The lovely recipe is so popular because it’s so simple to make and it’s sugar-free too. Plus, this keto carrot cake is gluten-free, grain-free, and topped off with the most delicious cream cheese frosting.
Don’t want (or need) a whole cake? Quickly turn this keto carrot cake recipe into scrumptious cupcakes instead!
If you love carrot cake, you can have your sugar-free cake and eat it too! This is an almond flour recipe the entire family will enjoy. Make this special celebration cake for birthdays, Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas, or just a winter treat with coffee.
Is carrot cake keto?
Regular carrot cake is not keto because it is often made with wheat flour, wholemeal flour, sugar, honey, dried dates, and often has a high sugar frosting on top.
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The easy way to make a healthy keto carrot cake is to use low-carb baking alternatives such as almond flour and sugar replacements. Carrots are a root vegetable and are higher in carbs so fewer carrots can be eaten on a keto diet.
To make sure this keto carrot cake recipe falls within keto carb restrictions, fewer carrots are needed but the same warm spices and vanilla.
Nutrition information (per serving of one slice)
- Traditional carrot cake: 38 g net carbs, 3 g protein, 15 g fat, 290 calories.
- Sugar-free keto carrot cake: 3.8 g net carbs, 5.7 g protein, 31.6 g fat, 321 calories.
What a difference! Check out those net carbs – over 34 grams of net carbs saved in my keto carrot cake recipe!
Nutritional values from cronometer.com
Ingredients you need
All quantities, ingredients, and instructions are in the recipe card below.
Low Carb Carrot Cake
- Eggs – fresh medium eggs
- Butter – I used melted salted butter
- Sweetener – use your favourite sugar replacer and add more or less to your taste
- Vanilla essence – or vanilla extract
- Carrots – grated or shredded
- Walnuts – chopped
- Desiccated shredded coconut – always read the label to make sure your coconut is unsweetened and contains no added sugars
- Almond meal – blanched almond flour or ground almonds
- Ground cinnamon
- Mixed spice – or pumpkin pie spice
- Baking powder – do not be confused with baking soda
- Ground ginger – optional
Why develop a keto carrot cake recipe?
I once asked my Low-Carb and Keto For Beginners Group “who misses carrot cake when going low carb”?
I was overwhelmed by the response … it was a resounding YES!!!
Luckily you don’t need to miss out on carrot cake anymore because my low-carb carrot cake recipe is versatile and super easy.
It can be baked as a one or two-layer cake, muffins, cupcakes, or as a carrot loaf.
Which flour is best for keto carrot cake?
For this keto carrot cake recipe, I prefer to use either almond flour or almond meal. They are naturally low-carb flours and gluten-free flours.
They both work brilliantly. However, as with most natural and unprocessed low-carb and keto flours, they are not standardised and so will vary considerably from brand to brand, and even batch to batch.
So when making any low-carb baking, you will become accustomed to experimenting with possibly adding some additional low-carb flour to your batter to ensure it is the correct cake consistency.
Some almond flour/meal will absorb more liquids from your cake batter than others. Even how you store your almond flour/meal is important to prevent the flour from absorbing moisture from the air (and hence, less from your cake batter).
So if in doubt, add some additional almond flour to thicken your cake batter.
Can I use coconut flour?
You cannot directly substitute coconut flour for almond flour, these two low-carb flours behave completely differently.
Once you understand the difference between coconut flour vs almond flour you’ll understand how to avoid expensive baking mistakes.
The cake tastes wonderful when made with almond flour, however, if you have a nut allergy, then there is a carrot cake with coconut flour version in my Lunchbox Cookbook.
I also have an entire index of coconut flour recipes. You’ll find lots of tasty low-carb and keto recipes that are suitable for those of you with nut allergies or whose children attend a nut-free school.
How to make keto cream cheese frosting
This classic low-carb carrot cake with keto cream cheese frosting recipe is a fabulous treat with your morning coffee or as a low-carb dessert.
Top Tip: Always allow this healthy sugar-free carrot cake to completely cool on a wire rack before adding your keto cream cheese frosting (icing).
Keto carrot cake FAQ
I used an 8 inch / 20 cm round cake tin. Prepare the baking tin by greasing the bottom and the sides, or use baking parchment paper to link the cake tin.
Alternatively, you can use a silicon or springform loose bottom cake tin too.
Yes, you can use the same keto carrot cake batter to make carrot cake muffins, keto carrot cupcakes, and even a keto carrot loaf.
Just adjust the cooking times accordingly and ensure the cake batter is completely cooked into the centre of the cakes.
Yes, the sugar-free and keto frosting is made with full-fat cream cheese, melted butter, and your favourite sweetener (sugar replacement).
Powdered sweetener is best because it will make the frosting smooth and creamy, however, if you only have granulated sweetener then place it in your food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until you have powdered sweetener.
Always allow your gluten-free carrot cake to be completely cooled on a wire rack before frosting/icing otherwise the icing/frosting will melt and slide right off the cake rather than rest on top.
Brands of almond flour/meal vary considerably to how much liquid from the batter the flour/meal will absorb.
To prevent your cake from being too moist use additional almond flour/meal to ensure the correct cake batter consistency. I recommend adding 1 tablespoon at a time until you get that standard cake batter look.
I have never heard of anyone’s cake batter is too dry, but if it does happen, you can slowly add 1 tablespoon of heavy cream at a time. This will help to keep the cake moist but do not add too much. No one wants a soggy cake.
Sometimes the butter is still melted and rises to the surface of the warm carrot cake. Always allow the cake to cool completely so it may have time to absorb any butter that may have rendered out during cooking.
You can shred/grate your carrots by hand or in your food processor with the shredding blade. Some carrots have more moisture than others, so before you measure them, give them a gentle squeeze over your sink and allow any excess water to be removed.
This helps to make a sturdy carrot cake. Scoop your shredded carrots into your measuring cup. Do not overpack or pres down otherwise you will add too much and the nutrition values for the cake will be too high.
Yes, you can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost on the counter at room temperature. You can freeze it undecorated or frosted.
Yes, omitting the frosting is the easiest way OR cutting smaller slices.
Without frosting: 3.8 g NET carbs, 5.7 g protein, 31.6 g fat, 321 calories
With frosting: 5.3 g NET carbs, 8.6 g protein, 35.1 g fat, 370 calories
I usually prefer to use prepared baking pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray or brushed with melted butter. I have baked this delicious cake in round cakes tins, a loaf tin, or cupcake cases.
If you want a healthy birthday cake, use two prepared baking pans then once the cakes are completely cool, add sugar-free cream cheese frosting between the two cake layers.
Does anyone else have a watering mouth yet? This easy keto carrot cake recipe is at the top of my favorite dessert list. It has all the flavour I crave, but none of the guilt or sluggish carbs.
Make one for yourself and see!
Keto Carrot Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
Low Carb Carrot Cake
- 5 eggs – medium
- 200 g butter melted
- 3 tbsp granulated sweetener of choice or more, to your taste
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g carrots grated/shredded
- 50 g walnut halves/pieces chopped, optional
- 50 g desiccated/shredded coconut unsweetened
- 150 g almond meal/flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1-2 tsp ground mixed spice
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)
- 200 g cream cheese
- 1-2 tbsp granulated sweetener of choice or more, to your taste
Instructions
Low-Carb Carrot Cake
- Beat eggs, melted butter, sweetener, and vanilla together.
- Add grated/shredded carrot, walnuts, and coconut then mix almond meal/flour, spices and baking powder.
- Pour into a greased and lined tin. Bake at 180C/350F for 40-50 minutes or until a fork pushed in, comes out clean.
- Ensure your cake is completely cool before icing/frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)
- Warm the cream cheese in the microwave for 20 seconds to soften it.
- Stir in 1-2 tablespoons of sweetener of choice until you get the level of sweetness you prefer.
- You could also add some lemon zest to give it more flavour. This would add a small number of carbs.
- Cover with cream cheese frosting.
Notes
- I used an 8 inch/ 20 cm cake tin.
- Always allow your cake to be completely cooled before frosting/icing your low-carb carrot cake
- Brands of almond flour/meal vary considerably to how much liquid from the batter the flour/meal will absorb. To prevent your cake from being too moist:
- you may need to use additional almond flour/meal to ensure correct cake batter consistency
- always allow the cake to cool completely so it may have time to absorb any butter that may have rendered out during cooking
- Nutrition values are for the cake only. Frosting/icing is optional.
Without frosting: 3.8 g NET carbs, 5.7 g protein, 31.6 g fat, 321 calories
With frosting: 5.3 g NET carbs, 8.6 g protein, 35.1 g fat, 370 calories
Nutrition
More keto cake recipes
Whole orange flourless cake (no peeling and no boiling)
Chocolate flourless fudge cake
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My culinary-challenged partner made this wonderful cake for Christmas this year and it went down a total treat. Even the sugar-eaters wanted a slice (despite the fact that they had their pavlovas, trifles and plum puddings) – we just beat them away with a stick.
Thank you Libby (and Julia) for this easy, foolproof recipe. There are lots of recipes out there but not all work out and taste great.
I’ll be working my way through some more recipes on your site 🙂
What size of pan do you use?
I use a 23cm / 9inch ring tin. You can use whatever you have though. Just test the centre to ensure it is cooked.
would almond flour be the same as ground almonds? what would be the difference?
Ground almonds are not as fine grade as almond flour, however you can use either. I usually use ground almonds because they are cheaper 🙂
Would you use the same amount of almond flour as crushed almonds?
Yes, but just check how wet/dry the mixture is before baking. It may need +/- extra almond flour or +/- liquid.
Can I use granulated xylitol instead of stevia? And how much would I use? Recipe looks great-I’m so excited!
I’m sure you could. I still haven’t got round to trying xylitol so with any low carb recipe, add your sweetener of choice to taste and make sure you taste the mixture BEFORE you bake it and before each addition. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out.
I made this last week and accidently put only 2.5 tsp natvia – i loved the cake although next time I might add a little more sugar! thanks!
I made this cake and do not like it at all……I baked it 45min and still cake very wet (not moist)….I would like to do it again but want to make sure result is better……must I sift the flour, and does it matter that the butter is hot from the melting? would like your answer to this please
All ovens differ in temperatures so always test the cake before finishing baking with a skewer. No I don’t sift the four and no the butter doesn’t have to be hot, just melted so it mixes in easily. It can also be baked as cupcakes too.
If I made this as cupcakes rather than a whole cake would it freeze (maybe minus the cream cheese frosting). I would like to make a few desserts but a whole cake for one person is a bit much!
Yes I’m sure they would , like you say without the frosting. That would be a great idea.
I made this two days ago… it was awesome, the closest thing to Costco’s carrot cake I’ve come across. Just popped another one in the oven as the first was polished-off by the entire family, including those who don’t usually low-carb 🙂
What did I do wrong, I have just baked this cake (for an hour)and I have never known one of my cakes stick after lining and greasing with coconut oil, when I finally got it out it was extremely greasy, it does seem to be a lot of butter. One of your comments asked about sifting flour – what flour or does she mean almonds (flour) I just don’t know what went wrong it looked lovely when I took it from the oven and the flavour seems nice
Cooking times differ in any recipe depending on your oven (they all vary immensely), bake, fan bake etc and the depth of your cake tin. I am surprised even lined it stuck. I always line mine with baking paper and grease the sides of the tin. Once cooled (not even warm) I run a knife around the edge to release the sides, then place a plate on top and flip the cake onto it. And yes, the reader was referring to the almond flour, I never sift anything and my cakes always turn out fine. I cut out as many steps as I can that I don’t see as absolutely necessary. Hmm, now the greasy problem. Baking with almond flour, or any type of flour, you will need to make minor adjustments +/- extra flour or liquid depending on the humidity or the moisture content of the flour. If it is humid, any flour will absorb some moisture and so absorb less of your butter, eggs etc. If you find your mixture is too wet, add some more flour until it is the right consistency. Hope these tips help.
Thankyou for your reply Libby and I definitely did your recipe exactly as I always do until I ‘tweak’ if necessary also took into account my oven temp etc, I wonder if using almonds and not almond flour (because they are also oily) was the culprit. I am going to try it again perhaps substitute a quarter of coconut flour in place of almonds because that is very absorbing. I will let you know. Thankyou for all time and recipes much appreciated
I make this cake today, for my husband Birthday I was delicious, with cream cheese frosting and add butter and heavy wipping cream and liquid vanilla stevia. 🙂 everybody happy! Thanks
Just made this and used almond meal, not sure if that’s the same as ground almonds, anyway cake is a bit…. Eggy….. Used regular eggs…? Also wondered next time u make this Libby can you give qty if carrot in grams as if I wiz carrots in food processor qty may differ than if u use a fine or coarse grater??
Made this cake yesterday. Very lovely, my husband enjoyed it so much. Thank you
Ok–I must have missed something, but I double checked an followed the recipe exactly–other than it took longer to cook than was listed. This cake was awful–it tastes like a carrot casserole. The only nice thing I can say about it is that it is very moist. I am guessing it is at the top of Google just because it is one of the few low carb carrot cake recipes.
Sorry to hear this as it is one of the most popular recipes here on Ditch The Carbs and I have had so many successful photos of readers carrot cakes posted on Instagram and twitter, so it definitely works. Let’s see if we can figure out what went wrong. There is nothing at all in the recipe which would make this taste like a casserole! That’s certainly never been heard of before.
Hi, I also ended up with a sloppy mess. I think there is too much water in the carrot? Would it be better to squeeze the water out of the carrot? I also had to put it back in the oven, over an hour in the end.
It would appear some readers carrots have too much water, so yes, maybe squeezing them first would help.
I’ve just made this low carb carrot cake and it is deliciously good,the frosting compliments the cake wonderfully. I served mine with a nice big blob of stevia sweetened whipped cream , yummy. I’ll be making this again and again for sure . It’s two thumbs up from me ?? ?
Thnaks Daniel for such a glowing report. It’s pretty darn good huh? 🙂
It sure is darn good,it’s a keeper for me ,I’ll be making again and again ??
Actually I’m back to bake it again. This recipe was delicious. So, the beau loves carrot cake and I’m going to make this one for us. I’m sure he’ll love it. I baked the first one without coconut. But, I’ll throwing in everything this time. I loved this recipe. I’m going to do atleast two layers, heavy on the icing. It’s for my birthday!
Go for it and enjoy. Happy birthday Marquia xxx
Thanks hun! Mine didnt stick. I used just the cheap foil pan from the dollar store. Secondly, the normal low carb recipes are usually crumbly. This one wasn’t. It was very moist. Lastly, I’m going to bake this again for Thanksgiving. I may make it a thinner two-layer cake. I don’t change recipes often, but I eventually improv. So far, this is a winner. But, I bake so it just works for me.
Hey thank you so much Marquia, I am so glad you liked it and it was a great success. I love your idea of a 2 layer cake, how divine.
what do you mean 1 tip mixed spice, which spice? … and is vanilla essence the same as extract
This is the
Mixed Spice
I use. It is a combination of spices including cinnamon and nutmeg. Yes you can use vanilla paste, extract, essence – whichever you prefer for a lovely vanilla flavour.I baked this carrot cake today and went exactly by the recipe except I put 1 tsp. xanthan gum in it. I put it in a loaf pan and baked it exactly 30 minutes at 350 degrees like the recipe said. When I checked it the whole inside was a gooy mess. So I baked it another 30 minutes at 300 degrees and it still was a mess. I turned off the oven and left it in there for an hour and it still never got firm. What the heck? And yes my oven if working fine because I had just finished baking apple pie and brownies for my husband.
Was the outside set, firm and cakelike? Did you bake it on a baking tray? (can sometimes affect baking), how exactly did the mixture look like before you baked it? Eggs too small? Carrots too juicy? I have so many success stories of readers successful carrot cake on Instagram and Facebook, so I know this recipe works. Let’s see if we can figure this out together.
Made this cake and was so disappointed.stuck to the tin,then it was very crumbly so I could only serve it as a pudding, The taste was great and I do want to bake it again,should one use psyilium to hold it together ?
Yes the recipe calls for a greased and lined time. All low carb recipes are gluten free so the structure can sometimes be a little looser than a regular cake. The eggs should have been enough to hold it together but great idea to add psyllium husk to add more structure to the cake.
I find that the cake is tastier and holds together better when kept cool in the fridge in my opinion ,I love it?
I am thinking of making this for my Christmas birthday. The recipe calls for ground almonds (which I love) and walnuts (which I don’t care for) but I do not see flour listed. Is this a mistake? The directions also say to pour into a greased and lined tin but give no size tin to use. Would an 8 X 8 glass baking pan work (or 9 X 13)?
I’ve updated it with ground almonds/almond flour as I find both are interchangeable in most recipes. The tin I used is an 8 inch/20 cm cake tin. Yes you’re 8×8 baking pan will rock, just check it bakes evenly. Enjoy 🙂
I just finished a 5-days DAFNE course for Type-1 diabetics which thought me how to improve my carbs counting. I learned so much about carbs and sugars: I’ve been on a low-carb/no-sugar lifestyle since I got diagnosed 9 years ago. Whenever I ate something sweet, my family always pointed me on the fact that I shouldn’t eat it because I’m a diabetic! The course from last week told me that as long as I count the right amount of carbs and inject insulin accordingly I should be ok. So no need to ditch ‘sugar’ and replace it by ‘sweeteners’ as long as you don’t take too much of it,
So last night I came across your recipe. First step was to ‘ditch’ the ‘sweeteners’ and I replaced it for the ‘healthier’ brown sugar. I didn’t have almonds so I replaced it by Sukrin’s peanut flour and Sukrin’s sesame seed flour. Both flours are high in proteins and low in carbs! I only had 3 eggs left and to make the batter more smooth, I mixed some fresh milk through the ‘dry’ battermix.
I totally forgot the cocos and the vanilla! Oops, blond moment!
I don’t have a scale so I guessed the total weights of all ingredients and just looked at the consistency and tried the taste of the batter mix before putting it in the loaf tin. I was afraid it would be all too fat so I only took 100gr butter, it came out of the oven after 50 minutes with a nice brown crusty layer. I never seem to make my cakes rise up very high. Is that because of the difference of ‘rising’ behaviour of sesame seed and peanut flour?
To make the icing a bit lighter I mixed 100gr light cream cheese with 100gr ‘0’-fat Icelandic yoghurt (or you could use high protein Greek yoghurt!) a teaspoon of honey and two teaspoons of home-made low sugar orange marmalade!
I left a note for my partner to ‘have a big piece for breakfast’! He woke me up with a kiss and left the house on his way to his office with a happy smile on his face and thanked me for the delicious cake I made….
I like to experiment and always throw in some other ingredients like flaxseeds, chia seeds etc. Does that affect the ‘rising’ of the cake?
I’m new with baking but really like to make ‘healthier’ cakes and cookies with low carbs but only when the ingredients are available at the supermarket. You seem to be one of the only sites that actually uses off-the-shelf ingredients! Well done. Keep on baking!
I’d love you to read this article. Unfortunately the DAFNE course is misleading if it tells you to eat sugar and carbs and adjust your medication accordingly. Yes you have to adjust your dose to your meals, absolutely, but you need to adjust your meals firstly. Low carbs require less medication, less roller coaster blood glucose results and less errors. Low carb for diabetes is a fabulous guest post from a wonderful diabetic educator and there are some fabulous resources in there also you may want to read. May I point out that brown sugar is NOT healthier. Sugar and stevia are both natural and both processed, stevia however will not raise your blood sugar. I know it is hard to change our thinking, but don’t go for the ‘lite’ versions as they are generally higher in carbs and won’t leave you satiated. Have a read of this page to see why healthy fat should be a regular part of our diet. Gosh I hope this isn’t sounding like I don’t agree with your course or what you have done, but there is another way, an easier way and a more manageable way long term.
Thanks Libby,
I agree with you that any low carb dish is indeed healthier. So today I bought the product Truvia which is a mix of stevia with erythritol and has 99 grams of carbs in 100 grams. It’s still carbs so we are ditching only 66% of normal sugar.
I read the links and they have inspired me and I have shared it with my type1 diabetic friends in our chat group. But even so, I do a lot of sports and personally I think that’s the number 1 ‘medicine’ for all diabetics. I have been on a low carbs lifestyle but find it difficult not to ‘snack’ the bad carbs/fat snacks available next to the cash point. I’ve just tried your cake mix according to your recipe with the Truvia and let’s see if I will receive a wake-up kiss from my partner in the morning after he has tasted the ‘sweetened’ version. I do not agree about the light products. Plain yoghurt without fat doesn’t contain any added sugars, not the ones I buy. Why eating fat if it tastes ok without it?!
Hi Rob, I am so glad you read the page entitled Low Carb For Diabetes and it has helped in some way. I understand your hesitation adding fat, we all have that deep seated fear of it. Many find when they do increase their fat it keeps them fuller for longer and allows them not to want to snack on carbs and bad fats from snack bars etc. I went to a diabetic education evening a few weeks ago (I am a pharmacist) and asked the lecturer (T1) if he had tried low carb and he said he had but was too hungry, and when we discussed it further, he realised he was low carb and low fat hence the reason for him being constantly hungry. Keep in touch Rob, I’d love you to join this page on Facebook called TypeoneGrit, who have incredible knowledge and support for diabetics.
hi, sounds like that DAFNE course is telling you the worst information. Sadly you have to face the fact that as a diabetic (whether its t1 or t2) your body can’t process carbohydrates. Dosing and covering with insulin is NOT the right way to treat yourself. You wouldn’t tell an alcoholic to drink, nor someone who has a nut allergy to eat nuts. Take a look at a fab Facebook group called Typeonegrit that are mostly t1 who manage their blood sugars with low carb diets – especially the children. But eating sugar/starch is not GOOD if you are at all insulin resistant or t1. If you were low carb before – return to it as soon as possible. This cake is a firm family fav now – I have made it 3 times now, and the best part? – the blood glucose meter doesn’t even register a nudge up. Brilliant 🙂 thank you xx
Hello. If I can’t find mixed spice, what can I use to replace it??
Hi Loic, You can make your own mixed spice or pumpkin spice is similar.
I want to use erithrytol in stead of stevia. How much should I use?
I’ve never used erythritol by itself, my stevia is a blend of the two. Just add according to taste and remember to taste before baking so you can adjust the sweetness to your liking.
I’ve just made this cake – added an extra egg though as the mixture seemed a bit stiff. I guestimated the erythritol at around a quarter cup and then added a bit of honey, as it does work better with another sweetening agent. Added extra carrot as I processed too many :), and then added extra mixed raw nuts and cranberries for more texture. Had to bake for an entire hour though. Used a teaspoon of baking soda with 2 teaspoons ACV, and the consistency is just right. Not dense at all, not too crumbly, although I would keep it in the fridge as well. Not as low carb with the added honey and carrots, but I have a very generous cake, so I can cut smaller slices 😉
Hi! This is my first low carb cake, so I’m very excited! Right now it is in the oven, baking. Fingers crossed it will turn out fine. I had to make my own almond flour because we cannot find this in the market here and because of the shape of my tin I could not use paper, so I greased it and then added some whole grain regular floor. I noticed the batter didn’t resemble a regular cake’s batter, though.
I guess I have to wait half and hour to find out if it worked! 🙂
The tin lining with the flour, didn’t work that well – I will need to buy a new tin if I want to make this cake again – and I will probably add some more stevia next time. (This time I will compensate the sweetness with the frosting). Other than that, it’s great! It smells great! I can’t wait to try it tomorrow, as a Vasilopita, with my family.
(Vasilopita is a New Year’s Day bread or cake in Greece and many other areas in eastern Europe and the Balkans which contains a hidden coin or trinket which gives good luck to the receiver, like the Western European king cake). Thank you!!! You make low carbing a pleasure! 🙂
Hi, I followed this recipe to the letter and the cake is too moist. What could have gone wrong? Thanks
It may be that your carrots had too much moisture. They can vary quite significantly. If your cake mixture appears too moist/runny before cooking, it can be saved by adding another egg and another half cup of almond meal/flour/ground.
Just made for my bd….turned out like a carrot meatloaf. Hard as a rock zero sweetness.
Wrheck? Followed recipe precisely.
I’m so sorry to hear this Anna. I can’t understand how it can have zero sweetness when it has carrots (which are naturally higher in sugars) and it contains “stevia or sweetener of choice to taste”. I always advise people to taste and sweeten to your sweet tooth before baking. Sweetness is such a personal aspect because those just starting out on their sugar free journey will have a far sweeter tooth than those who have been sugar free for some time. Let’s see if we can figure out what went wrong. I have had such good feedback on this cake, especially on Instagram where readers have been posting their picture of the cake or cupcakes. Please don’t let this put you off low carb baking.
My fave low carb recipe EVER. Unsure why so many people are having a fail, that is sad, this is an amazing cake, my faves and always my go to when I need a cake for a special occasion……………..or just when I need cake.
Thanks for your support of this recipe. I know it is an incredible luxurious cake and i have made it many times just to make sure 😉
Hi I just made this cake and its fab. The only questions I had was 1) the eggs – should they be beaten seperately before adding the other ingredients and 2) the butter – should it be melted to a liquid, or just softened? My mixture was very runny and was worried it would run out the loose bottom cake tin I used. I did line it but the lining was quite hard to remove from the cake. The cake is very oily (buttery) – that’s what makes me think perhaps I shouldn’t have melted the butter so much. It’s so oily I
think it would slide out my tin and not need lining next time. After it cooled in the fridge the greasiness disappeared, as I suspected it would (the butter hardening up) – and the frosting was easy. My teenage sons loved it and my 5 year old daughter went to bed asking for more. It’s a great hit – thanks – will be making another at the weekend but if you could just let me know about my queries I would be really grateful xx
No I just crack the eggs straight into the bowl with the other ingredients. And yes sometimes the butter does have a tendency to make the cake oily (especially in the hot weather) but the butter is soaked back up in the cake when it cools (as you discovered). If in doubt, you can always add more almond flour/meal if you think your cake is too runny due to the moisture in the carrots you added or the size/volume of eggs used. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Many have had great success making these as cupcakes too.
Thanks so much for your reply. It has kept brilliantly uncovered in the fridge all day ( until my family got at it and finished it off). Lovely and moist but solid too, in a good way. This will become a family favourite for sure. What I particularly love about it is that it uses store-cupboard ingredients (well mine anyway as being a longterm low-carber). The only things I don’t normally have are the carrots LOL as they are usually a no-no!! but 2 carrots between us all over 2 days isn’t much I reckon so I can live with that 🙂 Thanks so much- will be making another one Saturday morning too xx
Suggest adding this tip about cooling the cake to the recipe itself. Just made this and it was all grease puddles that needed to be mopped up with several paper towels.
Cake turned out great!
My husband and I made this together as part of our new carb free lifestyle. Very simply, THIS WAS AMAZING! Easy to make and very tasty. We even had a little extra “private” fun with the frosting which made it even more satisfying! Thanks for a great recipe and carb free fun!
I made this yesterday and it looked fantastic but tasted awful. All I could taste was the stevia, it was way too sweet and left an awful aftertaste. What did I do wrong. Are not all stevias the same? Was so looking forward to it. ?
In all my recipes I state “granulated stevia, sweetener of choice, to taste” as everyone’s sweet taste is completely different. I personally don’t add as much sweetener that many recipes would usually call for as I have been sugar free for so long, a little sweetener is all I need. Most granulated stevia is the same, it is usually blended with erythritol so it measures spoon for spoon instead of sugar, liquid stevia is completely different. Personally I never use it as it is too easy to over or under dose. And with all baking, add sweetener “to taste” before baking the final recipe. You can always add more if it is not sweet enough, but you cannot remove it and excess stevia may give you a bitter after taste. These are the stevia products I recommend on this page.
Thanks, I will try it again, as I said I hadn’t used stevia before so it is all new to me. I have used quite a few of your recipes (the chicken curry is super yummy) and everyone in the family enjoys them, so I am determined to get this one right.
Great stuff Hilary. Low carb baking take a wee while to get used to, as you have to adjust certain ingredients to your liking and tastes. One big tip, baking can always be saved if the final result is not sweet enough, serve with sweetened whipped cream – I hate waste, especially expensive low carb ingredients.
Hilary, perhaps you used powdered stevia (very fine, looks like powdered sugar) rather than the coarse stevia granules (looks like crystallized table sugar)? THat would have made it unbearably sweet.
My thought was the same as Joanne, I bet you used pure stevia extract powder instead of granulated. I made this mistake once and it was so unbelievably horrendous. I hope you try again with the granulated kind!
you don’t need to use any type of artificial sugar- try molasses- you need very little to make it sweet- you don’t even need that stuff- carrots are sweet enough- that’s why it’s carrot cake….
Do you know what the cab content per serving is?
Yes the nutrition panel is below each recipe on the website. Enjoy 🙂
Hmm! So, I made this and I, too, got what is best described as “carrot meat loaf” (reading that comment, I had no idea what carrot meat loaf meant… Once I made it I understood)
It’s so interesting that we have such varied results. Perhaps including brands and specific types in the recipe would be helpful? I can’t figure out what else would cause such big differences!
I suspect that my not using fresh carrots affected it somewhat, but I think the rest might be a brand issue, perhaps of the sweetener? Also I didn’t have vanilla essence, just extract.
Oops! Didn’t mean to reply to another comment- was supposed to be on its own. Sorry!
All the brands I use are detailed on this page. Yes not using fresh carrots may have altered the cake somewhat, but any sweetener will be fine in this recipe and any vanilla also. With all low carb baking I emphasise add sweetener to taste as this is the most variable element of any low carb baking. I also try to encourage people to taste their baking before it goes in the oven. You can always salvage a baking disaster with sweetened whipped cream and berries. I never throw anything away.
I made this recipe with my own flour blend (1/2 almond, 1/4 coconut, 1/4 whey protein powder) and added some Greek yogurt in place of an egg (I was short eggs). Turned out a pretty soft crumb, goes perfect with the icing! Only change I recommend is adding a little salt to the batter to really bring out the sweet carrot flavour. This recipe is fantastic for those of us on a low carb diet and the high fat content makes it super filling. Can’t wait to try out some other recipes on this site.
Hi looks wonderful!! Can you use Almond meal for this recipe instead of ground Almond
Yes they are all interchangeable in my recipes, just maybe adjust the liquid you may need to add.
I made this yesterday. I’ve only been on LCHF for 4 days and I was craving something sweet so made this. Very moist n yummy. The icing was a little too thick for me so added a little cream to make it a little smoother. Worked a treat. Will definitely be making this again! Thanks for posting these recipes…a real life saver especially when you’re tempted to go back to the old way of eating.
I made this cake tonight for the first time for Sunday dessert. The taste was great, it was definitely denser than even a gluten-free cake, and that was all fine. The part I didn’t like? The carrots were still crunchy! I shredded them in my food processor but maybe I should have used the blade versus the shredding attachment.
Thanks for this recipe. I made this tonight and it is delicious. We’ve only been LCHF for 2 months and your recipes have been amazing. So hard to change the way I think about eating fat but feeling so much healthier. Keep up the good work, your posts are very informative. It’s sometimes hard to find the ingredients here in Ireland but online shopping has saved me!!
Wonderful recipe. I did it many times and it’s perfect. I didn’t have mixed spices so I just put a bit more of cinnamon and nutmeg and it works. The cream cheese frosting is nice when I leave the cake a whole night in the frigde.
Thank you for another great recipe!
Thank you so much .. Your brilliant recipes have made my switch to LCHF possible. My hubby and mother are currently raving about this carrot cake – it is foolproof and so delicious. I made cupcakes as I thought we would be able to freeze them – next time I’ll have to make double as I don’t expect these to last long enough to get to the freezer.
Thank you so much Deb. I love your double recipe idea 😉
Do you know if using liquid stevia would work? It’s very concentrated, so just a few drops would do. But I’m wondering if a granular sweetener is needed for structure. (Excited to try this: carrot cake is my fave!)
I only use granulated because it is incredibly forgiving and easy to regulate the sweetness. I have tried to use stevia drops and I find it is too easy to over or under sweeten a recipe but if you prefer drops then yes it would work.
Thanks for this AMAZING carrot cake recipe, Libby! I’m relatively new to your site and really enjoying your recipes. My family & I are living “One Year Without Sugar & Processed Foods”, but aren’t skipping on delicious fare!
It was my birthday this week and my husband and kids made me your carrot cake. I wrote about it on our family’s blog.
Thanks again!
Becca
Hi Becca, that is fabulous that you have started this sugar free journey and loved my carrot cake. I will watch in eagerness your experiment. I am sure by the end of it you will be sugar free (or lower sugar) and processed food free for life. How exciting. I’m sure anyone reading this will take a look also. Good luck and come back and ask plenty of questions you may have. Happy to help, Libby x
I have been making your recipe for a few months now and my family loves it. I make cupcakes so I can monitor the carbs. My mom and aunt are both diabetic and the cupcakes don’t impact their blood sugar. I add mascarpone to the cream cheese icing and some orange extract. The hint of orange with the carrots is really good.
Excellent, how wonderful to hear your diabetic aunts can enjoy these treats and it not impact on their blood sugars. See if you can encourage them to make the switch to LCHF. Here’s a great article regarding low carb and diabetes. I love the idea of marscopone in the icing. Heaven.
If I were to omit the shredded coconut, would I need to add anything to compensate?
Yes but you could easily swap it for more almond flour/meal.
This cake was sooooo yummy! I did not taste low carb at all. My husband and I both loved it!!
I’m using Truvia baking blend. Would I still use the same amount?
If it measures spoon for spoon then yes. All my sweeteners I use measure the same as sugar. Take a look at my ultimate guide to sweeteners to see what I use and what I avoid.
in your note prior to the recipe you said,
“Further update – I managed to make my low carb carrot cake using ground sunflower seeds when I ran out of almond meal/flour. ”
Could you tell me how much of the ground sunflower seeds you used and did you buy just unroasted, shelled, unsalted and ground them youself. Love the nuts in carrot cake but not a big fan of walnuts so thought this would work to give a little more of nuttier texture along with almond meal…almond flour is too expensive !!
From memory, I only had half the almond meal in my pantry so got some regular sunflower seeds, put them in my stick blender (I have a little blade attachment, similar to a coffee grinder) to grind them up then just threw them in. Voila! The walnuts are optional anyway so you could even replace those with whole pumpkin seeds? That might be nice.
Looks great but I’ll have to try it using a trace of natural, local honey as we don’t believe in artificial sweeteners of any kind. Trace amounts of honey add a couple carbs but its better for you than stevia and the like. With honey, a very little goes a very long way, especially after being lchf for over a year, and its still healthier than refined sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Actual stevia isn’t bad for you nor anymore artificial than honey. Honeybees are rapidly dying off.
Outstanding recipe! I used 2T Splenda Brown Sugar blend and got 13 cupcakes (used silicon baking cups, baked for 25 mins). These are light, fluffy, and delicious. I added some heavy whipping cream to the cream cheese and sweetened with Valencia Orange Sweetleaf stevia drops to taste. One little cake sure fills the tummy and is outrageously delish. Thanks for creating this recipe! Very much appreciated 😀 All four generations of my family approved and that’s a huge deal!
Would love to know how the cream cheese frosting turns out with no butter or cream added as I don’t see a lot of recipes without them. I would definitely prefer to only use cream cheese and a sweetener but wonder if I am going to end up with a thick unspreadable and heavy texture on top? Do you blend it with a mixer first? And one last thing… how does it hold up overnight in a fridge (if also iced the night before) before serving… worried the frosting may become wet… not sure if that makes sense?? Thanks so much for helping me with these questions.
Great questions Tamara. Firstly you need to find the right cream cheese. Not the low fat or spreadable one but the full fat regular block. It is similar in texture to a semi-soft butter. Leave it out of the fridge to come to room temp, then mix in the sweetener (and I like some vanilla) with a fork to break it up or you can use a hand held beater. It should become soft enough to spread. Once the cake is iced, then cover it in the fridge (I have a plastic microwave lid that does the job or a large upside down mixing bowl). It has never made the cake damp because once the cream cheese is back in the fridge, it hardens a little. Alternatively I have been developing a new icing which is 50:50 butter and cream cheese with sweetener and vanilla. That is luscious too.
Hi, I’ve had a type 1 diabetes for 24 years but just started trying out a low carb diet. Just wondering if it’s common for people to take some time to adjust to a high fat diet. I made your carrot cake and it worked out OK but there was a lot of butter around the edges in the tin, which absorbed into the cake when it cooled, as you said it would. But when I eat a slice of the cake, I feel a bit sick as I’m not used to eating so much butter, and I think the taste of the butter dominates everything else, especially if I don’t heat up the cake before eating it.
Have you tried reducing the amount of butter, or using other oils? I think I could halve the amount of butter, but would it fall apart?
Also, when I put all the ingredients into my diabetes app, it came up as 456 calories per slice (based on 10 slices per cake, and including the walnuts) and 44g fat, but your calculations say 321 calories and 31.6g of fat. I know you have to allow for variation and you can’t worry about calories too much on a LCHF diet but that’s a huge snack! I don’t think I’d make it again because my husband’s not a fan and I can’t eat a whole cake by myself. But hopefully I’ll have more luck with some of your other recipes.
It takes a while to understand the full feeling from eating more healthy fats. It’s not to say you should eat excessive fat but a smaller portion will allow you to feel full without the sick feeling you experienced. I think the slice for you was possibly too large (and hence too much fat that you felt uncomfortable). One of the many reasons for eating more healthy fat is so we eat less, our hunger is controlled and our appetite is in check. Many newcomers don’t like feeling so full, but it’s kind of the point. So we stop snacking, eat smaller portions and are no longer on the sugar/carb/hunger roller coaster. Eat only until full, stop when you have had enough. You’ll get the hang of it soon, and I always say to figure out what works for YOU. Good luck Robyn.
so… no
This looks great. One question…..what is mixed spice?
Take a ook at my pumpkin pie recipe, I explain mixed vs allspice there.
You are a magical low carb wizard! I one-an-a-halfed this recipe to make a bday cake for my hubby. Made 2 9″ rounds so I could stack ’em. I used 4 cups of finely grated carrot and 1/2 a can of pumpkin (ran out of a carrots and that seems like a logical option)
I used 2x the spices (I mean, can you ever have too much cinnamon?)
they came out like a dream. Next time, I am going to cut silicon baking mats to fit inside my cake rounds, so I can have a perfect edge.
Brilliant recipe – thank you a million times over!
I love Christena that you call me a magical low carb wizard (well I was born on Halloween – so maybe????). You made me chuckle and smile today reading that. I love your idea of throwing some pumpkin in there – genius! My recipes are made to be adaptable so well done you. And so true, you can never have enough cinnamon (or vanilla in my opinion). 🙂
Hi, some silicone baking mats specifically state they should not be cut, probably because they contain fiberglass which could be released into your food if the food contacts a cut edge. Some silicone baking mats are made to be cut, but if you can’t find one of those, you could simply cut parchment paper to the correct size.
When consuming this much fat per serving you really should do your research, if you think you are in ketosis I don’t think you realize that you would have to be consuming barely any carbs at all for quite so time
Success for life is balance moderate fat along low/moderate carbs with consistent high protein
Well, no, that’s not exactly true. Unless you are doing large amounts of physical exercise, a high protein diet for an extended period of time is very dangerous to kidneys and liver.
While I agree that research is necessary, it took me three days to get into ketosis (as demonstrated by urine and blood tests) on a very low carb diet, but I have stayed in ketosis since then with low carb but not no carb. If you are genuinely wanting to be helpful telling people things, first have your facts straight and then don’t be so condescending about it.
Making it this weekend and very excited. How long would I cook for if making as cupcakes? Also have you heard of Kite Hill cream cheese made out of almond milk? Think it would work in this recipe? 8 have some in my fridge I want to use before it goes bad.
If making cupcakes (which I have many times) I usually bake them for 15 minutes, but test them as ovens vary considerably. No I have never heard of cream cheese made from almond milk, let me know how it turned out. I’d like to try some if I can find it here.
Came out so perfectly! Thank you for another great recipe I totally love your cakes!
I have made this cake twice. The first time I followed the recipe to the letter and the cake was absolutely tasteless except for the bitter taste from the sweeter I used. So back to the drawing board. I made it again and added 1/2 cup almond flour 1 cup flour a different brand of sweetener which solved the bitter taste. Still not a home run…Any suggestions?
Gosh I’m not too sure what is going on, the carrots give a lovely sweet flavour all by themselves, as do the coconut and the spices. Maybe add double the spices and vanilla?
Just made this and tried my first piece. Great recipe. Tasted great and was a beautiful light consistency. A nice afternoon tea and one piece was just so filling.
I have been visiting your site for a while now Libby and this is my first comment though I have loved lots of the recipes. This is a great site and you are doing a wonderful job, helping us all stay trim and healthy. I was so pleased to find your site as I had looked at a few others and not been impressed by really wierd recipes. So glad to have this as I am from Australia and your recipes make more sense than ones from the US with ingredients that are still highly processed or are unobtainable. Again I say, well done and thanks so much for all the effort you put into this site. It’s so helpful and I really appreciate it.
This is such a lovely comment to read today, thank you so much. I absolutely love creating everything here and I am so happy you are enjoying them so much. Happy new year.
Hi Libby, I cannot get granulated stevia. I have liquid and powder form, how much would you use of each? Thanks
It really depends on the strength of each one, brands can vary quite considerably. Granulated stevia measure spoon for spoon in place of sugar, so simply add your sweetener a little at a time until you get the sweetness you like. Sorry if that is a little vague, it is the hardest aspect of low carb cooking to be precise about as our sweet taste is so different depending on how long you have been sugar free for. Good luck and you’ll get the hang of it.
Just wanted to say given the fact Im a terrible baker, my first attempt at this wonderful cake was a winner.
I have made a lot of things from your recipes, this cake is delicious, moist and with just the right amount of sweetness.
I substituted walnuts for pecans and added a little lemon juice onto the sweet cheese cream icing, its a lovely combo.
Thanks
This is great news Lou, I especially wanted to create easy recipes that encourage people to cook at home more. Good luck with all the other recipes you will be trying.
This is really a fantastic low carb carrot cake. I added some unsweetened lemon extract to the frosting which gave it a delicious tang… mmmmm. My new favourite low carb (non-chocolate) cake.. thank you!
Can you use baking soda instead of baking power to avoid the aluminium? If so, would it be a different quantity.
Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable. You should be able to find aluminum free baking powder in an ordinary grocery store and certainly in a health foods store. The brand I use is Rumford. It’s also sold on Amazon if you can’t find it.
I just bought coconut flour, thinking, I can do some baking from DitchTheCarbs recipes….and then now, going through the recipes, they all require almond meal/flour (and I almost bought almond flour) sigh. Please please please tell me I can substitute almond flour for coconut flour? And by how much?
You’re in luck. I am moving away from almond flour due to nut allergies, cost and higher omega 6 levels. Most of my newer recipes are coconut flour based or at least, have it as an alternative. Try my flourless berry cake, keto waffles, blueberry cheesecake for starters. Here is my Ultimate Guide To Low-Carb Flours too. Worth a read.
Would it work with 1/2 almond flour and 1/2 coconut flour?
Thanks in advance ☺
Sorry, it is too much of a complete change in recipe to advise.
I’ve done this with 1/4 cup coconut flour to 3/4 almond flour worked well for me
Hi, when u say almond meal/flour I take that to mean ‘meal or flour’ , so following this assumption could I use flaxmeal as a substitute for the almond meal? I have every ingredient in the house but no almond meal or flour of any kind except for flaxseed meal. Can’t get out the house to get the missing part and really want to make this asap, help?
When I say almond meal/flour, I mean almond meal or almond flour. The link in the recipe takes you through to Amazon so you can see what ingredient I am using or referring to. I also add most of the ingredients I use below the recipe. Flax meal would be too heavy and bitter tasting for this cake. I hope I got to you in time 🙂
Hi, this cake is my first attempt at low carb baking. I msde them into muffins, for portion control, and they taste great. I was missing cake, and these make a great treat.
My question is, when working out the net carbs, for 2 of my ingredients (walnuts and coconut ) the fibre is more than the carbs. Does that negate the carbs from those ingredients?
If you ever see a nutrition panel where the fibre is more than the carbs (which is impossible) the carbs must be showing NET CARBS. Here is a guide to carb counting as different countries show net or total. Here in NZ products may show either depending on their country of origin and it is never made very clear. “Typically the US nutrition labels show TOTAL CARBS. Typically UK nutrition labels show NET CARBS. NZ/AUST show net carbs (and stating fibre is optional)”.
Have you ever added unsalted butter to the cream cheese icing? Just wondering what it would taste like. I make a cream cheese icing that uses vanilla, cream cheese, unsalted butter, and sugar. I’m just wondering what would happen if I just traded out sugar for Splenda (less Splenda probably, that icing is pretty sweet).
I only have salted butter in the fridge but I am sure unsalted would work. The subtle salt taste does make it flavoursome and yes you could substitute the sugar for a sweetener, just keep adding a little at a time so it doesn’t become over sweetened.
I didn’t like the cake at all. I actually had to throw the whole thing away. Didn’t like the icing either, way too sour and too strong of a cream cheese flavor, I even added vanilla. It would make a good spread for a bagel but not icing on a cake. Also, the cake had way too much carrot. I think the almond flour was bitter but it was too hard to tell if that was the biter taste because I couldn’t taste enough by itself with all the carrots. The carrots were too hard and crunchy, just not what I was expecting. Maybe I expected too much.
Did you buy store-bought shredded carrots? They might be thicker than carrots you grate yourself.
My cake was very mealy and crumbly… as most of the recipes i have tried are… i think it is the almond flour (red barn)… how can i fix this? they all have almost a powdery texture…
Go for almond meal (ground almonds). I use this in most of my recipes and is generally interchangeable with almond flour but it sounds like that brand you are currently using is too powdery for some reason.
I’m very excited to make this cake for my partners birthday this week! What do you consider “one serving” with your nutritional facts? How many pieces have you divided your cake into?
I’m not sure if I should consider 12 pieces or more, but I’m concerned my carb amount will be higher than what you’ve posted if that’s the case…
Thanks for your help!!
The recipe states it makes 10 large slices. If you cut the cake into smaller or larger slices, then you will have to adjust the nutrition values accordingly.
Thank you! I must have missed where it said 10.
Making this tonight and very excited, despite some of the unsuccessful reviews I’m hoping for the best 🙂
Libby,
On what temperature & for how long should I bake the carrot cake when’s I make muffins (12)? Thanks so much in advance & for your yummy EASY recipes!
Nathalie
I would bake at the same temperature but for only 15-20 minutes, but this could vary widely depending if you are using a cupcake tray or muffin tray.
I tested out this recipe because I plan on bringing it for Easter. It seems that I had a different experience than others (I read all the reviews). My batter was very thick. I did everything the way the recipe said except I used pumpkin pie spice since I didn’t have mixed spice and I also make them cupcakes. I had to bake at least 30 mins and the cake was too moist. I can’t imagine adding another egg and almond flour. I won’t be able to mix the batter. Even though it was moist, it still kind of stuck to the cupcake liners. Any suggestions? I don’t have time to do another test run so whatever I try, it what I bring. Thank you!
Wait did you say that this is low carb??? Wow….BEST LOW CARB CAKE EVER!!! Thankyou so much for this recipe. You are the best
Aw, thank you 🙂
Loved this, I made a half sized one because it’s only me that eats it. Served with low carb ice cream, nearly as good as the real thing!
I made this yesterday and it turned out well. I did have to add another 15 minutes to the baking time though. While it is a tasty cake, my personal preference is a sweeter cake, most likely this is due to the lack of pineapple and raisins that would be in the traditional version. Next time I make it I’ll boost the sweeter a bit to better align with my taste. I love that it is a single layer, perfect when you don’t have anyone else helping you eat it :-). I am curious on the nutritional information source. I made as written and got many more calories and carbs with the stated serving size using My Fitness Pal. I increased the serving size to 12 because that is more in line with the size I cut and it was still hefty with 482 calories and 6 net carbs.
This is why I always state “sweetener of choice, to your taste” as we all have different sweet tolerances depending on how long we have been low carb. Feel free to add more, but as time goes on, you will be able to cut back on it. If you ever make a recipe and it is not sweet enough (remember to always taste test before baking) then you can always serve with sweetened whipped cream or sweet frosting. As for the nutrition, I use cronometer.com which is far more accurate than MFP. I stopped using that years ago as the values are so wrong and there are far too many “user added” values which may be total or net carbs, there is no distinction.
Thanks, lesson learned, I will taste next time and add more a bit at a time. Happy to hear that cronometer.com is more accurate, the higher calories and carbs freaked me out, but not enough to prevent me from eating it 🙂
Excellent appraisal then 😉
You’ve really found chronometer that good? I used it for a couple of days last week, and I found the readings very odd. Things like, vit. A was 250% of daily recommended intake despite only eating soup, or water at 90% daily intake after drinking only one cup… .
Yes, I like it. It has the correct US nutrition values. As with any app, you just have to be careful that you select the correct items. I’m not sure which soup you selected.
I tried this cake today and it came out well…I changed the servings from 10 slices to 6 and printed out the recipe, but the quantity of almond flour remained the same. Luckily I found out the mistake before adding the flour and scaled it down to slightly less than a cup….it turned out well. Thanks for the recipe !
Just baked this carrot cake (cupcakes in my case) and had one and I love the taste. Many thanks!
Thank you very much for this recipe , seems like a delicious (Healthy!) cake and would like to try it.
As I line in a Non-English country, would like to make sure as for the Almond flour quantity.
For this ingredient you give Cup as a measure. There are all kind of Cups. Can you specify what kind of cup and the weight of your 1.5 cup of Almond Flour (in grams).
Thanks again
Rachel
I’ve clarified it. 1.5 cups = 150g almond flour/meal
Thank you very much Libby for your clarification (and for your good contribution
to the battle against Carbs).
I have baked the cake and the result was very tasty, also the texture and the shape.
I used 2 tins – each 7 X 20.5 cm .
I think the quantity of butter in this recipe is excessive. Can you cut back to 100g without affecting the consistency? I don’t want a super oily cake as other reviewers have mentioned before.
I followed this recipe word for word, and it was dreadful! I don’t know what, if anything I did was wrong, but it was horrible! The batter was far too dense and dry whilst mixing. I knew that was a problem right away. I went ahead and baked it, and it rose a bit, but it was so dense and heavy. After I let it cool sufficiently, I made the frosting, ( which by the way is a terrible frosting choice!). Cream cheese and sweetener?! Why not just make a traditional buttercream/ cream cheese frosting with stevia or chosen sweetener? I should have went with my gut instinct. I am a great cake decorator, and have good piping skills, so the cake looked superb and delicious once finished. Even though the crumb of the cake was bad, I’ve made many low carb cakes of different varieties, but this crumb was terrible. Although It looked great, the taste and texture was awful. Overly moist yet dry and crumbly at the same time. The frosting was just what it was, sweetened, flavored cream cheese. Yuck. Too rich, heavy, and uninspired. A bit of heavy whipped cream and even whipped butter would have lightened the affair greatly. The cake texture and mouthfeel could be improved with some tweaks. All in all not a stunner for my sisters Birthday. Everyone picked around the cake and ate the low carb ice cream we served with it instead! Terrible!
This recipe looks delicious! I want to ask though, can I skip/replace coconut? I don’t like coconut taste. >.>
Also, can I use sunflower flour instead of ground seeds?
I would say you could change 1 item in this recipe not both, that would be a new recipe completely and each recipe here has been developed after much trial and error. Skipping the coconut might just about work, as it isn’t a huge proportion of the cake, however it wont look like the picture and be a different texture.
I made this today and unfortunately it wasn’t edible; too crumby and bitter.
Just made 12 decent sized cupcakes. I followed the recipe for the cake exactly and the texture was perfection. The only thing I altered was the icing, it just tasted a little too tangy for me so I added about a tablespoon of tahini and it was delicious.
Would love to make this, but I need USA measurements…..have no idea how to convert this.
All recipes have US and Metric measurements. Simply click on the large red buttons below each recipe to switch between the measurement you prefer 😉
Hi. Pls I have no almond flour for now so can I make use of coconut flour instead.? If yes plz what quantity?thanks
I’m afraid not 🙁 Coconut flour and almond flour work completely differently. This is a good article to read “Coconut flour vs Almond flour”. It will stop you making any expensive baking mistakes.
Sounds great! Is this keto friendly? I’m a beginner 😉
It’s low carb, but not keto. Keto is strict low carb and doesn’t include carrots. The recipe is easy peasy to make.
Carrots are ok in low moderation so it should be fine on keto as long as you don’t go crazy and watch your macros.
This cake was a major disapointment. It was not cake. It tasted like carrot bread. I added in the exact amount of spices called for and it was completely bland. It wouldn’t be hard to make this much more flavorful with a little creativity!
I read comments after I had started mixing, therefore I added 3tsp cinnamon, 2tbs rice malt syrup, instead of 200g butter I used coconut oil and to keep moisture in I used about 3/4 cut coconut milk. I was worried it would make it go flop but it was AMAZING!!!! Everyone raves about how moist it was, oh I also added sultanas. But with this addition I must say it was the BEST carrot cake I’ve tasted.
Because it’s missing the ginger, notice that
Ginger is not mentioned as part of the ingredients
Thanks for the idea of ginger – I love it!!! I’ve added it as an optional extra 🙂
I make this once a week. I love it in the morning with my coffee for breakfast and my husband eats it as a dessert. It’s so easy and really makes you feel like you’re not missing a thing by eating low carb. Sometimes I take the time to grate the carrots….. and sometimes I just toss in a bag of pre-shredded carrots from the grocery store. I bake it in a quarter sheet jelly roll pan for about 25 minutes. I also make cream cheese frosting with a stick of butter, 8 oz of cream cheese, vanilla and some Truvia to sweeten it. Thanks for the awesome recipes on your site!
PS I just now noticed the red US Conversion button…. has that always been there? I have been using my little scale converted to grams to measure the ingredients!
I have just installed the conversion buttons – I had to go through over 250 recipes and calculate them all. I’m so glad it was worth the effort, yay 🙂
How did you install or where do I go for the conversion. I’m making this Thanksgiving. Thanks much, Rebecca
It’s the large red buttons below the ingredient list, under each recipe 🙂
How does one converse ,, I am not al all familiar with grams etc,, how do you know how many cups etc.?
Great question, simply click on the big red buttons below any recipe on my site. They will swap ingredients between metric grams and cups and ounces. Yay. The hard work is done for you. You can also dial up how many servings you require, and it will adjust the quantities as if by magic!!! 🙂
I REALLY appreciate the conversion buttons – was raised on cups and pounds and since Canada has switched to metric, I tend to look up amounts to be sure. Thanks for all the work you did to do this – I like to check out your recipes first!
I made this today – my first adventure in low carb baking. I was going to try the low carb Christmas cake recipe, but my husband is a carrot cake fan and asked for this instead. I can’t begin to explain how wonderful we both think it is. The texture is fantastic, it is so lovely a moist, and the flavour is spot on. My husband says it is just about the nicest carrot cake he has ever tasted and that he wouldn’t believe it was low carb unless he’d seen me making it – praise indeed. Thank you Libby for your wonderful recipes. What with this and the totally miraculous fat head pizza, you’ve certainly fed us well!
Claire you have absolutely made my day!!! Happy Christmas 🙂 x
I should have tested the recipe before serving it to my circle of friends. Someone made the comment that it was another vegetable in our meal. It was not sweet enough and very dry. I should have had some ice cream to make it into the dessert I wanted. I was embarrassed I served it.
Wouldn’t ice-cream defeat the purpose of serving a low carb cake?
Don’t be embarrassed about serving the cake, be embarrassed that you have rude friends.
I made them new year’s eve and it tasted better after a day 🙂 It was a little dry and crumbly but maybe it’s because of my desiccated coconut. I will try it with coconut flour next time and try coconut oil instead of butter. I will also try cupcakes. I hope I am not changing too much.
I made them using coconut oil instead of oil butter 🙂 they were more moist than before and baked 12 big cup cakes at 35 minutes. I used half the desiccated coconut and changed the other half to coconut flour. I also used Swerve and not Stevia–it is much sweeter 🙂 I will make this at least once a month since it is carrot and we are on Keto. (limiting carrots to ‘sometimes’).
Thank you for this lovely recipe!
Hi everyone! I’m reading mixed reviews on this carrot cake despite it being the top Google choice. Anyone recently make this without modifying it? I don’t want it to be crumbly/dry or too “floppy.” I’m more of a cook rather than a baker so I’m hesitate to try without feedback. Thanks all!
I made this yesterday and found the almond flour actually retains a lot of moisture so it doesn’t go dry and crumbly- was a hit with keto and none keto people
Made this today. The cake itself was nice, but not as fluffy as I hoped for, dry and falling apart a bit. we upped the spices a bit, which didn’t hurt. We used Xylitol for the sweetener, making it relatively unsweet
One factor that might explain the highly variable outcome is how much oil has been removed from the almond flour, whether it’s from blanched or raw almonds, and how finely ground it is.
My wife vetoed the frosting as weird, so we made it with powdered Xylitol and butter.
For an encore, I would try using half whole-wheat flour and half almond flour, which still makes it be carb/protein balanced (even before factoring in effects of fiber). Maybe also a bit of gluten for extra structural integrity.
True carrot cakes are never fluffy in my experience, they are very dense but nit heavy. When you use a sweetener of your choice, remember to always adjust to your taste. All my recipes state the amount of sweetener “or more, to your taste” as we are all on different parts of our sugar free journey. My sweet tooth may bee different to yours.
Thank you for sharing your recipe for low-carb carrot cake. Wide range of reviews, but understand the time and expense one goes through perfecting recipes in the area of low-carb baking. Daunting for those of us who don’t bake often, but enjoy baked goods for their families.
Made this twice this weekend, first time I had enough extra batter after filling 8″ cake pan for 3 muffins. So maybe a 9″ tin would have been better for using all batter. Baked muffins for 25 minutes, came out OK but crumbly, as many other comments have repeated. Used blanched almond flour and coconut flour, and all ingredients as listed with Swerve for sweetener. Family reviews gave it thumbs up for taste, I gave it a questionable review for it’s crumbly texture even though I wouldn’t consider it dry, but definitely drier than traditional carrot cake.
I have tried a recipe for low carb pumpkin bread with same quantity of almond flour and coconut flour and it always comes out more like a heavy pound cake, with custard-like texture so I felt the bake time for THIS cake should be on the higher end…50 min for the first attempt. I thought maybe it was dry because I over baked. Second attempt, I watched more closely beginning @ 35 minutes, and took out when toothpick test came out clean. Same results, a bit on the crumbly side. Maybe less baking powder? Or less almond flour/coconut flour?
Best reviews on taste came from family members who have been on low-carb diet for awhile. Those who have a serious sweet tooth, my husband for one, thought I forgot the sugar. Can’t please everyone, but this WAS a Birthday cake for someone on the Adkins diet and she gave it thumbs up. Going to try adjusting flours and baking powder and see if I can achieve a carrot cake closer to the traditional version’s crumb/texture.
Frosting hit mixed reviews. I liked it. Added a couple drops of lemon oil first time and lemon flavored stevia sweetener second time, and both tasted great. The slight tanginess of frosting contrasts more and brings out “sweetness” of cake.
Awesome review Colleen! Thank you. I completely agree with you. Low-carb baking gets the best reviews from those who have been low-carb for a little while. I think others are expecting baking to taste like the sugar and flour laden (and sometimes “fake” butters and such like) that are designed to hit the bliss point. Once we get our true taste buds back, we can enjoy all the subtle flavours and less sweet taste of low-carb baking made with simple ingredients. I love your adaptations, brilliant!
Did you possibly mistake the desiccated coconut for coconut flour? That may have caused the extra crumbly cake…
I’m only on my 4th day of keto so that may be why–but this isn’t very sweet. It’s delicious, but expect it to be more like a lightly sweetened breakfast bread than a flat out cake. I did pour some torani vanilla syrup over the cake once it was done which helped sweeten it up a bit. Still delicious though. I think it may depend on the sweetener you use. I used Monkfruit/Erythritol sweetener and the cake itself tasted good just not very sweet. I mixed torani syrup with cream cheese and that was very meh, I think the sourness of cream cheese normally offsets the sweetness of cake but in this recipe it overwhelms the only slightly sweet cake. Next time I’ll try a different approach for the frosting. But I’ll probably eat the cake by itself tomorrow morning. Anyways thanks for the recipe!
I am just now making the carrot cake and the instructions say to mix ground almonds. they are not in the ingredients. please help! what quantity?
Thanks for pointing out the discrepancy. Ground almonds are the same as almond meal/flour. I have amended it to read the same.
Oh my goodness, I made this yesterday and it is just lovely! As a long time low-carber, I found the sweetness level to be just right.
It’s already half gone so it’s been a hit in my house!
Yay – I am so glad you love this. This cake is a favourite in my house also (especially loved by my 11 year old).
Hi, I love your recipe. thank you! But can i use coconut flour instead of almond flour, or reduce the amount of almond flour and add some coconut flour? what should be the correct measurement?
I’m afraid coconut flour and almond flour behave completely differently so cannot be substituted easily, instead they have to be developed into a new recipe. This article might help explain how they work and how little coconut flour is required compared wiht almond flour. Ultimate Guide To Almond Flour vs Coconut Flour
Hi, could you please tell me what’s the net carb of 1 slice? It tells the total carb but I will appreciate to know net carbs. Thanks very much
The nutrition panel shows total carbs = 5.8g and if you deduct the 2g fibre = 3.8g net carbs per slice.
I’m also having trouble calculating the carbs. The Red Mill almond meal/flour I have is 2T = 4nc. As I figure it that would be 48 NC for 1 1/2 C. Along with everything else & using Splenda, I get 85.4 NC, 9.5 NC per serving for 9 servings (easy to cut from a 8″ pan).
I want to try this recipe again substituting half the butter for unsweetened applesauce (adds 12 NC) and only half the carrots (drops 12 NC). Also, I think by treating the mix like a muffin mix, minimal mixing/handling, it may not be as dense. It is a wonderful recipe, I guess everyone has to tweak recipes to their own liking.
Made this today as carrot muffins. Normal size muffin pans. Took about 15 mins to cook. Used coconut oil because I have a colleague who, in addition to being coeliac like me, eats dairy free as well.
Muffins turned out very nice. I spread all except two with straight, unflavoured, unsweetened, slightly softened cream cheese. I know others thought this was too tangy or something but I reckon it rounds it off nicely. I do spread plain cream cheese on celery & cucumber as a snack so maybe I am just used to it. Although my husband liked it too so not too bad then!
Made this today for the first time. I am recently diagnosed T2 diabetic and I love my cakes and sweet things so am always searching for decent low carb recipes. This is AMAZING!! So moist and sweet without feeling heavy and dense, and even my hubby – a die hard “real” carrot cake fan – said he couldn’t tell the difference between this recipe and a traditional flour based cake.
All in all – excellent! Xx
Awesome Debbie! And welcome to Ditch The Carbs. As a newly diagnosed T2, you have come to the right place. You may want to join my free Low-Carb Support Group too. It’s an awesome place to ask all the questions you may have. See you there.
I made this the other day also but it was way too dry. What can I add to make it more moist? Also, the cream cheese with added sweetener (splenda) was awful. I tried the lemon zest and that made it worse. Started over and tried vanilla extract and it was still bad.
Nadiya Hussain recently did a recipe for carrot cake pakora where she deep fried carrot cake batter and served it with the cream cheese frosting as a dip. Do you reckon this recipe would work deep fried in that way?
I imagine this low-carb carrot cake might fall apart if you fried it. I would guess her stays together because of the flour forming a “dough” and the sugar caramelising.
Made this yesterday. I cut the recipe in half as I wanted to make cupcakes but only in a quantity myself and hubby could eat within the week. Half recipe netted 8 normal sized cupcakes and I baked them at US 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I did not find them to be any more crumbly than most almond flour cupcakes. For my “personal” taste, next time I would add SLIGHTLY more nuts (I measured then chopped rather than the other way around), a bit more spices and for MY taste a bit more sweetener. Not too much, but these were rather on the breakfast bread level than dessert level. All in all though, this is an absolute keeper and I don’t miss the traditional raisins or pineapple at all!!!!! Also, per my recipe calculator I got slightly higher carbs, about 4.3 per, including frosting. But again, that’s using my personal ingredients.
Thank you Kristeena, this is brilliant! I love your idea of mixing up the quantities and spices to your liking. And I love the fact you baked them as cupcakes. I have often done this for my children’s lunch boxes as they are easier to transport. Isn’t it fun to experiment?
I agree about the sweetness! What I find interesting is that the batter tasted much sweeter to me than the cooked product. Next time, I am going to add a bit more Swerve before cooking. This time around, I have not yet made the cream cheese frosting, and am considering adding a little more sweetener there, instead. Basically, though, the cake is delicious. I look forward to serving it to company tomorrow, and to a lot of experimenting in the future.
Hi, so, you made a half it the recipe and got 8 muffins? Could you write the whole nutritional,not just carbs?
I like your recipe. thank you! But can i use coconut oil instead of butter?, what should be the correct measurement for coconut oil ?
Yes, you may substitute coconut oil for butter, the only problem is that butter gives this cake so much of its amazing creamy flavour. You may have to add extra vanilla or spices.
When I try to print this recipe on the US Measurement, it switches back over the metric. There’s a bug here. Just thought I’d let you know.
Me too!!!!
I made this recipe last night, but made muffins! Turned out perfect! So moist and moreish! I also added about 50gm of butter to the frosting, which made it less tangy! Will be making this recipe again!! Thank you so much! xx
Thank you Libby!! I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious. ? Your recipes are a lifesaver for diabetics! Xx
OMG! THIS WAS SO DELICIOUS! Some minor adjustments. Added a tbsp of sweetner to both the cake and the frosting, and a couple of tbsps of butter to the frosting as suggested by another poster. Well, done , Libby. Number 1 for a reason!
Seriously?!?! What did I do wrong, then? I followed the recipe to the last gram, but the result turned out to be the worst carrot cake I’ve tried. What sweetener did you use? I used powder stevia, which gave a horrible metal taste to the cake..
Made it today as a surprise for my mum’s bday, cos she’s insulin resistant, and I was so disappointed. It was so greasy – there was butter everywhere. And very heavy because of all the fat from the butter and almonds.
What can I substitute the stevia with? I’m certain the taste is so awkward because of it!
Stevia is the problem – if you overuse it your end result will be a bitter and metallic taste. If you would like, it may be helpful to read my Ultimate Guide To Low-Carb Sweeteners. What I use and what I avoid. As for it being too buttery, it sounds like maybe you needed to add more almond flour/meal. If you use cups to measure ingredients, some people under pack or overpack their measuring cups and hence they may have too much or too little almond flour to make the cake the proper consistency. I recommend weighing but I totally understand so many prefer cups, but this may just be one explanation.
Try xilitol. I also add a cup of butter to the frosting. ?
Is it possible if using carrot puree than grated carrot? Thank you..
The carrot puree will possibly have too much liquid, so if you were to use this, you may have to add some extra almond flour/meal to the mixture.
Can I leave out the sugar although? Can I also substitute the cream cheese for something non dairy?
What sugar? There is no sugar in this recipe, being low carb. I’m sure you can search for a dairy free substitute for cream cheese out there that is dairy free.
This recipe sounds great and I’m planning on making it as cupcakes for a tea party this weekend. One question though, do the finished cakes freeze well? Has anyone tried before? TIA
So I made this cake, followed the recipe to the T but decided to increase the spices because I like my food well seasoned and yeah, was not impressed… Despite me adding more spices than mentioned, the cake had no taste or flavouring. It literally taste like nothing. Was not impressed at all – if you are used to traditional carrot cake, this will not satisfy you at all. I just ended up throwing the entire thing in the garbage.
I made these tonight for a dinner party tomorrow, We are going to have a dessert taste testing party after dinner, lol. These along with the mini lemon cupcakes and imitation bounty bars. I made these as cupcakes to go along w the theme. Watched the time since I didn’t find any comments (of those I read) that made them and gave a time. So I started at 10 minutes and checked them every few until I decided at 16 minutes they were done. Taste tested one to be sure it was company worthy (although they are pretty easy going and will try anything). It was quite tasty even without the frosting. Still deciding on which one to use. But when I was putting them away the bottoms were a bit wet so next time I will bake them a few minutes longer. Maybe 20 minutes will be better. Carrot cake is one of my favorites so I am glad I saw this recipe. Keep them coming!!
This carrot cake worked perfectly first time. Lovely texture and much more moist than I expected. I added some extra flavouring as per some of the other reviews and this worked well for us as we like the strong spiced taste. It took 50 minutes to bake at 160 fan oven.
I tested my glucose levels before and 90 mins after and there was no spike at all – perfect for those who watch such things. I will certainly make this again. I used a cream cheese frosting from another recipe and found this worked perfectly: cream cheese, butter, vanilla essence, lime juice & some zest grated, and 1 tblspn of sweetener. It is a great cake. Thank you for the recipe.
Wow so many comments! I love carrot cake but have not made one sugar free. I see you recommend Swerve. Can you tell me if it would work with Truvia?
I like a variety of sweeteners, mainly erythritol and/or stevia. I generally let each reader decide to use their favourite brand as so many people have very strong likes/dislikes. This is my Ultimate Guide To Sweeteners.
Thanks for your quick reply. I am making this for my husbands birthday and I want it to come out perfect. I have found another low carb blog with wonderful recipes but if I use the exact amount of Truvia as she does Swerve they come out too sweet. So I was just wondering if other readers have used Truvia in this or other sweetners besides Swerve???
Wonderful Cake!!
My hub who is new to low carb and sugar free loved this for his birthday. Would have given 5 stars but some parts of mixing were confusing.
Truvia worked great. I did not use your icing. I will next time.
MIXED SPICE: what is this? Didn’t notice till I was mixing it up. Is it even available in the US or do I have to make it?
BUTTER can you give the amount in Tablespoons? I wonder if that is why the one reader said hers was oozing butter. It is a bit confusing to read melted next to the amount listed. It made me wonder if the measurement was for melted or measure the butter then melt it. I chose measure then melt it. It came out beautifully and tasted fabulous!
Great questions. MIXED SPICE – there is an Amazon link to show you which spice this is, alternatively, you could use pumpkin spice or something similar. BUTTER – if you press the big red button below each recipe you can swap between metric and old school ounces. I prefer to cook by weight as there is no confusion.
Measuring in weights is so much easier and more precise than volume! 10 grams (weight) is always 10 grams, but 1 tbspn(volume) is different in UK, AUS & US. Thank you for giving weights!
Can this be frozen with the frosting?
Yes, you may freeze the cake in an airtight container. I would also wrap the cake in baking parchment to prevent it from drying out.
Wanted a carrot cake for my mum’s birthday just tried this & absolutely perfect thank you 🙂
I baked this fie the first time today using coconut oil instead of butter at 180 degrees in a non fan oven. I took about 1h 20mins to properly bake and still quite moist which is nice. I could not see at what type of the temperatures are based on. Could you please clarify? Many thanks
The baking times are “Bake at 180C/350F for 40-50 minutes or until a fork pushed in, comes out clean.”. I used an 8 inch/ 20 cm cake tin.
I have just come back for the recipe as I’ve just eaten my last slice of this delicious cake from my freezer and need to make it again. I notice you have used sunflower seeds since I last looked. Did you use the same quantity as almonds in the original? Any tips on using sunflower seeds? thank you.
I think you may be thinking of another recipe, this does not include and has never included, sunflower seeds.
Ummm… your “further update” says you ran out of almond flour so used sunflower seeds 🙂
Ahhhh, my apologies. From memory, I had to use half almond flour with half sunflower seed flour which I made in my food processor.
Wished you wd not use grams, so hard to configure, and what size of pan, that is so important. I love your recipes but sometimes they are a little confusing.
I give you grams and US cups for those of you who still cook by volume and not weight. There are large red buttons above every single recipe so you may switch between the system that you prefer 🙂 I’ve done all the hard work for you and it doesn’t cost you a penny 🙂
Will this recipe work as cupcakes as well?
YES!! I make it quite often as cupcakes because they are easier to transport in school lunchboxes. My top tip, cut in half and put the cream cheese icing/frosting inside – genius!
I have done it this way, and it makes a great lunch time treat, that doesn’t get messy.
I have found that if I use regular cupcake paper though, it sticks to the paper unless I use avocado oil spray on the paper cups or directly into the muffin pan with no paper cups, then they don’t stick.
I have also read that parchment cupcake papers work well for keto baking, but they are expensive.
Can I put half the mixture in TWO spring form pans so I can use the cream cheese frosting in the middle ?
Yes, I do this occasionally too. Beware, however, it sometimes has a tendency to not hold together as well as one larger cake.
I am not sure how to ask a question but what if I can’t find mixed spice??
Great question. You can use pumpkin pie spice instead, they are very similar.
The pan size is mentioned above in both inches and cms. Not all countries use lbs. Simply open a converter in Google to switch grams to lbs. It’s very easy.
Not everyone that uses the site is American.
Weight is much more important when low carb baking since the flours used can vary greatly in grind/texture, I always weigh my ingredients. Thanks Libby!
YAY! Another vote for cooking by weight. I totally agree. It is so accurate and brings far more consistent results (and less washing up too).
Can I keep the mixed dry ingredients in a bag in fridge and then use directly when needed combining it with wet ones?
Ooooh, that sounds like a great idea. You could also calculate how much of the dry ingredients require 1 egg and turn it into a mug cake?
This cake was absolutely amazing. I added butter and lemon rind to the topping and this was a game changer. The only issue I had was that the cake was really wet! I think it was butter. Any ideas on how to avoid this? Used good quality grass fed butter. The flavour though was absolutely the same as a full sugar carrot cake. We all loved it……apart from the wetness.
Oooh, I love the idea of lemon in the frosting/icing. As for the butter issue, I find the cake batter really is determined by the brand and moisture content of the coconut and the almond flour/meal used. Next time, you may need to use some additional almond flour to thicken the batter and to absorb more of the butter. Then I’ll be sure to pop round to your place and share some (for the sake of recipe development of course 😉 ).
I found the same thing too much butter. And after a few days the butter seemed to solidify at the bottom of the cake, which was nasty. Great taste other than too much butter, so will halve the amount of butter next time
I made it as described, baked it in two round cake pans. It’s very plain and boring, definitely far from any kind of carrot cake I’ve ever had. I hope some sweet icing will help but I’m not sure.
Did you add all the spices? The sweetener? The walnuts? I’m puzzled as to why you may think this cake is lacking in flavours. Let’s see what went wrong. 🙂
Can you replace the butter with oil
Totally agree with the lady above. Sooo disappointed and what a waste of good ingredients. Not sweet enough and maybe because I only had coconut flour (which I’m told can easily be a substitute) but texture was quite horrible too. It’s final journey was the bin.
I’m sorry to hear this but I can see two things that went wrong here. ALWAYS taste before baking and adjust sweetener to YOUR sweet tooth (every recipe states this “or add more to your taste”), and the recipe was developed using almond meal/flour NOT coconut flour. You cannot substitute them, for numerous reasons which is why your cake turned out incorrectly and the texture was wrong, you made a coconut flour cake not an almond flour cake. You may wish to read my Ulitmate guide to sweeteners an my Ultimate guide to coconut flour vs almond flour. Please don’t be discouraged, but you must follow the recipes using the flours they were developed using 🙂
No way you can sub coconut flour for almond flour, very very different ingredients. You would need an entirely new recipe.
I’m thinking the folks who found it tasteless might have used unsalted butter and so didn’t add salt.
I’ve baked a few sweet and savory breads in the last decade or so and if you bake with unsalted butter you MUST add the equivalent of 1/4 tsp of fine table salt per 1/4 pound (4oz, about 200g) of butter. Same with this recipe. If you don’t, no matter the sweetness of the carrots, they won’t add enough to compensate for all the other bland, though aromatic, ingredients.
Made this cake tonight. Needed 60 mins to cook, then left to cool. Turned out of pan and base was very soggy and very greasy. Tasted vaguely like carrot cake, but actually quite nasty. I didn’t ask my flatmate to try it, as he always criticises my LCHF choices and he would say it proves he’s right. I will not make this again unless I want to waste £5+ on eggs, almond flour, coconut and gas again.
As with all recipes here or on other sites ALWAYS taste before baking. You may require additional sweeteners or additional spices. Never ever throw baking away, just simply serve with sweetened whipped cream, and you can sprinkle some additional mixed spice/pumpkin spice over te cream too as a garnish/extra flavour. Yummo!
Delish! I mis-read the recipe and inadvertently used only 1/4 of the butter. I also added a small pot of unsweetened apple sauce, to stop my husband eating it ( he is following Slimmingworld and he absolutely hates apples. ). The lack of butter dd not seem to do any harm. I iced it with cream cheese combined with vanilla protein powder. Yum. Even my teenagers enjoyed it, and they usually avoid my “healthy” cakes like the plague!
I made this recipe last night and baked it as muffins to share on mothers day. After reading the reviews I choose to only add 150g of butter with the thought I could add in the last 50g once I checked the consistency of the batter. I did not use it in the end. I did not have mixed spice so added a mix of what I did have (cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger).
The recipe was easy to follow and my household carrot cake lovers LOVE the muffins. The icing was also a success.
Thanks for sharing.
I love this recipe. Made it for the second time and all enjoyed EXCEPT my daughter who can taste 1 g of coconut in a 10 kg mix! Is it possible to substitute something for the coconut or just omit?
My oven goes from 175°c to 200°c. No 180°. So I bake at 175° for quite a bit longer. Any suggestions?
Thank you for a great recipe.
You could try to add more almond flour/meal and omit the coconut, but you would need to experiment with how much you add, as I haven’t developed this particular recipe entirely with almond flour yet, but as a best guess/advice would be to add additional almond flour 2 tbsp at a time until you reach a cake batter thickness. I would also add, make sure you taste before baking to ensure there is enough sweetener and spices for your tastes. You may prefer it to be a bit more spicy or sweet than I have chosen, and by adding more spices and sweetener, might help mask the coconut flavour if you do decide to make it as per the recipe for your daughter. Let me know how you get on.
i see here you keep mentioninf coocnut flour . when in the recipe it is called for coconut flakes. i was going to ask the same question. so now im confused?
The recipe ingredients calls for shredded/desiccated coconut (unsweetened). My apologies, a previous reader wrote a comment about coconut and I wrongly assumed she was referring to coconut flour.
This is a lovely cake. I do not understand the negative comments. If you follow the recipe exactly it turns out beautifully. The only adjustment I made was to the frosting, as I had a tub of mascarphone cheese to use up. I added a tbsp of erythritol, the juice and rind of a lemon and it made a very nice topping for the cake. Very glad I found this recipe.
Thank you Helen 🙂
Ok to freeze this cake please?
Yes, the cake may be frozen, in an airtight container. Either as a whole cake OR sliced, with baking parchment between each slice so you may remove 1 serving at a time.
I’ve made this recipe as a cake or as 12 cupcakes and it always works out beautifully! The texture is moist and you would never know that it was a low carb version of your favourite cake!
I agree with you
Can I substitute butter with olive oil?
I personally wouldn’t. Butter has a creamy distinctive lovely creamy taste whereas olive oil can be quite sharp and fruity. You could perhaps try coconut oil if you cannot tolerate butter, but you may need to add additional flavour and spices plus an extra pinch of salt.
Made this a couple of days ago, it’s the first time making a LCHF cake. It’s delicious and instructions are simple. add a teaspoon of orange zest to the frosting, yum. Great with a cup of coffee or tea. I cannot fault this recipe. I definitely recommend this and will be making it again in the future.
Hey thank-you Kagi, what a lovely review to read this morning. I am so pleased you loved this cake. You can also use the same cake batter to make a keto carrot loaf, keto carrto muffins and keto carrot cupcakes. Yummo!
I made this cake today. I had a slice it met all my expectations. It was great. I altered the recipe a little. I substituted baking powder with a dollop of sour cream and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. And I didn’t have the spice mix so I used a dash of pumpkin spice, a pinch of nutmeg, and a pinch of ginger. It came out perfect. Light and as tasty as I was hoping for. I did increase the sweetener to 1+ tbsp for both batter and frosting( plus 2 drops of cake batter extract and tbsp of vanilla in frosting).
Thanks for your recipe!
Your recipe appears to be 200 grams butter or 7 oz and when I convert that to tablespoons it’s almost 2 full sticks, can that be true??
Yes, this recipe requires a lot of butter but it’s quite forgiving so you can easily dial it down and the cake still turns out beautifully. Remember the recipe notes, that once cooked a lot of butter can some time render out, allow the cake to cool and the carrot cake will magically absorb the butter again to make it delicate and moist.
Made this for my mums birthday but unfortunately when i went to take it out of the tin it stuck to the bottom and it came flying out in pieces…a disaster! However it does taste yum! Just about cried..I think its cos it wasnt completely cooled off.
My favorite Keto/Low carb carrot cake and plan on making it again for easter. Every year its a big hit with the family.
Oh and I omit the coconut and it’s still delicious.
I made it for one of our Easter desserts. It had a beautiful texture and I liked it very much except for the sweetness. I think it needed much more sugar substitute for the cake part. I would put 6 oz of Monkfruit or something similar instead of just 3T. I would leave the amount you have for the cream cheese topping the same. Tks!
It’s ok , easy to make although I think it wasn’t sweet enough and I would add more carrots. Will do it again in the future.
Can you leave out the coconut?
Yes, you can leave the coconut out. However, you may need to add a bit more almond flour to replace it since the coconut will help absorb some of the liquids. I would add more almond flour 1 tablespoon at a time though until you reach a cake batter consistency. Hope this helps.
Libby,
I’ve had this carrot cake recipe for some time, but don’t make it nearly enough. I had a concern about the amount of butter and went back to your website to confirm. As I perused the recipe, I noticed (after I had already grated the carrots which called for 3 cups) that your recipe calls for only 2 cups now. Did I make an error or was the qty of carrots reduced? I’m not sure if I may have read you had decided to reduce the qty in order to lower the carb count?….and I never got around to changing it or was it my typo? Luckily, I’ve reconnected with it and looking forward to changing it up by making cupcakes or muffins the next time. Mahalo for your time. Aloha Michele
Hi Michele, 2 cups is the correct amount. However, a few readers like to use more carrots as well. Glad you love this recipe! Cupcakes would be amazing! Thank you!