Only a few people can say no to a Carrot Cake piece, and even fewer if the cake is gluten-free!

Carrot cake is a dessert that has achieved worldwide fame after spreading and becoming popular in the United States, although it is really a dessert of European and medieval origin.

The sugar or honey that nowadays we can find everywhere (even in excess…), in the Middle Ages were very expensive ingredients and very difficult to obtain. Only the richest and most privileged will be able to afford these ingredients.

To compensate this lack of sugar, the recipes were sweetened with carrot, pumpkin or beetroot, which are naturally rich in sugar.

One of these sweetened recipes with food was the carrot pudding. To make it, the carrots were cooked in order to enhance their sweetness. To be later mixed with the rest of the ingredients.

The recipe evolved (with the addition of the frosting on top or between the layers of the cake) until reach the fame it has today. In fact, it is so popular in the United States that it has its own day: February 3rd is National Carrot Cake Day.

Carrot cake is so popular in the United States that it has its own day: February 3rd is National Carrot Cake Day.

As you already know, I like to make easy recipes with everyday ingredients (in most cases) and as simple as possible. The tastier and easier the recipe is, the more you like it, and the more times we will make it! So in this recipe, we will use grind carrots without cooking.

Since we are not in the Middle Ages we will use some sugar and cinnamon. Although it is true that by cooking the carrots previously (we would need more carrots to get the final 300 g of carrots needed), they gain sweetness and we could reduce the amount of added sugar.

For better or for worse, sugar is super accessible, and we use it in most desserts. To counter this, what I usually do in my recipes is reduce the amount of sugar as much as possible. even add only half of the sugar added in other similar recipes.

We also add cinnamon, which gives the cake that characteristic sweetness and flavor of this spice. And talking about cinnamon… Try this Cinnamon Rolls recipe! They are spectacular!

Please take into account that the carrot cake has a white layer that completely covers the cake. This superficial layer is a frosting composed of sugar, creamy cheese and butter that gives a lot of flavor to the cake.

The frosting already has a lot of sugar (together with cheese and butter) and will add a lot of flavor to the whole cake. So a less sweet base will not be a problem in this cake:

If you want a sweeter cake, just add more frosting, and if you prefer less sugary cake, make the frosting layer as thin as you want. You can even eat the cake without frosting!

Last but not least, I would not like to start with the preparation of the recipe without first telling you that this cake is completely gluten-free (just like the Gluten-free Brownie recipe or the Saint James tart recipe). In most carrot cake recipes, they use wheat flour to achieve this sponge-like fluffiness.

In most carrot cake recipes, they use wheat flour to achieve that sponge-like fluffiness, but in this case, the gluten network is not so necessary since the egg and the carrot work as “structure”. In this recipe, wheat flour has been replaced by rice flour achieving a spectacular result.

The first times with this cake, I did it with wheat flour, and I have to say that the result was amazing. But at that moment, to know if I can make it without gluten, I decided to try it with rice flour and I was pleasantly surprised by the result! With rice flour, you will get a spongier and softer texture than with wheat flour.

Having made this dessert with wheat flour and rice flour, I promise that if I had to choose, I would choose, 100% of the time, to make the carrot cake with rice flour.

This Carrot Cake is made with rice flour and it is 100 % gluten free!

Let´s go with this easy recipe!

Difficulty: EASY

Preparation time: 1 hour

Baking time: 40 minutes

CARROT CAKE

INGREDIENTS (For 1 cake mould of 26 -28 cm diameter)

Cake
300 g peeled carrots
4 eggs (L)
150 g rice flour
100 g sugar
75 g olive oil (0,4 º)
50 g walnuts
1 tablespoon (15 g) of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 hint of salt
Frosting
200 g creamy cheese
100g icing sugar
40 g butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

PREPARATION

Cake

Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 160 ºC. Heat up and down, without fan.

Then, grease all the cake mould (both the base and the edges of the mould) with oil. We do this to prevent the cake batter from sticking to the surface of the mould and making it easier to unmould.

Peel the carrots and grate or grind them in a mincer. Remember that for every 300 g of peeled carrots, you will need approximately 350 g of unpeeled carrots.

In a bowl, add the (peeled and ground) carrots with the rest of the ingredients, and blend them until everything is well mixed.

Once all the ingredients are mixed, pour the mixture in the mould. Help yourself with a spatula to clean the sides of the bowl well. Doing that, you will use the whole mixture. There will be no waste!

Put the mould in the oven. Place it at a medium-low height.

And finally, bake the cake at 160 ºC for around 40 minutes or until you see that the surface of the cake is well cooked and with the central part slightly higher than the sides.

One tip: Do not try to reduce the time baking the cake at a higher temperature; You will only burn the outside of the cake, leaving the centre raw.

Once baked, remove the cake from the oven, cover it with a tea towel, and leave it to cool (this way, we prevent the cake from suffering a very sudden temperature change after removing it from the oven. This will help to better maintain its spongy structure).

Frosting

While the cake cools, we can make the frosting that we will put on top of the cake. You could even make multiple layers of cake and fill them with frosting!

Leave the butter in a warm place or heat it in the microwave until it has a creamy texture.

Mix the butter with the icing sugar (icing sugar is used as it is powder, so there will be no sugar crystals in the frosting), the creamy cheese, and the teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Using a spatula, evenly cover the cake with a layer of frosting. You can decorate the cake as you like.

I like to make mini carrots and place them on the top of the cake, but you can also grate carrots or, simply place a walnut in the middle as decoration. As you wish!

Decorated or even without decoration, all you have to do is to get your teeth into the cake. Enjoy this spectacular flavour and texture!

Do you want to have this Carrot Cake recipe in Spanish? Check it here!