Hello friends, hope you all are enjoying the holiday season and eagerly waiting to welcome the New Year. I'm doing great and so are the kids too. Just another month before my mother leaves to Chennai. Hopefully, I can manage the 3 kids/boys (yes 3, including the biggest kid my husband) after she leaves.
But I have to give it to my husband this time. He is helpful than ever when compared to the time we had our first son. I haven't baked anything in the past 3 months except for the sugar-free cake recipe I'm going to share with you all today.
Actually, I haven't even been cooking anything different as often as I used to do before. I'm thinking of getting back on track again from this week onwards, please wish me luck so that I can stick to my plan.
At this moment I would also like to acknowledge that we have been receiving a lot of sincere suggestions/feedback from visitors through emails. Thank you very much for showing genuine interest in the growth of this website.
We are working towards making this blog more user-friendly and interactive. You will be seeing a lot of cool and interesting features in the days to come. Again everything depends on how well I'm going to manage the 24 hours we have.
It's not just any carrot cake, but a fat-free, sugar-free, vegan carrot cake made with whole wheat flour. As I type this all I can remember is the Thanksgiving episode of Friends featuring Brad Pitt (watch the first 30 seconds of the video).
I know what must be running in your mind. "How yucky can it get?"
But wait my dear friends, you are in for a total surprise when you taste this sugar-free cake. I know I say this a lot in a lot of the recipes here, but you have to believe me when I tell this "healthy doesn't have to taste bad; it can be damn good and this cake is definitely delicious for the health conscious people and the rest of us."
The specialty of this recipe is that it doesn't require any added sugar or artificial sugar substitutes like most of the sugar-free desserts call for. The cake gets its sweetness from dates and raisins. The only fat is from the walnuts, if you are using it. The credit for this wonderful sugar free cake goes to Beverly Lynn Bennett.
I just made some minor changes and the cake turned out very good. As for whole wheat flour, I used freshly milled flour and didn't find any difference at all in the taste. I'm not sure how the cake tastes with store-bought whole wheat flour.
I also increased the number of carrots and nuts to make it healthier. Bake this sugar-free cake for yourself to indulge without any guilt during this holiday season or it can also be a perfect gift especially for the special someone who cannot enjoy treats made of sugar.
If you tried this Sugar Free, Fat Free Vegan Carrot Cake recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Sugar Free, Fat Free Vegan Carrot Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 and ¼ cups Water
- 1 and ¼ cups Dates Chopped
- 1 cup Raisins
- 1 teaspoon Allspice Powder
- 1 cup Carrots Shredded
- 1 cup Walnuts Chopped , optional
- ⅓ cup Carrot Juice (or any other juice)
- As Needed Water or some more juice depending upon the consistency of the batter.
Instructions
- Preheat oven for 15 minutes at 375F/190C. Lightly grease and line an 8 or 9 inch cake pan.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda and powder and salt; set aside.
- In a saucepan, combine together the water, dates, raisins and allspice powder. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Place the shredded carrots in a large bowl. Pour the hot liquid mixture on top of it and let it cool completely.
- Once it is cool add the chopped walnuts and carrot juice; combine it well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well together.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Mine was done in about 40 minutes itself.
- If you have lined the cake pan with parchment paper you will be able to remove the cake just after 20 minutes. On the other hand if you have just greased the pan, it might take a couple of hours before you could remove the cake from the pan without breaking.
- This sugar free cake tasted absolutely delicious without frosting, but if you choose to frost wait for the cake to cool completely and frost it with your favorite frosting.
My Notes
- The original recipe calls for ½ cup each of shredded carrots and walnuts, but I have increased it to 1 cup each. I also used allspice powder instead a mix of various other spices because I didn't have them in hand.
- Also frozen orange juice concentrate has been used in the recipe, which I have substituted with carrot juice I had, which was not sweetened with added sugar. You may want to add about a tablespoon or 2 of water/juice to adjust the consistency of the batter.
jyoti sharma says
I found this recipe so fascinating as I keep searching for recipes which are more healthier. But when I tried it became a disaster. It was cooked from outside but was gooey from inside(completely raw). I even tried cooking with sealed foil for an extra 1 hr. But didn't help. Please suggest what went wrong in it. I guess my baking tray was small for this recipe. Was this the reason?
Madhuram says
Did you preheat the oven? What size pan did you use?
Penelope says
Calories?
Madhuram says
Sorry, don't have the information.
nadine a says
The carrot cake was a blessing . I tried it gluten free using rice flour , sorghum and tapioca . It rises big time and was a bit sweet for me I ll just lessen the raisins next time . Thanks a million . Bless you . First time I find not only egg free but fat free n sugar free .
Madhuram says
Wow! You made it gluten free too!? Awesome. Thanks for the feedback.
Varsha says
Does the cake bake well in pressure cooker?
Madhuram says
I have never baked in pressure cooker so not aware. Sorry Varsha.
Krishna Kumar r says
I tried this too but met the disaster as Nanma above. I baked for about 40 minutes. I halved the ingredients since l wanted to try out a small batch. I don't know for some reason the batter did not raise. I almost used the same quantity of baking powder and soda as in the recipe but it still didn't work. I use a CMW oven and the preheat automatically done just when it reaches the required temperature (190). Batter was average pouring consistency. Will appreciate if you could guess what could have gone wrong and share some tips to do it the right way. Thanks for your time.
Madhuram says
What was the size of the pan you used to bake the cake? If you had halved the ingredients and still used an 8-inch pan then it won't look well risen. It would be flat only. If your oven is in proper working condition and the taste is good but if you had only problem with the height of the cake, the pan size is the only thing that I can think of. Hope this helps. 🙂
Jessica S. says
I tried this today. I LOVE it. I used 1/2 C raisins, and the other half was golden raisins and chopped prunes (I ran out of the regular raisins, but the varied fruit tastes good). I had to add 1/4 C water at the end, I'm glad you added the note saying that I might have to do so. Thanks for the recipe.
Madhuram says
You're very welcome Jessica. 🙂
Pratibha says
I tried it! It turned out awesome and my hubby loves it!
Madhuram says
Thank you Pratibha.
Sb says
Hi.. the cake sounds awesome. just wanted to check if its possible to substitute dates and raisins with a little sugar and how to proceed? Allergies in the family so cant do it as it is but would love to try it out! TIA
Madhuram says
Hmm..I'm not saying that it can't be done. But I cannot guarantee perfect results at the same time because it's a good chunk of ingredients you will have to substitute. Why don't you just try the vegan carrot cake recipe in the blog instead.
Linda says
I made this recipe today and it turned out great!
I used whole wheat flour...just a store brand...and used extra carrots and
Walnuts.
I baked the cake for only 40 minutes.
I will make this recipe again!
I made a sugar free frosting that was made with Yogurt, cream cheese, vanilla
powered sugar...
Delicious...we all loved the flavor
The texture...was just as Good or better than adding only carrots. The dates and a mixture of raisins and craisens.
Madhuram says
That's awesome Linda.
Christine Edwards says
What a great cake, easy to follow recipe. Lots of taste. Hubby loves it. Would definitely recommend trying it. Made it twice and turned out well. Will definitely be making it again. Thank you.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Christine.
Nanma says
Hello...I tried this cake today...but it's been 1hr 15 min..it's still not baked..I removed it n tasted it..it wasn't sweet...plus it was semiliquid at the bottom... What must have gone wrong? The batter was not pouring consistency. Any particular whole wheat flour you recommend which I can buy online?Do help me so that next time I'm successful...
Madhuram says
I'm thinking there is something wrong in the oven temperature. Did you preheat it to the right temperature? Does your oven heat to the right temperature usually? This batter is a pretty thick batter unlike the usual cake batters. It won't be in a pouring consistency.
Jaynelouise says
Made this cake last night ..brilliant! Had a taster for breakfast love it! thank you for your recipes and your human error approach so down to earth. Just became vegan so this website is the tops!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for the kind words Jaynelouise. 🙂
Maurice Cowley says
Have just made this cake just love it thanks.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Maurice.
Joy says
This seems yummy! I was looking for a recipe for tasty fat free and sugar free cooked carrots and found your site. I rarely have desserts or flour foods and will reserve this for a special occasion- perfect for my partners' birthday in May, just a few months from now! 🙂
Thank you!
Anita says
Hi,
I was super excited to find this recipe and gir down to it promptly. My mom's diabetic and she doesn't eat eggs either. So this was perfect.
The cake batter was very dry and floury. So I added yogurt the 1st time.
It rose a little bit and then deflated completely. It was delicious but not like a cake at all.
I made it again the next morning and added extra juice (almost 1/2 cup more) to get a batter consistency. , but result was pretty similar.
1) how is the consistency of the dates post boiling? Mine was pulpy both times.
2) I live in India and we don't have options of soft or hard wheat, I used a premium quality wheat which I had milled. It results in really soft rotis, but I don't know if it works for the cake.
3) despite the added liquid I had to spread the batter in my tin. It wasn't a pouring consistency.
Please help. I would really love to try this again. Both for my mom as well as a heathy snack option.
Madhuram says
Hi Anita, I'm sorry that I don't remember the consistency after boiling the dates because it's almost 4 years since I baked this cake, I think. I'm guessing maybe the wheat flour you are using requires lot more liquid than I have mentioned. So feel free to add more liquid and increase the baking time and see if it works.
Cinnamon Flowers says
Hi my mom's wedding is coming up in two weeks we are doing cupcakes instead of a traditional cake. But my mom is severely allergic to eggs and sugar. We dont want the bride to feel as if hers is obviously way different then her new husbands when they exchange bites.so we want to try to make her a cupcake she can have. I wanted to know will this recipe be ok in cupcake form? If so will cupcake papers be ok? I have a frosting she can have already, but thought this recipe would be a great surprise for her since she has not had desserts for as long as I have been alive:) Thank you for your information!
Madhuram says
Hi CF, this one is quite a dense cake. You can bake it as cupcakes but it will not have the texture of regular cupcakes. I think it will feel more like a muffin. All the best.
samantha says
Well I am truly pleased with this recipe, I make carrot cake for my kids lunchboxes and hit panic mode this weekend as there were no eggs in the hen house and I refuse to use shop bought eggs, I made two of these yesterday, mailed one to my 93 year old grab and the kids and hubby have devoured the other, I an now midway through making more for tomorrow. I had no dates so used mixed dried fruit and replaced allspice with equal mix of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, made fresh carrot juice, using the pulp in place of shredding to minimise waste and the flour was unintentionally strong wholmeal bread flour, I was making bread at the same time and picked up the wrong bag but the results were excellent so will keep the same method with future batches. Thank you
for a great recipe!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome Samantha.
Natalie says
I absolutely love this recipe! It's a lovely big cake full of goodness and no added sugar! Thank you 🙂
Madhuram says
You're welcome Natalie.
Maitreyi says
Hi
I need to make a big cake for a special birthday. This recipe looks great because the birthday girl will only eat natural sugars (no refined sugar or sweetners) and no eggs. Do you have any tips on how to decorate? Any naturally sweetened frostings?
Is there a way to make the whole cake slightly less dense, fluffier? Would adding a bit of oil or yoghurt help in this?
Madhuram says
I have seen a cashew-date based topping kind of thing in some vegan books. Check out for vegan baking books in your local library and you should be able to get a lot of ideas. Maybe you can try increasing the quantity of baking powder by another 1/4 teaspoon and 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar for getting a lighter cake.