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Amazing Gluten-free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When I was growing up, my mom would make carrot cake for special occasions. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, almost every event had this carrot cake as the main dessert. When I started my own family and began hosting holidays at my house, this carrot cake became part of our tradition as well. When my husband and I were not able to eat gluten anymore, I knew that I had to make some changes to this recipe to remove the gluten and to make it a little healthier. The original recipe called for one and a half cups of oil, one and three quarter cups of sugar and 2 cups of regular all purpose flour. Not exactly healthy! This updated recipe uses applesauce and melted butter (dairy free butter works well here, too), less sugar, and Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-free flour. This is a traditional, dense carrot cake and is absolutely delicious.

Amazing Gluten-free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Amazing Gluten-free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is everything you'd ever want in a carrot cake. Super moist with just enough pineapple, walnuts, carrots, and coconut. Absolutely delicious and made healthier with applesauce in place of some of the butter and less sugar (when compared to the original recipe). And of course it's gluten-free!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 25 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 524 kcal

Equipment

• Oven – preheated to 350°
• Stand Mixer or hand held mixer with mixing bowl
• Food Processor with shredding blade, or handheld shredding device
• Rubber Scraper
• Bundt Pan
• Measuring Cups and Spoons
• Cooling Rack
• Small saucepan

Ingredients

  

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For Cake

• 2 cups gluten-free flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup butter melted
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots (about 4 regular sized carrots)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 8 oz can crushed pineapple drained

For Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 oz unsalted butter softened
• 4 oz cream cheese softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 1-2 tsp milk of your choice

Instructions

 

For Cake

• In a medium bowl, add gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• Shred carrots and chop walnuts. Set aside.
• In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add melted butter, applesauce, and sugar into bowl of stand mixer. Turn mixer to low and blend about 1 minute. Add eggs and vanilla and blend another 1-2 minutes until all ingredients are well mixed.
• Add flour mixture into wet ingredients and with mixer on low speed, mix until flour mix is well incorporated. Add shredded carrots, walnuts, pineapple, and coconut.
  
• Grease bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and evenly spread batter into pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on cooling rack before turning out. Let cool completely before frosting.

For Frosting

• To mixing bowl add softened butter and softened cream cheese and mix until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Gradually add powdered sugar until frosting reaches desired consistency, beating well between additions of sugar. Add vanilla and milk. Continue to beat 1-2 more minutes until frosting is creamy. Use to frost completely cooled cake.
  

Notes

This recipe is a modification of a carrot cake recipe that has been in my family for over 30 years.  The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of oil, 1 3/4 cups of sugar, and regular flour.  I used melted butter instead of oil, and I tried to lighten this version up a little by using unsweetened applesauce in place of some of the butter. I also decreased the amount of sugar and used gluten-free flour.  

For this cake, I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour.  It already has xanthan gum added and subs perfectly for  regular flour with no modifications needed. If your gluten-free flour doesn’t have xanthan gum already added, you will need to add it according to the directions on your flour.

For the frosting:  If you would prefer to use a buttercream frosting instead of cream cheese frosting you can use 8 oz of softened butter and leave out the cream cheese. Just follow the rest of the steps in the recipe and you will have amazing buttercream frosting!   

 

Nutrition

Serving: 1sliceSodium: 462mgCalcium: 87mgVitamin C: 2mgVitamin A: 4028IUSugar: 45gFiber: 5gPotassium: 245mgCholesterol: 74mgCalories: 524kcalTrans Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 11gFat: 29gProtein: 8gCarbohydrates: 64gIron: 2mg

Keyword banana cake, carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, dessert

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