Modified: Mar 20, 2021 by Louise-Claire Cayzer · This post may contain affiliate links · This blog generates income via ads · 31 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    You might have noticed that I'm not much of  a baker. In fact, since I started this blog I have yet to write-up a single cake or dessert recipe. The thing is, neither The Gardener, nor I have much of a sweet tooth, so as much as I like pottering around in the kitchen, it almost always seems a waste to make cakes, biscuits or cookies as they just won't get eaten.

    The one cake I do love however is a good, moist & spicy carrot cake. The sort with a moist & dense yet somehow fluffy crumb that works just as well on its own or can be jazzed up with a lemony icing. I'd been thinking about making one  for ages...but hadn't quite got my head around how I'd go about it..

    Close up of vegan carrot cake this recipe

    But then I discovered a new thing: Aquafaba

    I was recently intrigued by the new discovery in the vegan world that Aquafaba (a fancy word for the water that you drain off a tin of chickpeas) is a very good egg replacer. It turns out that the nifty chickpea leaches out proteins that are similar to egg white into the water it's cooked in. This gives the chickpea cooking water a slightly viscous texture, that has really similar properties to egg whites. It can be whipped into meringues, added as an egg replacer in cakes and used to bind crumbs to fried goods. There's a whole rabbit hole of wonders to discover with this completely natural wonder ingredient that I had previously just rinsed down the sink!  If you want to learn more, there is a wonderful Facebook group dedicated to experimenting with Aquafaba.. go take a look, there are some seriously talented & experimental bakers & cooks out there https://www.facebook.com/groups/VeganMeringue/ 

    So obviously I was keen to try this new wonderous ingredient to see for myself if it really did work. I tried first with some meringues. I simply whipped the aquafaba in my new food processor until fluffy, this took around 10 mins,  but as they whipped, they became soft and airy, with the exact texture of whipped egg white. I then slowly added sugar until glossy, then plopped the meringue mixture onto a baking tray & baked at a very low heat. And they worked. No beany flavour, no weirdness. Just crunchy sweet meringue.

    Vegan Carrot Cake with a slice taken out

    Mind Blown.

    Obviously I made about a zillion of these, far too many for us to eat, so I did what I should have thought of doing ages ago, I took them into work. And they were promptly eaten. Result.

    Which made me think, maybe rather than bringing in the usual store bought cake into work for my birthday, I'd make the carrot cake I'd been wanting, but veganise it with Aquafaba to replace the eggs and see what my colleagues thought. The brilliant thing about carrot cake is that it's quite easy to make, most recipes call for a neutral oil instead of  butter, so the only real replacement ingredient is the egg.  So I was pretty confident I'd be able to pull it off.

    Vegan Carrot Cake from the top

     

    I decided to play it safe for my first real foray into vegan baking & use a Mary Berry recipe for a jumping off point (after all, her recipes are pretty much always going to be quite fail safe..... right??)   But I couldn't help myself, and deviated somewhat more from her recipe than originally intended, using only half the oil she specified, and adding some extra baking powder, plus also adding in some allspice as well as the traditional cinnamon and ginger, and subbing pumpkin seeds for her walnut pieces.

    I also baked my cake in one large tin, not wanting to go the full cream cheese frosting in two layers faff. I instead mixed a light lemon icing to drizzle over the top in squiggles, that I think, whilst maybe not quite as festive as a layer cake, still looked elegant (well, sort of )  and despite a little sinking in the middle, tasted delicious.

     

    Best of all, this cake had the thumbs up from all my work colleagues, and as it was so huge, kept very well in its tin over the weekend ready for a lucky few to snaffle the remaining slices for elevenses on Monday.

    This small success has given me a little bit of a baking buzz. What else shall I make to test on my work guinea pigs, I mean, colleagues??

     

    Close up of vegan carrot cake

    Vegan Carrot Cake made with Aquafaba

    This light and fluffy carrot cake recipe is perfectly moist with lovely spices. Made with aquafaba instead of eggs so this recipe is 100% vegan!
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    4.6 from 15 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Afternoon Tea, birthday cake, Dessert
    Cuisine: cake, Vegan
    Keyword: aquafaba, cake with aquafaba, Carrot cake
    Prep Time: 15 minutes
    Cook Time: 40 minutes
    Servings: 10 Slices
    Author: Louise-Claire Cayzer

    Ingredients

    For the cake

    • 150 ml sunflower oil ((or other neutral oil such as light olive oil))
    • 15 Tbs Aquafaba ((chickpea water) unbeaten)
    • 225 g light muscovado sugar
    • 200 g carrots (, coarsly grated)
    • 300 g general purpose flour
    • 3 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon all spice
    • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
    • 75 g pumpkin seeds (, roughly chopped (optional. Or use walnuts or pecans))

    For the Icing

    • Juice half lemon
    • ½ cup icing sugar ((powdered sugar))

    Instructions

    • Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
    • Grease one 23cm round sandwich tin and line the basesof the cake tin with baking parchment.
    • Whisk the oil, aquafaba, and sugar until the mixture is well combined, lighter, and noticeably thickened. Gently fold the carrot into the cake batter, then stir in the flour, baking powder,spices and pumpkin seeds.
    • Pop in the oven and bake for 35-40 mins. Test with a skewer to see if it is cooked through. If it comes out clean, it's ready to take out of the oven. If it comes out a little gooey, leave the cake in for another 5 mins.
    • Cool the cake in it's tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a cake rack.
    • Meanwhile, whisk together the icing and lemon juice. Add more icing sugar if necessary, you want a thickish yet drizzable mix.
    • Once cool, turn the cake onto a serving plate and drizzle with the icing.

    Notes

    This cake keeps well for at least 5 days in an airtight container. Probably longer but it was gone before I could test it!
    Adapted from Mary Berry

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. shaheen says

      February 17, 2016 at 10:45 am

      Aquafaba is an amazing thing, I've made vegan macarons with it a while back and am still experimenting with other recipes. I love carrot cake, so I know i want a BIG slice of this.

      Reply
      • louise says

        February 17, 2016 at 10:40 pm

        Let me know if you make it! I'm definitely bitten with the baking bug now I have aquafaba to experiment with!

        Reply
    2. Mandi says

      February 18, 2016 at 5:07 am

      I think the amount of baking powder might be why your cake sunk a bit. So many leaveners in baking powder can cause baked goods to rise fast, make big air pockets, and then fall. Maybe sub in some baking soda instead.
      That being said, I'm bookmarking this recipe to be my first carrot cake recipe! Love the pumpkin seed idea!

      Reply
      • louise says

        February 20, 2016 at 9:06 pm

        OH! Maybe, I put extra in because the Mary Berry recipe called for self raising flour which I didn't have to hand and it was such a damp mix that I thought extra leavener might be needed. I'll try with a little less next time.. I'm a bit new to baking so that's a great tip.. x

        Reply
    3. Nico Rossetti le Strange says

      April 29, 2016 at 12:43 pm

      Wow, what a very small world this is, Louise; you don't actually know me but I've been friends with The Gardener for years. And yes, I realise that makes me sound like a stalker!

      I saw this recipe on one of the vegan groups on Pinterest, clicked through for the lowdown, saw your profile pic, and thought, "Wow, that really looks like T's kitchen"!! And then saw your name!

      I've just signed up for your mailing list. 🙂

      Reply
      • louise says

        April 29, 2016 at 1:44 pm

        Oh Wow! The Gardener has told me about you.. I must check out your recipes too. It is such a small world! (also- I'm beyond pleased that my pinterest boards are doing the rounds! All that hard work!) x

        Reply
    4. Angie says

      September 04, 2016 at 7:04 am

      Made this last week with a couple of tweeks (changed spices & added walnuts and sultanas instead of sunflower seeds then frosted with a Tofutti better than cream cheese mixture). It was delicious. Thanks for sharing your recipe. This was the first time I'd made carrot cake (my favourite!) since becoming vegan 5 years ago.

      Reply
      • louise says

        September 04, 2016 at 8:29 pm

        Hi Angie! That sounds delicious..The Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese frosting sounds delish (sadly unavailable in the UK I think..). Carrot cake is my fave- I'm so pleased you liked the recipe x

        Reply
        • Grace says

          September 24, 2019 at 12:45 pm

          Can I use xylitol in this recipe in place of muscovado sugar?

          Reply
          • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

            September 26, 2019 at 8:50 pm

            I haven't tried it with xylitol. I would think it would work, however the muscovado sugar gives an extra depth of flavour so you might want to add some extra cinnamon or spice to compensate.

            Reply
      • Jamie says

        April 14, 2019 at 5:35 pm

        4 stars
        This turned out pretty well for me with a very good texture (although slightly grainy but I suspect that is due to the gluten free flour I used). Here’s what I found:

        • I had to cook it for more like 55 minutes (I lost count) but there is a chance I used a bit too much aquafaba
        • I’ll probably put a little less sugar in next time
        • People who don’t like a lot of ginger might want to halve the amount. Some mixed spice might be nice as a substitute.

        Reply
    5. Emily says

      February 06, 2021 at 10:53 am

      I halved the recipe and made it into 6 muffins - amazing! I used 1.5 x the pumpkin seeds by accident and added some sultanas. They were great as a breakfast muffin and stayed moist for several days.

      Reply
      • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

        February 06, 2021 at 7:22 pm

        Oh, what a yummy idea! Love a breakfast muffin!

        Reply
    6. Katka says

      March 01, 2021 at 7:25 am

      Thank you very much for the recipe! My first cake with aquafaba and it turned out as huge success! Thank you!

      Reply
      • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

        March 01, 2021 at 3:15 pm

        I'm so glad you liked the recipe and the cake! It's one of our favourites too.

        Reply
    7. Julia Fleming says

      March 11, 2021 at 10:35 pm

      5 stars
      I am no expert I rarely bake cakes.

      This cake has turned out amazing, so moist and yummy !

      I used coconut oil, I had no Allspice I used bananas additionally as didn't have enough carrots, used Italian Wheat flour and a small dash of vanilla essence, I used cashews as the optional nuts.

      Result : Very Pleasing !!

      Reply
      • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

        March 12, 2021 at 10:46 am

        I'm so happy you liked this cake! It's one of our faves too.

        Reply
    8. Stefanie says

      May 14, 2021 at 5:08 pm

      5 stars
      Really happy that I found this recipe! I made carrot cake cupcakes for a vegan high tea party. Used spelled flour to make it gluten free and it was delicious!

      Thanks for sharing this recipe, very happy!

      Reply
      • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

        May 14, 2021 at 5:21 pm

        I'm so glad you like this recipe! Carrot Cake Cupcakes sound delicious!

        Reply
    9. Heather says

      August 25, 2021 at 11:39 pm

      Really nice recipe to introduce egg-free bf to carrot cake, did take longer to bake for me - around 50 minutes or so

      Reply
      • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

        August 31, 2021 at 4:59 pm

        I'm so pleased you like the cake. And I'll pop in the notes that it might take longer for some people for the cake to bake! It can really depend on how juicy the carrots were!

        Reply
    10. Massive Carol says

      April 04, 2022 at 2:49 pm

      5 stars
      I've never felt strongly enough about a recipe to rate. Best cake I've ever eaten. Easy to make. I used white castor no problem and did not chop the pumpkin seeds

      Reply
      • Louise-Claire Cayzer says

        April 04, 2022 at 3:27 pm

        I'm so happy you like this recipe! (and that this is your first ever rating!!) Thank you SO much for stopping by to let us know. It's made us SO happy!

        Reply

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