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A delicious moist sugar free carrot cake made with a delicious sugar free cream cheese frosting.
This sugar free carrot cake recipe is actually dairy free. I wanted to keep the cake portion dairy free so that everyone could make it. The cream cheese frosting that I used on this recipe is not dairy-free, but if you would like to use a dairy free version, you can use my dairy free whipped cream recipe.
The cream cheese frosting recipe I used for this sugar free carrot cake is the same one that I used in my gluten free gingerbread cake roll and can be used as a topping or icing for any kind of cake recipes!
A Paleo Carrot Cake for Any Occasion
This low carb carrot cake is so versatile as you can make it for any occasion. You can bake it in any type of mold you want as I mentioned above. If you were to make it in a springform pan, you could make a delicious birthday cake smothered with this delicious sugar free cream cheese frosting.
When I made this recipe, there wasn't actually any special occasion as I just felt like baking one, but it did taste a bit too good to share! I decided to cut the cake in individual portions and wrap them in saran wrap. The next day I brought half the batch over to work and gave them to some of my coworkers!
My coworkers had never eaten carrot cake as it's not a very popular cake in Japan so they were quite happy to receive a delicious treat from ''abroad'' as they quoted. They could not tell that these low carb carrot cake bars were in fact sugar free and gluten free. They were very impressed with the sweetness and moistness of this paleo carrot cake!
Why did I use erythritol and stevia to sweeten this Low Carb Carrot Cake?
For most of my baked goods recipes, you'll notice that I always tend to use a mixture of both erythritol and stevia. That is because I find that using both sweeteners together make a better product altogether.
Erythritol when used in large quantities can produce this annoying cooling effect inside the mouth and can also give stomach problems for some people. Erythritol is about 70% the sweetness of sugar so you usually need to use a bigger amount than sugar or add another sweetener to it to match the exact sweetness of sugar.
Stevia on the other hand is 300% sweeter than sugar so you really don't need to use a lot. I usually use between 1/32 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon max in any given recipes.
So why did I use erythritol and stevia for this recipe? Just like when baking with sugar, the chemical nature of granulated or powdered sugar, in this case erythritol, affects the texture, color and flavour of cakes. Adding erythritol to my baked goods recipes ensures they stay soft, moist and tender, but not always sweet enough.
This would not be possible with stevia alone. I could probably just use stevia to attain the perfect sweetness, but it wouldn't make the cake as moist, in fact it would be pretty dry. By adding a little bit of stevia to the erythritol, I am able to create the perfect sweetness, avoid the cooling effect from the erythritol and keep my paleo carrot cake extra light and rich.
For example, in my Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, Caramel Cheesecake or Chocolate Birthday Cake recipes, you'll notice that I use a combination of both erythritol and stevia powder.
How to make a Homemade Carrot Cake
This recipe showing you how to make a homemade carrot cake could not be easier! Baking without flour or sugar doesn't have to be complicated. Both gluten and gluten free versions of cakes have more or less the same steps: mix and bake.
For this sugar free carrot cake recipe, the first thing you'll want to do is grate your carrot with a cheese grater. You could also use a food processor or even thinly slice the carrot with a knife and then mince the slices as thin as you can if you don't have a food processor. You can use any type of carrots for this recipe, though their colour will affect the final product! I used a red carrot for this recipe.
Once your carrot is grated, you simply want to mix your dry and wet ingredients separately. Add them all together in one large bowl with your grated carrot. You could even add chopped nuts or raisins, if you eat them, to this step.
For a paleo carrot cake, you would simply switch the erythritol for either maple sugar or coconut sugar and same thing for the dairy free whipped cream recipe! For a smaller version, you'll definitely want to try these carrot cake muffins! They're also low carb and gluten free!
Add the batter to any kind of baking mould, put it in the oven and you are good to go! For this recipe, I decided to make sugar free carrot cake bars as I used a rectangular baking pan, but you could make it in a 9'' springform pan and make a layered cake. I also cut each portion and wrapped them in saran wrap for some portion control!
Now that you know how to make a homemade carrot cake, for what occasion will you make this amazing recipe?
Tips to make this Keto Carrot Cake
This keto carrot cake is quite easy to make. Just follow the following tips and you're guaranteed to have the best tasting low carb carrot cake out there!
- Instead of coconut oil, you can use ghee, light olive oil, butter, lard or shortening. Any type of fat will work. I used refined coconut oil in order to avoid having a coconut taste in the cake with extra-virgin coconut oil.
- Instead of almond milk you can use any type of nut milk, dairy milk, soy milk, etc.
- Instead of apple cider vinegar, you can use white vinegar or lemon juice. I found the apple cider vinegar made these sugar free carrot cake bars more fluffy.
- Instead of stevia powder, you can use pure monk fruit powder.
- Sick of carrots? Swap the carrots for zucchini for a delicious zucchini cake recipe!
- If you don't have ginger, cloves or cardamon, it's okay to leave them out. Having only the allspice and cinnamon should suffice. I like my carrot cakes to have a nice spicy cake, which is why I added them.
- If you leave out the coconut flour, you'll need to adjust to wet and dry ingredients ratio.
- You can use any type of nut flours or sunflower seed flour instead of almond flour.
- These should be stored in the fridge in a Tupperware or a Ziploc bag.
- You can freeze these carrot cake bars no problem. When you want to eat one, just simply let it thaw in the fridge.
- Any size of pan will work. Round, bundt, square, muffin, etc.
- For a paleo carrot cake, swap the erythritol for maple sugar or coconut sugar. And use the coconut whipped cream instead of the cream cheese frosting.
Recipe Card
Sugar Free Carrot Cake
Equipment Needed
- hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 recipe sugar free cream cheese frosting (OR)
- 1 recipe dairy free whipped frosting
Wet Ingredients
- 1.5 cups carrot (about one large)
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup refined coconut oil (or ghee, butter, olive oil, lard, shortening)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar, lemon juice)
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk (or dairy milk, heavy cream, soy milk)
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup blanched almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp stevia powder (or monk fruit powder)
- ¼ cup erythritol (or an approved paleo sweetener)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ginger powder
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp cardamon powder
- ½ tsp allspice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Grate the carrot with a cheese grater.
- In one large bowl, add the wet ingredients and combine.
- In another large bowl, add the dry ingredients and mix well.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a silicone spatula until perfectly combined.
- Add some parchment paper to a 9x13'' casserole dish. Pour the carrot cake batter inside the casserole and spread evenly.
- Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Once baked, take the cake out of the oven and let completely cool.
- Once the cake is cooled, you can then spread the cream cheese frosting all over!
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Notes
Nutritional information is provided through calculations made on fatsecret.com. They are approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on mypcoskitchen.com. Sugar alcohols are included in the fiber count. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber (which include sugar alcohols).
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Teri
DEEE-LICIOUS!!! I made this last night, I didn’t have the ginger power, and I left out the powdered stevia and my hubby and I absolutely loved it!!! Super moist and VERY flavorful. When I was putting the dry ingredients together and smelled the cloves, cardamom and allspice I thought Oh Boy this smells wonderful....please let it taste as good as it smells. IT DID!! This carrot cake was a huge hit in this house! It’s only me and the hubby so I’ll see if it freezes well. Not that we couldn’t eat the whole cake between in less then three days but I’m practicing moderation. 😜
Kimia
What if i want to use honey? How much should i use?
Mira
Hi Kimia, sorry not sure as I don't eat sugar. I'd start with the same amount and taste the batter and increase if necessary.
Barbara
I made this for Easter this past weekend & added a few Lily's no sugar added white chocolate chips as well as a few tbsps of raisins to the batter. It was delicious! The frosting recipe for this was excellent too! Taste testers had no idea it was sugar free or low carb!
PL
Could I substitute the coconut oil with Extra virgin olive oil? Thank you for posting your awesome recipes
Nam Goyes
This baked to perfection and i pounced on it the moment it came out of the oven. Big mistake. This recipe needs to 'settle in' almost. Without the frosting and fresh out of the oven it tasted almost savoury and 'eggy'. But once I'd calmed down and frosted it and let it cool overnight in the fridge, it was awesome. I omitted the extra spices (just a personal preference) and used cinnamon & vanilla extract, and threw in a handful of pecans. This is so delicious i will be making a new batch every week. What i like best about it is it doesn't taste too much like 'almond flour', like a lot of keto recipes can. Super delicious. Thank you!
susann
hi there....could i add walnuts and golden raisins for a traditional carrot cake. If I did how much for each of these ingreadients
Mira
Hi Susann, you can add anything you like. I would add up to 1/2 cup fo walnuts or raisins.
Anne
I'm allergic to almonds I'm also a pcos suffer what other flour could I use to replace the almond flour
Thank you
Mira
Hi Anne, you can sub for any other nut flour. I list a list of possible substitutions in the blog post for most ingredients.
Patrick Sole
Hiya, I am a first time user of one of your recipes and unfortunatly it has not gone well.
When I put the dry and wet ingredients together it was still dry and powdery.
I added another egg, tbsp of white wine vinegar and 600ml of milk, and it is still not the right consistency.
Any thoughts on why this has happened.
I used 240g of coconut flour because I didn't have any almond. And I used 32g of stevia Becuase I didn't have erythritol.
Mira
Hi Patrick, the reason why your cake didn't work is because you didn't follow the recipe. Coconut flour isn't a 1:1 replacement for almond flour. You can't interchanged them freely as coconut flour absorbs much more liquid than almond flour. You would need to up more eggs, sweetener and liquid. I'm not sure of the exact measurements because I don't usually bake with coconut flour. 32g of stevia also sounds like an awful lot. Did you use an extract or a blend with erythritol? Try using almond flour next time and your recipe should work. 🙂
Lyla
Patrick,
Reading your comment and Mira's reply. I just wanted you to know, that anytime you replace a nut flour with coconut flour, it is 1/4th of the flour called for.
In other words, if your recipe called for 4 cups Almond flour.....you could replace it with just 1 cup coconut flour.
Like Mira said, your problem was thinking it was a 1:1 ratio and it is not.
Using the coconut flour will save you calories and maybe give the cake a lighter texture because it absorbs so much more liquid then almond flour.
Carey
This is a great recipe. I did lighten it up so it would raise more by adding some tapioca flour in the place of the almond flour. I realize this adds some carbs but it allowed it to be stacked into a beautiful 3 tier cake for my grandmother's 100th birthday.
Elaine P
Recipe sounds delicious. Is it possible to use a jar of baby strained carrots in place of shredded carrots. If so how much would you recommend?
Thanks, Elaine
Mira
Hi Elaine, I'm thinking the canned carrots maybe too soft and they'll puree inside the cake instead of being sliced sticks. I'm sure the cake will work out, but it might be softer than usual since canned carrots are very soft and have much more water than fresh ones.
Cind Merrill
Love this recipe- I would add golden raisins to the batter and add unsweetened coconut to the topping.
Doraine
I don’t have stevia powder, any substitute? Thanks
Mira
You could use monk fruit, or instead of erythritol and stevia, some lakanto golden sweetener.
Deena
Any suggestions to replace almond fourmy daughter has a peanut and nut allergy. Casava flour?
Mira
Hi Deena, I've never used cassava flour, but I hear it's a 1-1 replacement. Also sunflower seed flour could work.
Lyla
Isn't Casava a legume, like a peanut? Coconut is not really classed a tree nut and it is not a legume
Josh
Made this last night, follow to a T except for the all spice.. it mattered not. It was delicious. Curious, your nutritional info is based on one slice. But how big is one slice??
Josh
nevermind, I see - 12 bars.
Mira
Thank you very much!! I'm glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Samantha
Just made these and they are FANTASTIC! Spices were spot on and that frosting is amazing! Thanks for another recipe.
Cheryl Beach
I am new to all this type of cooking. Your recipe for carrot cake looks wonderful and something I can make for my diabetic husband. The problem is you use measurements I am not used to (ie..g ml) and yet used tsp, cup. Could you do that for the other measurements please. Can't wait to make this for my husband, he's going to think he went to heaven!
Mira
Hi Cheryl, if you click on US Imperial, the measurements will be converted. I don't use cups for flour because the weight is not accurate depending on if you put a lot of stuff the cups with it. So I use grams/ounces for my recipes.
H. Claire
I tried this recipe yesterday, and it's delicious!!!! Thank you soo much for all the wonderful recipes you share on your website, most of the ones I've tried so far are just amazing. This cake is super moist and yummy. Even the carb-eaters in my family couldn't stop eating it :-), even though they are usually great fans of "conventional" carrot cakes. Since I didn't have cream cheese handy for the frosting, I replaced it with super thick and heavy cream (crème fraîche fermière crue from a nearby farm here in France), whipped with a bit of erythritol and vanilla, as well as some milk to get it soft enough that it was spreadable. It was wonderful, and the frosting is critical in my opinion to balance the spices in this recipe. The cake by itself is a bit overloaded with spices to my taste (and my husband agrees, he who yet adores spices), but becomes just right with the frosting that balances it's taste well (on top of the fact that it adds a lot of fat, a must for a low carb diet).
Miranda
We, in our family, don't do low carb but I really love the recipes. Isn't the amount of fat going to cause weight or some other issues?
Mira
Hi Miranda, if you eat low carb, fat is not the enemy. We need to eat fat in order to burn energy so all low carb diets involve a pretty high amount of healthy fats.
Also, I suggest reading Jason Fung's The Obesity Code, it talks more about how fat is not bad for us. The obesity and diabetic epidemic really started when people started eating low fat. Most low fats are filled with starches and sugars to replace the fatty parts and are really not healthy. I've been eating lots of fat for the past 3 years and down 95lbs 🙂
Sherry Thompson
You cannot eat high carb high fat ..it will cause negative health issues, if you are going to make these recipes and since you enjoy them it may be time to consider coming to the dark side lol we dont have cookies but we do have bacon!!
Hélène Nicole
Being mom of Mira, I got this in advance!
So delicious!
Merci Mira!