This recipe for Easy Paleo Carrot Cake with pineapple is super soft, fluffy, perfectly spiced and delicious. It’s gluten free and grain free, AIP, egg-free and nut-free and the perfect celebratory treat.
This post is brought to you by Bob’s Red Mill. Products used in this recipe were sent to me by Bob’s and the opinions and text are all mine.
This Easy Paleo Carrot cake is excellent for Easter, birthdays, and everyday fun. As someone who is allergic to almonds, I know how tricky it can be to find an egg and nut-free paleo cake that is soft and delicious! This paleo carrot cake meets that mark. It’s made with a combination of grain-free and nut-free flours, iced with a vegan vanilla buttercream frosting and sprinkled with some toasted coconut flakes for that extra oomph.
This Sheet Pan Carrot Cake comes together quickly. You can use just one bowl to mix everything together, and no fuss is required with icing a sheet cake because you just dump the icing on top and spread it with a knife. I love the simplicity of sheet pan cakes for this very reason. I’ll definitely be making this AIP carrot cake for Easter this year! The best part – my friends and family won’t ever know it’s AIP!
Here are the highlights of this Easy Paleo Carrot Sheet Cake recipe:
- It’s AIP and Paleo – It’s tricky to find the perfect paleo carrot cake recipe that is not only gluten free but grain free and AIP (made without eggs or nuts). This cake checks all those boxes!
- Blend of grain free flours to achieve the perfect consistency. In this recipe I’m using Bob’s Red Mills Cassava Flour, Bob’s Red Mills Organic Coconut Flour and Tigernut Flour. Want to learn more about combining grain free flours? Check out my Secrets to Grain Free Baking Guide.
- Naturally sweetened – Like all recipes on this site which are paleo and AIP, this cake is refined-sugar free. In addition to coconut sugar, this carrot cake is sweetened with crushed pineapples for the most delicious flavor and some extra moisture. Yum! I’ve also added raisins in here for some texture and added sweetness. If you don’t like raisins, just omit them!
Step-by-step Carrot Cake instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. I used an 8×8 pan.
- Toast coconut flakes in the oven for about 5 minutes as it preheats. Watch them like a hawk so they don’t burn!
- To a large bowl, add Bob’s Red Mills cassava flour, Bob’s Red Mills Organic Coconut Flour, tigernut flour, coconut sugar, gelatin, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and sea salt. Stir to combine.
- Grate carrots using a fine grater and set aside.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in avocado oil, crushed pineapple, coconut milk and vanilla extract and fold to combine. Batter will be thick.
- Gently fold in the apple cider vinegar. The consistency of the batter should become a bit lighter.
- Finally, fold in the carrots and raisins, if using.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes. If using a smaller or larger pan, adjust baking time accordingly. Cake is ready when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- As the cake bakes, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl or the bowl of stand or handheld mixer combine palm shortening with tapioca starch, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and a pinch of sea salt. Whisk or beat until combined.
- Frost cake and sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes. Enjoy!
Tips for how to bake the perfect paleo carrot cake
- Bake the cake as soon as you mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Once the baking soda activates, you want to get the batter into the oven quickly so that the air bubbles will help the cake rise.
- Once cake is out the oven, allow to cool at least 10 minutes in the pan, and then use a knife to loosen the edges. Then, flip the cake over onto a cooling rack to remove the cake.
- Wait for the cake to cool completely before icing. This might seem obvious but I know folks get impatient! Wth palm shortening in particular, you don’t want the fat to melt. This frosting is so delicious and reminiscent of buttercream frosting. Feel free to jazz it up even further by adding a dash of spices like cinnamon and/or nutmeg or mace for an AIP compliant option.
Carrot Sheet Cake FAQs
Can I make this paleo carrot cake vegan?
I have attempted to make this cake without gelatin and it’s still soft, fluffy and moist but very crumbly! If you try another AIP/paleo substitution, do let me know in the comments!
How do I store this cake?
Store in a sealed container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. I haven’t tried freezing it yet!
Can I make any changes to the flour combination to suit my dietary needs?
I don’t recommend any substitutions to this flour blend. If you’re wondering what flour is closest in texture to tigernut, the answer is almond, though I am allergic so cannot test this variation. If you try it, let us know in the comments if it’s a success.
If you try this Easy Paleo Carrot Cake I’d appreciate it if you would give the recipe a star rating and short review. Also, be sure to snap a picture of the finished product and share it with me on Instagram by tagging @healmedelicious.
Here are some other easy, AIP and paleo cakes you might enjoy:
- Easy Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
- Apple Spice Cake
- Spiced Apple Cupcakes
- Plum Sheet Cake (AIP, paleo, vegan)
- Paleo Lemon Olive Oil Cupcakes
Easy Paleo Carrot Cake (AIP, nut-free, egg-free)
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: one 8 x 8 cake 1x
Description
This recipe for Easy Paleo Carrot Cake with pineapple is super soft, fluffy, perfectly spiced and delicious. It’s gluten free and grain free, AIP, egg-free and nut-free and the perfect celebratory treat.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mills Organic Coconut Flour
- 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mills Cassava Flour
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp tigernut flour
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tsp gelatin
- 1/4 tsp powdered ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1.5 tsps cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup finely crushed/pureed pineapple
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
- 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup finely grated carrots
- 2 TBSP raisins (optional)
Vegan Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup palm shortening
- 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour
- 3 TBSP maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- pinch of sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and grease a cake pan or line with parchment paper. I used a square 8×8 pan.
- Toast coconut flakes in the oven for about 5 minutes as it preheats. Watch them like a hawk so they don’t burn!
- To a large bowl, add Bob’s Red Mills cassava flour, Bob’s Red Mills Organic Coconut Flour, tigernut flour, coconut sugar, gelatin, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, sea salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Whisk to combine.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in avocado oil, vanilla extract, crushed pineapple**, and full fat coconut milk and fold to combine. Batter will be thick.
- Gently fold in the apple cider vinegar. The consistency of the batter should become a bit lighter.
- Fold in finely grated carrots.*
- Finally, fold in the carrots and raisins, if desired.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan and press flat using the back of a spoon or your hands.
- Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes. If using a smaller or larger pan, adjust baking time accordingly. Cake is ready when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- As the cake bakes, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl or the bowl of stand or handheld mixer combine palm shortening with tapioca flour, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and a pinch of sea salt. Whisk or beat until combined.
- Frost cake and sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes. Enjoy!
Notes
* The size of the carrots changes the texture of the cake. I’ve found that a finer grate is preferable!
** I like to add my pineapple to the food processor so that it resembles the texture of applesauce to use in this recipe.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
This recipe is so yummy and very easy to make. While the icing on its own is not like the spoon worthy, it combines perfectly with the cake to make a delicious dessert! Thank you for helping satisfy my sweet tooth while on AIP!
Hi! I don’t have access to tigernut flour at my grocery store. Do you or anyone who tried this recipe have tips for omitting it? I’ve been doing aip for 5 years now without once buying it even though it’s in almost all the AIP recipes. First it was because I couldn’t eat anything except fruits and veggies because I guess I didn’t open my detox pathways enough and AIP brought out my meat allergy. Then when i finally felt better i was so behind on everything I just didn’t have time to bake or hunt down random ingredients on the Interwebs.
Thanks for letting me rant a little. I love AIP so much but it’s also so hard because I live in the deep South, the home of “take a vitamin and cook yer vegetables” and everything’s deep fried 😓
Hello! If you tolerate almond flour it is the closest in texture and consistency to tigernut flour so that’s what i would recommend.
Hi! can I use egg instead of gelatin in this recipe?
That should work!
One of my favs. I use a silicone muffin ‘pan’ to make as muffins. I omit the coconut sugar, I find it to be sweet enough as a muffin. No frosting. Freeze for grab and go mornings.
The cake part is wonderful. I used applesauce and a little bit of lemon juice in place of the pineapple because I can’t have pineapple. It works perfectly. The frosting, however, was like eating sweetened oil, which is basically what it is. The second time I made this I used my own frosting recipe made with organic confectioners sugar. I know it’s not aip compliant but it works for me.
Delicious! My wife made me this cake for my birthday. I’m recent convert to Paleo and we had very unhealthy eaters over for my birthday and everyone liked it! Granite the unhealthy group didn’t rave over the cake, but they certainly ate it. Even my picky kids who get exposed to sugar from our wonderful public school system liked it (a lot actually)!
Definitely will be my go to bday cake (carrot cake is my favorite)
This is one of my favorite recipes on the blog. I’ve made it several times and it’s incredible each time!
Very good. I used butter in place of pal shortening
Does the frosting freeze well?
yep!
Is a fine grater same as a Microplane grater? Can you share the link to the fine grater you used please?
Mine is super old, purchased at a local kitchen store so no link to share but a microplane would likely be too fine and create more of a mushy paste.
This cake is so yummy! I made it 2x back to back because my family loved it also. First time I substituted the pineapple for applesauce because that’s what I had and the next time I made it exactly as the recipe says. Thank you for all your amazing recipes. You are one of my favorite food bloggers!
I made this cake with my 18 month old son! I scooped the flour & he poured. The cake turned out delicious 🙂 I bought crushed pineapple & did not blend. Next time I make it I’ll omit the coconut sugar bc it’s plenty sweet from the pineapple, raisins, & icing (husband liked the level of sweetness) Also, tigernut flour seems to bother my stomach so I’ll sub it for almond flour.
I tried making these but it turns out it has a dry crust than what I expect it to be. Do you know what can cause this? Thanks!
Perhaps your oven runs hot and you might want to turn it down a bit and check with a toothpick for doneness.
We were invited out for dinner Easter Sunday so I decided to make this recipe for the first time as Nicole’s baked goods never disappoint. This was divine. I was slightly skeptical about the icing and toasted coconut but they really made the cake. Everyone loved it. Thanks Nicole for another fantastic AIP dessert option.
amazing! thanks for leaving a review 🙂
How much coconut flakes do you toast?
I don’t do well with pineapple. Can applesauce or something else be substituted for it?
You can try it!!
This looks delicious! Any alternatives to gelatine for those of us who are pescatarian/vegetarian?
Fingers crossed !
Hi Nadine! As I mention in the post, I’ve recipe tested without and it’s very crumbly. If you try another substitution let us know!