A delicious carrot cake made with whole wheat and with an amazing healthy frosting. It is the best healthy carrot cake to celebrate birthdays or spring time.
Carrot cakes are most popular around Easter and spring time in the United States. The best carrot cakes are delicate moist and rich. This healthier take on carrot cake is as delicious, you'll never miss the extra sugar, fat or the white flour!
Table of contents
Why This Recipe Works
A lighter version of the traditional carrot cake, perfect sweetness, moist with a little molasses flavor. The healthier aspect of this carrot cake makes it a great recipe without the guilt of eating something so sugary or fatty!
This is a lovely and relatively uncomplicated recipe for carrot cake. I've tweaked the original carrot cake recipe to be healthier and it turned out great. I've also made a yogurt cream cheese frosting that paired very well with the cake.
Recipe Ingredients
Recipe Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Beat eggs and vanilla then add both brown and white sugar and continue beating. Add oil then applesauce and mix well.
- In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix.
- Fold in gated carrots and walnuts if using.
- Grease and dust two 8 inch round cake pans or 9x13 inch pan. Divide cake batter into the pans and bake until done.
- In a bowl combine frosting ingredients well.
- Place the first baked round cake on a circular plate, top with some of the frosting then top that with the other baked cake. Decorate according to your liking or just dump the frosting on top. Double the frosting if you feel the need to, the best part is it is not that super sweet and it is actually healthier.
Recipe Expert Tips
- The frosting is a little bit soft, If you need a more stiff frosting to make flowers and more decorative shapes, you'll need to add some powdered sugar. I've used a lot of icing as I've made a two tier birthday cake.
- You can bake in a 13x9 pan and only use half of the icing or just dust the top with some powdered sugar instead of frosting, or maybe even healthier and skip the frosting all together.
- Cake and frosting are not too sweet like the ones we usually get at the stores. For us it was just right and we did not even miss the extra sugar. I had a little bit of leftover frosting which my kids put to a good use . They scooped more on their cake pieces, but guess what? I was not freaking out and yelling at them to stop.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, carrot cake is a cake that actually has carrot in the batter. Sometimes people add raisins, pineapples and nuts along with carrots.
Actually in this recipe I did. While developing this recipe to be lighter some of the fats were substituted by apple sauce but still you'll find
You can definitely do that if this is your thing. You see, I've made cakes before with olive oil but it just did not suite my taste , I felt EVOO was so overwhelming and really overpowered all other flavors.
📸 Recipe At A Glance
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If you are going to make a birthday cake these 8" baking pans. Wilton are known for their reliable baking pans and these are one of my favorite for making birthday cakes.
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Healthy carrot cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 4 eggs.
- 1/2 cup brown sugar.
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar.
- 3/4 cup apple sauce.
- 1/4 cup oil.
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract.
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour.
- 2 teaspoon baking soda.
- 2 teaspoon baking powder.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
- 3 cups grated carrots.
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped (optional).
For the cream cheese frosting and filling**
- 1/2 cup raw honey.
- 2 8oz cream cheese, room temperature.
- 2 (5oz) vanilla Greek yogurt cups.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and dust two 8 inch round cake pans or 9x13 inch pan.
- In a deep bowl, beat eggs and vanilla then add both brown and white sugar and continue beating.
- Add oil then apple sauce and mix well.
- In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix.
- Finally fold in the carrots and pecan if using.
- Bake in the prepared pan(s) until done.*
- Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. In a bowl beat cream cheese, yogurt and honey until well combined. Refrigerate until the cake is done and cooled.
- If you are making a two tier cake, add half the filling over one cake and cover with the other one.
- Decorate with the rest of the frosting.
- Refrigerate to set for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- If you will not make a two tier cake and then use only half of the icing recipe.
- The frosting is a little bit soft, If you need a more stiff frosting to make flowers and more decorative shapes, you'll need to add some powdered sugar. I've used a lot of icing as I've made a two tier birthday cake.
- You can bake in a 13x9 pan and only use half of the icing or just dust the top with some powdered sugar instead of frosting, or maybe even healthier and skip the frosting all together.
- Cake and frosting are not too sweet like the ones we usually get at the stores. For us it was just right and we did not even miss the extra sugar. I had a little bit of leftover frosting which my kids put to a good use . They scooped more on their cake pieces, but guess what? I was not freaking out and yelling at them to stop.
- Please check the nutrition disclaimer policy.
Nutrition
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First published March 29, 2017 . Last updated February 23, 2021 with important tips, clear step by step instructions and readability.
For how long do you bake the cake(s)?
Elaine about 35 to 40 minutes.
What is whole wheat pastry flour compared to regular whole wheat flour?
What is whole wheat pastry flour? I have a basic whole wheat flour, but not sure if that’s the same.
Leslie, whole wheat pastry is finely ground and has less gluten. As far as I know, it produces a softer baked cakes.
Can't wait to try this again, made it in many occasions already and it never failed me. Thank you for such a great recipe.
Wahoo! I’m chuffed you love it Lindsey. Thank you for the feedback
A delicious cake with sensible ingredients and a frosting that is actually good for you!
We all loved it. It also came out well gluten-free (using Bob's one to one baking flour flour) Thank you for posting.
Connie, thank you so much for trying this recipe and I am glade you all liked it. I've no experience with gluten free flour but I am happy it turned out good though :).