Carrot Cake Loaf with Miso Cream Cheese Frosting! A simple, yet elevated any-time cake loaded with carrots, rum raisins and pecans. It’s vegan, eggless and real easy to make!
Can you guess what I’ve made over 5 times in the last two weeks? You’re lookin’ at it. Say hello to this gorgeous gorgeous carrot cake! Carrot cake is one of my absolute favourite spring… ANY SEASON cake.
My dad used to buy the huge thing of carrot cake from Costco around this time of year so I’ve been craving all the carrots, in cake form.
Every weekend Eric has been buying the Chicago Diner Carrot Cake from Whole Foods and lately, it’s just been dry, and not worth the $7 for a mediocre sized slice. I figured this was a calling to finally step into the realm of baking cakes again, and so here we are, landed with the most perfect carrot cake.
What this carrot cake is:
- moist with a tight, tender crumb
- sweet, but not overly sweet
- generously spiced
- loaded with carrots
- studded with rum raisins & pecans
- topped with a sweet cream cheese frosting, kissed with a touch of miso
- the perfect any-time cake!!!
It’s just so, so… SO very good.
Ingredients (+ Substitutions)
This vegan carrot cake is made with pretty basic baking ingredients
- Carrots: fresh whole carrots, don’t use the pre-grated packaged stuff because they’re super dry.
- Yogurt or sour cream: I use non-dairy soy or oat yogurt, or sour cream. You want a regular consistency yogurt or sour cream, not too thick like greek style, and not too runny like some non-dairy yogurts are.
- Brown sugar: light or dark, choose with your heart!!
- Neutral oil: I use canola oil.
- Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves & cardamom! You don’t have to use all of them but cinnamon is a 100% MUST.
- Add-ins: I love rum raisins & pecans, but feel free to use other dried fruit, walnuts or pumpkin seeds.
- Flour: A mix of all purpose and almond flour to achieve that tender crumb. If you don’t have almond flour, substitute with equal amounts of all purpose flour and add an additional tsp of oil.
- Baking powder & baking soda: leaveners!
For the miso cream cheese frosting, you’ll need some cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, sweet white miso paste and vanilla.
How to Make this Carrot Cake Loaf Recipe
- Grate the carrots: Finely shredded gives off a stronger carrot flavour and moisture while grated carrots give some texture. So we’re using half finely shredded and half grated for the best of both worlds.
- Mix the wet ingredients & add-ins: Whisk together the yogurt, sugar, oil, vanilla and spices. Then mix in the (rum) raisins and chopped nuts.
- Mix the dry ingredients: Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, add the almond flour and mix.
- Mix dry with wet ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl and use a spatula to mix, using folding motions, just until there are no more streaks of flour. The batter is suppose to be thick!
- Bake: Transfer the batter to prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. Let it cool, wrap it up and then let it rest overnight.
Miso Cream Cheese Frosting
To be honest, a few times while testing this cake I ate it without any frosting. I promise you, this cake is delicious without the frosting. But if you have the time and ingredients to make the frosting, I 100% recommend it. I find non-dairy cream cheese to need a lot more powdered sugar, so adding in a touch of miso balances that overly sweetness out while adding a touch of its special, unique flavour.
To make it, beat the cream cheese, butter, miso, vanilla and lemon juice together until well combined. Add in a few tablespoons of sifted powered sugar and beat. Repeat until you use all the powdered sugar (lesser amount first), until desired sweetness and consistency. It may be slightly softer and runnier because of the mixing, but once you let it chill it should firm up.
Tips & Tricks for Success
- Weigh your ingredients: Carrots come in different sizes and people pack carrots differently in measuring cups, which is why I highly recommend weighing it out. Too much carrots will result in a overly moist cake whereas not enough will result in a crumbly dry cake.
- Preheat the oven: To 375 F. This initial high heat will help with that high rise, but be sure to turn down the heat as soon as it goes in the oven to 350 F.
- Rest overnight: When it comes out of the oven and after it’s cooled, it will feel some what hard and dry. Wrap it up and let it rest overnight. This gives the cake a chance to really deepen the spices flavours and moisten up.
How to Store Carrot Cake
- Without frosting: Cover and store at room temperature for up to 3-4 days.
- Storing with frosting: Cover and store in refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Freeze: With our without frosting, wrap and freeze for up to 1 month.
This cake is the perfect any-time snacky loaf cake. Weekday, weekend, breakfast or dessert, this cake is here for you ♡.
More Carrot Recipes to Love!
If you recreate this Carrot Cake Loaf recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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My Favourite Carrot Cake (Vegan)
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 2 large (130 g) carrots, peeled
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp (75 ml) dairy free sour cream or yogurt*
- 1/2 cup (100 g) light or dark brown sugar**
- 1/4 cup + 2 tsp (70 ml) neutral oil
- 1 tsp (5 ml) high quality vanilla
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/8 tsp cloves, optional
- pinch of cardamom, optional
- 1/3 cup (40 g) pecans, chopped (plus more for topping)
- 3 tbsp (25 g) raisins
- 1 1/2 tbsp (22 ml) rum, optional
- 1 cup + 1 tbsp (136 g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp (5 g) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 g) baking soda
- 2 tbsp (14 g) super fine almond flour
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
Miso Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup (112 g) dairy free cream cheese
- 1/4 cup (57 g) room temperature butter
- 1 2/3 cup (200 g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp (18 g) sweet miso paste
- 1 tsp (5 ml) lemon juice, optional
- 1 tsp (5 g) vanila
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 F (185 C). Line or grease a loaf pan. I used a 7×3.25×2.27 inch loaf pan that holds 3 cups. You may also use a 8x4x2 inch loaf pan that holds 4 cups.
- If adding rum raisins, soak the raisins in the rum and set aside.
- Grate one carrot using a standard grater. Finely grate the other carrot.
- To a bowl, add the yogurt and sugar, and whisk to combine. Then add in the oil, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cardamom, and whisk together.
- Add in the grated carrots, chopped pecans and soaked raisins (removing excess rum), and stir.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and add the salt. Add the almond flour. Use a spatula and fold in the dry ingredients until just combined and there are no more streaks of flour. Scoop into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes. It should spring back when gently touching the top and a skewer should come out clean or with a few cooked crumbs when inserted in the middle.
- Remove from oven and let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from the loaf pan and parchment paper, and cool on the wire rack. Once completely cooled, wrap and let it sit overnight. It might feel dry on the outside, but I promise the next day it will be perfectly moist.
- Add the cream cheese, butter, miso, lemon juice, vanilla to a bowl and whip until combined (about 1 minute). Add 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and whip until mixed in. Repeat with remaining powdered sugar.
- Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Spread the cream cheese frosting on top and top with more chopped pecans. Slice, serve and enjoy!
Notes
- * If sour cream is very thick, replace with a little non-dairy yogurt and stir for a yogurt consistency. If using non-dairy yogurt that is very runny, strain for a few minutes to remove excess liquid. I use Earth’s own sour cream or Silk oat yogurt.
- ** The sugar helps with moisture content, however it can be reduced by 1/3 – 1/4 (66 g – 75g) and adding in an additional tbsp of yogurt.
- *** If omitting almond flour, replace with all purpose flour + 1 additional tsp of oil.
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This recipe turned out so moist and flavourful and the miso frosting was the perfect finishing touch! Everyone loved it, vegans and non-vegans alike, so definitely will be saving this to make again in the future 🙂
The best vegan carrot cake recipe! Not sure how many times I’ve baked this. You’ll NEVER need eggs or dairy for carrot cake forever 🙂 This carrot cake always comes out moist & flavourful- it’s great with & without frosting. Another best part is that this can freeze & defrost well, the texture & taste are as lovely as the non frozen version 🙂
easy recipe to follow but my oven obviously is not the same. I am at 55 minutes for baking
This is literally the BEST carrot cake I’ve ever had, even before going vegan!! I am completely floored. The spices mixed beautifully, and while I did not have rum on hand during the first batch, I added it the second and it was literal perfection. Thank you so much, Lisa!!
(Since I could literally eat this entire loaf in one sitting, I did replace the sugar with lakanto/monkfruit and it still came out beautifully)
This cake is bananas (carrots?) good. I personally love a well-spiced carrot cake, and although I forgot to buy nutmeg, I used all the other spices and it was delectable. I also modified the amount of sugar (muscovado) a bit; I used about 3/4 of the amount in the batter and sprinkled the rest on top before baking for a delicately crispy, caramelized top.
The frosting is also fantastic, although mine turned out softer since I DIY’d some ingredients (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar) and the moisture content was undoubtedly different. The texture is creamy and soft straight from the fridge, and the taste is amazing, it’s just like frosting (duh 🤭) and I could eat it by the spoonful.
Another absolutely win by Lisa!
Carrot cake is my all time favourite so I make it often for my family and friends. Then I saw this recipe and couldn’t resist and whoa, the feedback was next level! The addition of cardamom and cloves was a winner…so comforting and scrumptious! Will definitely be making this again 🧡
Uuh I loved it and so did my family !! It’s delicious ! My first time using sweet MISO and my god it changes the game, will be making this more for sure !
My new fav!! My boyfriend loved it as well as our friends. Perfectly moist flavorful cake, and I’m currently making more of this cream cheese frosting for other desserts. I’ll be back very soon. Highly recommended!!
Omg this cake is soo perfect!! Literally in one of my best cakes i ever tried! i Highly recommented ! <33
Κeep thіs going please, great јob!