After a crazy month of December this past year, my family changed our holiday plans at the last minute, bought plane tickets to fly to Arizona, and spent Christmas with my grandparents. Since my parents always host the holidays at their home in California, seeing cacti all decked out in festive twinkling lights was quite a treat!
To keep things simple, we decided to skip almost all presents and focus on spending time together. We didn’t even decorate a tree while in Arizona! However, I drew the line at stockings—everyone deserves to at least open something on Christmas morning!—so I volunteered to put those together. Everyone in our family has a huge {chocoholic} sweet tooth, so there were lots of smiles and empty wrappers by midday on Christmas… I stuffed at least ten different types in those stockings!
Although we usually cook a Thanksgiving-style feast for our Christmas dinner, Mom voted for a low-key meal instead and bought ham, honey mustard and chutneys as toppings, potato salad (as requested by Grandma… when she gets a craving, there’s no stopping her!), ambrosia salad (again, Grandma’s request!), a baguette, and pecan pie for dessert.
After spending the afternoon listening to Grandpa’s stories about his childhood growing up on their Colorado farm and coloring in these fun coloring books, we settled into the comfy couches and chairs with plates of food balanced on our laps to watch the original “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” After she cut everyone else a piece of the pecan pie, my mom quietly handed me a big slice of carrot cake from the grocery store bakery as a special surprise dessert instead. She knew I had been craving it all week, and I slowly savored every single bite of that colossal piece!
Because calories don’t count on Christmas, right??
While I really enjoyed that layered carrot cake on Christmas, I had one main problem with it… Like many store-bought carrot cakes, it was really lacking in veggies and tasted more like a spice cake with a few itty bitty, almost imperceptible orange flecks sprinkled in here and there. Don’t get me wrong—I love cinnamon and cozy spices—but I want my carrot cakes to taste like carrots!
So when we returned home after the holidays, I started working on developing a better carrot cake recipe in my kitchen. After lots of testing, I finally have the perfect one: this Ultimate Healthy Carrot Cake! It’s full of those classic cozy spices we all know and love, and it’s finished with sweet cream cheese frosting. But unlike those bakery-style cakes, this one contains a lot fewer calories—and it’s almost healthy enough for breakfast!
It has carrots… And no butter, refined flour, or sugar… And lots of protein… So that should basically count. Right??
The veggies truly star in this carrot cake show! (I’m suddenly having flashbacks to my childhood with dancing cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots in “Veggie Tales…” Please tell me I’m not the only one who watched those movies!) For the best flavor and texture, you’ll use a full 2 ½ cups of freshly grated carrots. Don’t substitute the pre-shredded kind you can buy at the grocery store! Those are thicker and drier, and they won’t soften enough while baking.
Because grating all of those carrots can be tedious (and dangerous—I have a brand new scar on my pinky from battling my box grater!), I have a special tip for you… Use a food processor with the grater attachment instead! It makes the process go a hundred times faster, which means you’re that much closer to eating cake!
Many traditional carrot cake recipes depend on anywhere from half to a full cup of butter or oil to make them moist or tender, but… There aren’t exactly enough hours in the day to exercise and burn off all of those calories! Instead, this lighter recipe of mine uses my favorite ingredient in healthier baking: Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt provides the same moisture and extra butter or oil for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your baked goods a protein boost, too!
To keep this cake clean eating friendly, you’ll skip the refined sugar and sweeten this cake with two different ingredients: pure maple syrup and liquid stevia. Be sure to buy the good stuff when it comes to maple syrup! It’s sold in thin glass bottles or squat plastic jugs, generally near the oats at the grocery store, but I’ve also bought it online.
As for the stevia, it’s a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener and is very concentrated. A little goes a long way—you’ll only need slightly more than 1 teaspoon to sweeten both layers of cake! I typically buy this brand because it has a lovely sweet flavor and no strange aftertastes, and you can find it in many health-oriented grocery stores. However, I buy mine online here because that’s the cheapest price I’ve found! (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
Once the cake has cooled, it’s time for the cream cheese frosting. You just can’t have carrot cake without it! A bakery once tried to sell me a slice with plain vanilla buttercream instead, and I nearly walked out of the store… No thank you!
For this healthier version, you’ll skip the butter and powdered sugar. It’s made with protein-packed Greek yogurt and Greek yogurt cream cheese! I found my Greek yogurt cream cheese at Safeway (their own Lucerne brand), and many Walmart stores sell this brand. And it’s sweetened with that same liquid stevia you used in the cake, so it’s completely sugar-free!
Time to eat! ♡ And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy carrot cake!
| The Ultimate Healthy Carrot Cake | | Print |
- for the cake
- 2 ¼ cups (270g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 2 ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 tbsp (15mL) vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup (60mL) pure maple syrup
- 1 ¼ tsp liquid stevia
- ¾ cup (180mL) nonfat milk
- 2 ½ cups (265g) freshly grated carrots (about 4-5 medium, peeled first!)
- for the frosting
- 1 cup (240g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 (8oz) block Greek yogurt cream cheese, softened
- 1 ¼ tsp liquid stevia
- To prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut two 9”-round circles out of wax paper to fit inside two 9”-round cake pans. Lightly coat the two 9”-round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Gently press one wax paper circle into the bottom of each cake pan, and lightly coat the wax paper with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg whites, and vanilla. Stir in the Greek yogurt, mixing until no large lumps remain. Mix in the maple syrup and stevia. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 4 equal parts.) Gently fold in the carrots.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake at 350°F for 24-28 minutes, or until the center feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before inverting, peeling off the wax paper, and transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- To prepare the frosting, add the Greek yogurt, Greek yogurt cream cheese, and stevia to a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
- To assemble the cake, spread a generous dollop of frosting on top of one of the cake layers. Place the second layer on top. Frost the tops and sides.
White whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the whole wheat flour.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the pure maple syrup. I do not recommend substituting sugar-free maple syrup; your cake will collapse and turn out really dense if you do so.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
Neufchâtel (⅓-less fat) cream cheese may be substituted for the Greek yogurt cream cheese. Regular cream cheese and brick-style fat-free cream cheese will also work. Regardless of which cream cheese you use, for the smoothest frosting texture, just make sure it's well softened first!
GLUTEN FREE OPTION: For the gluten-free flour, I recommend the following: 1 cup (120g) millet flour, ¾ cup (90g) tapioca flour, ½ cup (60g) brown rice flour, and 1 ¾ teaspoons xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends (like this one!) will work as well, if measured like this.
LIQUID STEVIA IN CAKE BATTER NOTE: I highly recommend using the liquid stevia! It's one of my favorite ingredients, and you'll use it in all of these recipes of mine. I buy my liquid stevia online here because that's the cheapest price I've found. If you prefer to omit the liquid stevia from the carrot cake batter, you may replace it with an additional ½ cup (120mL) of pure maple syrup AND reduce the milk to ¼ cup (60mL) to compensate for the added liquid volume. Alternatively, substitute ½ cup (96g) of coconut sugar or brown sugar AND reduce the milk to ½ cup (120mL) to compensate for the added volume.
LIQUID STEVIA IN FROSTING NOTE: For sweeter frosting, add an additional ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon of liquid stevia. I do not recommend substituting other liquid sweeteners (ie pure maple syrup, honey, agave, etc) for the liquid stevia in the frosting. These sweeteners will make the frosting too liquidy, and it won’t stay put once spread onto the cake. For frosting that does not require liquid stevia, use this cream cheese frosting recipe of mine instead.
IMPORTANT CARROT NOTE: Do not substitute store-bought pre-shredded carrots. They are too thick and dry, and they won’t soften while the cake bakes.
OTHER MIX-INS: You may add raisins, chopped walnuts, or shredded coconut to the cake if you prefer. However, I do not recommend adding diced or crushed pineapple. The extra liquid in the fruit and juices will cause the cake to collapse while cooling and make it extremely dense.
9X13" CAKE PAN:I haven't yet tried baking this cake in a 9x13" pan, but some readers have said it works! They recommend baking the 9x13" pan at 350°F for 26-32 minutes, or until the center feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. (As soon as I test it myself, I'll share my experience here too!)
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, lower sugar, higher protein}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
Really sorry but I found this cake to be awful. Made it twice and turned out the same. Wasted ingredients as we had to put it straight in the bin,
That sounds so disappointing! I’d love to work with you to figure out what went wrong. 🙂 Can you describe in detail the issues that you experienced — taste, texture, etc? Did you make any substitutions, including those in the Notes section?
I had a great experience with this recipe. Cake came out perfect and was happy with taste & flavour considering i didnt have stevia so left it out and improvised with extra maple syrup and home made icing sugar in the icing. I figure if a cake doesnt quite work re flavour, icing saves the day anyway. Also used spelt flour.
Im going to make today with ginger to give it a bit of penache, 5 spice could work too. No insta pic as it didnt last.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this carrot cake, Wai! Thanks for including your recipe modifications — I always love to hear what tweaks work! And that’s the best kind of compliment if your cake didn’t last long enough to take a picture! 😉
I plan on making this for my husband’s birthday. I usually use a different carrot cake recipe, but he is having trouble with all the sugar in traditional carrot cake recipes. I was stoked to see you use the same stevia we keep on hand. They are my absolute favorite. I like to put the vanilla crème stevia in coffee/tea as well. My question is how would I adjust this recipe for a 9×13 glass dish. We just moved and I’m not certain if we have a 9 inch cake pan. We might have pie dishes, but it would be a hassle to dig them out if I could even find them. I’m really looking forward to trying this recipe.
I’m so honored that you’d consider making this recipe to celebrate such a special occasion! That means a lot to me, Emily! 🙂 I think you should be able to bake this in a 9×13″ pan. I’d recommend starting to check on it after about 25 minutes. It may need more time than that, but I don’t want you to overbake it! 😉 It’ll be done when the center feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. I can’t wait to hear what you and your husband think of this cake! Happy birthday to him!!
So I made this carrot cake with coconut flour (my first gluten free cake). I followed the recipe, except for the stevia that I replaced with brown sugar. The dough looked a bit weird but I thought it’s just because the flour isn’t regular flour. My cake tastes so horrible I’m going to have to throw it away. I’m devastated because I absolutely hate waste. Even my partner tasted it and is usually very tolerant of my baking, and said it’s un-edible. Very very disappointed. I don’t understand.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Thais! I’d love to work with you to sort out those issues. Unfortunately, coconut flour doesn’t work in this recipe. Coconut flour is about 3x as absorbent as every other flour, so it completely dries out this cake batter. If you want to make the cake gluten-free, then I suggest using the blend I included in the Notes section instead. Also, how much brown sugar did you substitute for the stevia? Did you use ½ cup and reduce the milk, as I’ve provided in response to other commenters who wanted to use brown sugar instead as well? 🙂
Thank you for your reply, Amy. I will not try to use coconut flour on its own as a gluten free flour anymore, I failed two recipes with it. I will give this recipe another chance with a different type of flour. I didn’t see the other comments on sugar. I only saw the comment from a lady who couldn’t get the cake to taste good either. I will have another look. Thank you
It’s my pleasure, Thais! In general, I recommend using coconut flour only when it’s explicitly called for in a recipe. As you’ve seen, it’s a really finicky flour and not very easy to substitute in other recipes! 😉 I can’t wait to hear how your second cake turns out!
I made this cake last night and it turned out terrible. We used GF flour, and the cake batter tasted like playdough. The finished version is inedible.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Jennifer! That doesn’t sound like how this carrot cake is supposed to turn out at all, so I’d love to work with you to figure out what happened. 🙂 Did you make any modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section? Did you use the vanilla stevia that I linked to or another sweetener? How did you measure the flour — with measuring cups or a kitchen scale? If the former, can you describe in detail how you measured? Once I know all of that information, we should be able to solve the issues you experienced!
Hi Amy, we used a dip and sweep method for the flour and we bought the stevia you recommended. I like the frosting very much. We measured carefully, but it tasted like baking soda, I think.
Thanks for the info Jennifer! That measuring method is actually what’s causing the problem. When measured like that, you can end up with 1.5 times as much flour as when you lightly spoon and level, and that extra flour is definitely causing the issues that you’ve experienced! If you don’t own a kitchen scale, here’s what I recommend doing for measuring flour (and cocoa powder, oats, etc!): use a fork to “scoop” up flour from the container, and lightly shake the fork back and forth over the top of your measuring cup to transfer the flour into it. Once there’s a small mound of flour extending past the rim of the measuring cup, then place the flat back of a knife against the top of the measuring cup, and gently scrape it across the top to get rid of the excess flour. Never “pat” the flour down with the knife or fork. This fork method acts like a sifter (without dirtying another dish!) and guarantees you’ll add less flour to the batter, so you’ll end up with moist and tender carrot cake. Does that make sense? 🙂
Also, since there was too much flour in the batter, that would also cause the cake to taste not as sweet as it should have. If you prefer a sweeter cake, in addition to measuring the flour correctly (so the cake will taste sweeter!), you can add an additional ¼ to ¾ teaspoon of vanilla stevia, depending on how sweet you’d like your carrot cake to taste. Does that also make sense?
Lastly, too much baking soda will cause a metallic taste. Is that what you detected? Make sure to use no more than ¾ teaspoon and don’t substitute baking soda for the baking powder! (Some readers have done that before, so I like to mention it just in case. 😉 )
Hi, do you think I can replace the multi purpose flour almond flour ?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Chris! If I understand your question correctly, you’d like to use almond flour in place of the gluten-free blend I recommend. Is that correct? If so, you may do that — just keep in mind that your carrot cake will turn out denser with that substitution! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try this recipe!
Hi Amy. Thank you for your reply. Yes I would like to use almond flour as substitution. I will let you know how it turn out.
Thanks, Chris! I can’t wait to hear what you think of this carrot cake! 🙂
Do you think i can replace the nonfat milk with almond milk (nonfat)?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe! I’ve actually covered this already in the Notes section of the recipe, directly underneath the Instructions. It can be easy to miss! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this carrot cake!
I just made this cake and it didn’t rise. So disappointing as it’s for my daughters first birthday party. I followed every step. Do you have an idea what could have gone wrong?
I just watched the video to confirm what I did. I guess these cakes don’t rise much now that I see how yours came out. The picture of the cake was deceiving.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Jen! That sounds really disappointing. How tall were your cake layers? How fresh are your baking powder and baking soda? Also, did you make any modifications, including those in the Notes section? Lastly, how did you measure your flour — with measuring cups or a kitchen scale? If the former, can you describe in detail how you measured? I’d love to work with you to figure out what happened so it doesn’t happen again! 🙂
I wonder if regular yogurt would work?
Regular yogurt will work in the cake batter! I don’t recommend it in the frosting though because it generally isn’t as thick as Greek yogurt, so your frosting would be fairly runny. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try this carrot cake!
Made this with my 6 year old and found it was delicious! Particularly liked the frosting! 🙂 thank you!
I’m so glad you and your child enjoyed this carrot cake, Jean! That means a lot to me! 🙂
I would like to bake using vegetable oil,, olive oil etc how do I replace this in your recipes in place of the Greek yogurt ?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipes, Rita! My recipes are specifically designed for yogurt, and I can’t guarantee the results if you substitute oil instead. However, regular (non-Greek) yogurt will definitely work in place of the Greek yogurt in this cake batter, if you have that on hand! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of this carrot cake if you try it!
This cake looks delicious but I don’t have enough maple syrup or honey for the recipe. Can I substitute brown sugar for the maple syrup? And if I did I would have to add more milk, right? Thanks!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Rose! Yes — you’re exactly right! I’ve actually covered this with a few other readers in the comments section, so if you scroll through the comments above yours, you should find the measurements you need. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this carrot cake!