Almond Flour Carrot Cake

This gluten-free almond flour carrot cake is moist and delicious in every single bite, you may like it better than traditional carrot cake!

Oh man, this almond flour carrot cake has been on my list for so long now.  

I’ve had a lot of fun developing gluten-free carrot cake recipes over the years, including carrot cake baked oatmeal, carrot cake quinoa muffins with frosting, carrot cake smoothie bowl, carrot cake Greek Yogurt pancakes, and oat flour carrot cake.  And some with whole wheat flour like my healthy carrot cake muffins, and healthy carrot cake.  

But I’ve always had almond flour carrot cake on my list.  I’ve mentioned before that baking with almond flour is one of the biggest hacks for creating more balanced desserts.  Almond flour is mostly fat and protein, so even if you use the exact same amount of sugar as the traditional version, you’ve cut the carbohydrate count to at least half.  This leads you with a more satisfying final dish than traditional versions.  My other versions are made with whole grain flours like oat flour and whole wheat, which do have more fiber, so a slower blood sugar spike than traditional versions, but still more carbs than almond flour.  

The problem with a lot of almond flour baking is that it ends up eggy or crumbly, which is not idea.  Neither happened in my final result, so I’m very happy with it. It is more dense than traditional carrot cake, but it’s also moister and has a deeper flavor.  We loved it enough to eat two full cakes, so there is that! My mother-in-law said she’d rather have this cake than regular carrot cake. Definitely let me know if you try this one! 

How to Make Almond Flour Carrot Cake

This is a visual how-to section with extra tips.  The full printable recipe car is below.   

I wanted to make this recipe as easy as possible.  Since we aren’t working with gluten, you can be a little more loose with some of the methodology that goes into baking.  I made this cake like a simple, quick bread.  Mix the dry, mix the wet, add the dry to the wet, add mix-ins, and bake.  The one thing I did that I would HIGHLY encourage you to do is add parchment paper to the pan and spray that parchment paper with cooking spray.  When this cake comes out of the oven, you’ll want to be able to lift your parchment paper (carefully) and transfer it to a cooling rack as shown.  Allowing it to cool in the dish may cause it to dry out.  

Can I Make This In Another Shape Dish? 

I chose to make this an 8 x 8 dish, so I got a big, thick slice of carrot cake with a thick layer of frosting.  It was really a stylized preference.  For photos, I wanted to differentiate between the other two cakes I have on the blog that are round, and I wanted it to be easy (because shredding your own carrots is a must, and that step annoys  me, haha.)  But you have a lot of flexibility here, especially if you want a multi-layer cake.  In each of the scenarios below, you’ll want to reduce the cooking time by half.  I didn’t try these, but my guess is it will take about half as long to bake your cakes.  

1. Bake It In Two 8 x 8  Square Pans/Dish 
2. Bake It In Two 8 Inch Cake Pans 
3. Bake It In One 9 x 13 Dish for Thinner Pieces of Cake 

Or, to keep it easy, bake it in an 8 x 8 square pan. The dish you see in the photos is a Le Creuset 8-inch square baking dish that’s 2.5 inches deep. 

Troubleshooting & Tips 

My cake fell in the center.  This happened to me in testing. It was because I opened the oven too many times too early in the baking process.  Try to open the oven only one time to rotate the pan halfway through.  

My cake stuck to the pan. Make sure you use parchment paper, as shown in the above grid.  I measure a piece of parchment paper by placing it inside the pan to cover the bottom and sides of the dish. I cut slits in the corners to help it lay flat. 

Swaps and Substitutions 

This recipe is gluten-free, grain-free, and dairy-free (depending on the frosting choice) already.  But if you need to swap out an ingredient, see the suggestions below.  

• Almond Flour – do not substitute.  If you need to use another flour, I suggest my healthy carrot cake made with whole wheat flour or my oat flour carrot cake. 
• Baking Soda – do not sub or omit.  
• Cinnamon – do not sub. It can increase or decrease depending on how much you like.  
• Nutmeg – do not sub. It can increase or decrease depending on how much you like.  
• Ginger  – do not sub, you can increase or decrease depending on how much you like.  
• Ground Cloves  – do not sub, can increase or decrease depending on how much you like.  
• Brown Sugar – can use coconut sugar instead.  
• Eggs – You could try to substitute flax eggs, but I haven’t tried it.  
• Maple Syrup –  Sub with any liquid sweetener like honey, brown rice syrup, etc.  
• Vanilla – do not sub, you can increase or decrease depending on how much you like.  
• Melted Coconut Oil – could use melted butter or palm oil.  
• Carrots – IMPORTANT, you must shred your own carrots!  Pre-shredded carrots are way too dry.  I KNOW this is annoying, but I promise it’s worth it.  Shred your own, and you’ll thank me.  
• Raisins – It’s not carrot cake without raisins.  
• Walnuts – You could use pecans instead.  

What about shredded coconut and pineapple?  You could reduce the raisins and walnuts to 1/3 cup each and add 1/3 cup of shredded coconut.  I would not add pineapple to this recipe because I haven’t tried it, and it may mess with the moisture level.  Personally, I don’t think coconut or pineapple belongs in carrot cake, but that’s just my opinion! 

How to Store/Freeze Almond Flour Carrot Cake 

Store Almond Flour Carrot Cake: Store this in the refrigerator.  Once it’s cooled completely, tightly wrap it in saran wrap if you haven’t frosted yet.  If it has been frosted, try to find an airtight container in which it will fit. Stays good for up to seven days in the refrigerator.  

Freeze Almond Flour Carrot Cake: Honestly, I haven’t tried it.  I’m going to put a piece in the freezer, though to try it though.  I’ll come back and update you on how it goes!