Carrot Cake with Lemon Glaze

This carrot cake with lemon glaze is a perfect dessert for your spring table!  Packed with good-for-you carrots, you can even sneak a slice for breakfast!  

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Carrot Cake with Lemon Glaze

Carrot Cake is a favorite dessert in my family.  It’s always been one of my dad’s favorites.  I served carrot cake muffins for Jonny’s first birthday.  Irving and I have been known to split a piece horizontally (frosting for me, cake for him).  We all love it.  And really, what’s not to love?  Subtly sweet cake with a dollop of frosting on top?  Yes and yes!  I’ve updated my carrot cake to be *slightly* sweeter and less wholesome than the cake I served for Baby J six years ago, and it’s pretty darn delicious!  

Welcome Spring!

Carrots scream spring!  A cold weather crop, they are one of the first of the year to be planted—we’ve got some growing in our garden right now!  And as the first to be planted, they are also one of the earliest to be harvested!  While I’m not confident that we’ll grow enough carrots to make a whole cake, I am pretty excited about snacking on them later this spring.  

A Simple Dessert

Carrot cake makes such a wonderfully unassuming dessert.  Good old fashioned comfort food.  The sweetness of the carrots, with a dollop of lemon glaze makes for a perfect bite.  And it’s easy to make, too.  Mix your wet ingredients.  Mix your dry ingredients.  Mix wet and dry together.  Fold in grated carrots.  Done!  To quote Ina, “how easy is that?”

Eat Your Veggies!

One of the best things about carrot cake is the hidden veggies!  With both carrots and applesauce (yes, I know, that’s a fruit) in this cake, I’m pretty sure that means it’s ok to eat some for breakfast—we certainly do!  You can swap zucchini for the carrots in this recipe for a summer time favorite—zucchini cake!  Or try these pumpkin spice cupcakes for another yummy dessert packed with veggies!

Lemon Glaze

Carrot cake is traditionally served with cream cheese frosting.  It’s always been one of my favorites.  In fact, for our wedding, Irving and I had cream cheese frosting dyed brown to match the bridesmaids dresses, so it looked like chocolate, but tasted like cream cheese.  I know…it was confusing….but pretty! 

I don’t tend to love vegan cream cheeses, so for this carrot cake I wanted to keep things simple with a lemon glaze.  I tried adding vanilla extract, but it made the frosting sort of beige in color.  And I tried it with just non dairy milk, and it wasn’t quite rich enough.  Using just one tablespoon of vegan butter was just the trick to give this glaze a little more oomph.  It’s so yummy that you might want to double it so you have extra for serving!

Crazy for Carrots!

Carrots are such a versatile vegetable, in dishes both sweet and savory!  Here are some of my favorite carrot dishes!

• Coconut Carrot Rice
• Carrot Soup
• 24 Carrot Chocolate Smoothie
• Almond Butter Red Curry Noodles
• Maple Coconut Roasted Carrots

Other Favorite Easter Recipes

Get all the details for my holiday favorites here, or take a peek at these Easter recipes below!

• Lemon Jello Salad
• Kale Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
• Vegan Classic Mashed Potatoes — Dairy Free!
• Roasted Asparagus with Lemon
• Maple Dinner Rolls with Aquafaba
• Baked Tofu with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Capers

Let’s Make Carrot Cake with Lemon Glaze!

Are you ready to make this simple dessert?  Let’s bake!  Leave me a note in the comments below letting me know how you liked this yummy carrot cake!

Print Recipe

Carrot Cake with Lemon Glaze

This carrot cake with lemon glaze is a perfect dessert for your spring table!  Packed with good-for-you carrots, you can even sneak a slice for breakfast!  

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Carrot Cake, dessert

Servings: 10 people

Author: Sarah

Ingredients

For the Carrot Cake:

• 1/2 cup non dairy milk (I like oat milk)
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (plus zest from this lemon)
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups carrots, grated (1 pound)
• 3 cups all purpose flour 435 g (just under 1 pound)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pat of non dairy butter for greasing pan
• 2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar (optional)

For the Lemon Glaze

• 1 Tablespoon melted non dairy butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon non dairy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions

For the Carrot Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 375º.
• Before juicing the lemon, remove the zest with a microplane and set aside. Then squeeze the juice from the lemon—you will need 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and can discard the rest.
• Mix the non dairy milk with the lemon juice.
• Add the other wet ingredients (applesauce, oil, vanilla, lemon extract, lemon zest, and sugar) and set aside.
• Grate the carrots (I use my food processor fitted with the grater dis)c.
• Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.
• Pour the wet over dry and mix together. This will be a fairly stiff batter.
• Add the grated carrots and mix until fully incorporated.
• Grease a bundt pan with non dairy butter. I like to put a pat of butter on a paper towel and wipe it around the pan. Be sure to get in all of the nooks of the pan.
• Put turbinado sugar in the greased bundt pan and gently shake the pan around, coating it with the sugar. (this is optional, but oh so yummy! It gives the cake a slightly sweet and crunchy crust.)
• Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until it is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
• Allow to cool for a few minutes before inverting it onto a cooling rack and releasing the cake. Then allow to cool completely on the cooling rack before glazing.

For the Lemon Glaze:

• Melt the butter in a small bowl.
• Add the powdered sugar to the butter. Begin by mixing 1/2 teaspoon of non dairy milk and lemon extract into the powdered sugar mix.
• Gradually add more non dairy milk until you reach the desired consistency. 1 teaspoon total is about right for me, for a thick glaze that holds without running all over.
• Dollop the glaze onto the top of the fully cooled bundt cake, allowing the glaze to drip over the sides. (see note)

Notes

Feel free to double the glaze and reserve half for dolloping when serving.  You may need to whisk it up, as the glaze will set.

 

You can bake these as cupcakes too!  This recipe makes 18 full size cupcakes.  Please bake at 375º for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.