My Gluten Free Carrot Sheet Cake is tried and tested by my chief coeliac taste tester. This is a gluten free version of my most popular cakes.
Gluten Free Carrot sheet cake is a variation of one of my most popular recipes
Since before I started my blog, my Carrot Cake has been my most popular cake. I get asked to make it time and time again and I am yet to find someone who doesn’t like it.
My Carrot Cake varies from other recipes because I don’t include raisins or walnuts. Although I like raisins, for some reason they don’t appeal to me in carrot cake. I have so far had no complaints about them being missing!
I have wanted to make a gluten free version of my carrot cake for quite a while now. My first attempt at adapting my recipe to being gluten free naively involved switching the plain flour to gluten free flour.
Although the taste was there, the texture was not. It was too crumbly which isn’t ideal in a cake. My second attempt was much more successful.
The essential ingredient to Gluten Free Cakes
It was my wonderful friend Zoe that suggested using xanthan gum; something I hadn’t heard of before. Xanthan gum helps act as a binding agent which gluten free flour lacks. It is a very popular ingredient in gluten free cooking.
So the next time I saw Zoe, we made gluten free carrot cake take two with much more success resulting in my Gluten Free Carrot Sheet Cake.
The texture was much better and not too dissimilar to my usual recipe including gluten. Zoe who has coeliac disease was very happy with the finished cake and it didn’t take too much to convince her to take most of the cake home with her.
That’s a trick of mine – giving cake to people; having it in the house is too dangerous!
Carrot cake tip!
One tip I have for all of my carrot cake variations is to try and break up the sugar the best you can before adding the rest of the wet ingredients. My brown sugars always seem to get lumps in them.
While small lumps will melt into the cake, it is easier to try and break up the larger lumps before the other ingredients are added.
This isn’t just a recipe for a sheet cake!
This recipe doesn’t have to be used for a sheet cake, it can easily be made into cupcakes too.
Depending on the size of the cupcake cases you use, they should take around 20 minutes to bake. These quantities should make between 10-12 cupcakes.
You could also add add half the ingredients again (i.e 300g of sugar etc) and make a classic carrot cake.
If you do not follow a gluten free diet you can use standard plain flour and omit the xanthan gum.
Other recipes you might like
- Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies
- Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins
- Gluten Free Nutella Choux Buns
- Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
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Gluten Free Carrot Sheet Cake
My Gluten Free Carrot Sheet Cake is tried and tested by my chief coeliac taste tester. This is a gluten free version of my most popular cakes.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 100 g dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 200 ml sunflower oil
- ¼ tsp xanthan gum
- 200 g gluten free plain flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp gluten free baking powder
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g carrot grated
For the frosting
- 35 g unsalted butter softened
- 225 g icing sugar
- 100 g cream cheese
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 170ºC (fan assisted 190ºC non fan) and line a 20x20cm cake tin
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Grate the carrots using the attachment on your food processor if you have one, or by hand and set aside
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Add the sugars to a jug and break up as many lumps as possible. Add in the eggs, oil and vanilla extract and whisk together
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In a large bowl, mix the flour, xanthan gum, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together
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Gradually add the wet mix to the dry mix stirring as you go
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Add the carrots and keep stirring until thoroughly mixed
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Pour the mix into the prepared tin and spread out
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Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean
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Allow to cool slightly in the tin before turning out and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack
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Add the softened butter to your bowl and beat for a minute or so before adding the icing sugar and cream cheese. Beat until smooth
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Spread the frosting evenly over the cooled cake
Recipe Notes
Nutritional information is given as a guide only.
Jenny Paulin says
carrot cake is my eldest boy’s favourite cake . I have never used Xanthan gum before, but your cake looks just like a good carrot cake should, so it just have worked really well in the batter. thanks for sharing with #Bakeoftheweek x
Cat says
The xanthan gum gave the cake a much better texture than when I didn’t use it. It got my friend’s approval and she is a gluten free cake expert haha x
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
I can never resist a piece of carrot cake, I especially love the topping. Your gluten free cake looks delicious. Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Cat says
Thanks 🙂
jenny walters says
This looks delicious.Carrot cake is one of my absolute fave Cakes especially with the icing.Amazed that it’s gluten free!x
Cat says
Thanks Jenny 🙂 x
Rebecca - Glutarama says
Love carrot cake and well done on getting it gluten free too. Carrot cake is one of those cakes that if you didn’t know better you’d wonder how the sloppy mixture will turn into a beautiful cake. I love this kind of baking, and delicious to boot! Thank you for joining in #G2BGF xxx
Cat says
It is a very wet mix isn’t it! But it is so moist, even with it being gluten free 🙂 xx
Helen at Casa Costello says
Oh what a wonderful looking bake – I’ve never used xantham gum but must have a go. Carrot cake is such a great family bake. Thanks so much for joining in with #BakeoftheWeek
Cat says
Using xanthan gum wasn’t as scary as I thought!
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
Now you’re talking! Carrot Cake is always a winner and yours looks amazing! Well done for cracking it gluten free too and thanks for sharing with #G2BGF x
Cat says
Thanks 🙂 x
Michelle lee says
I made this the other day added pecan nuts and few extra spices it was delicious , my family loved it
Curly says
Oh fantastic, I’m so pleased you all liked it!
Nic says
I made this and the taste is great, but it’s extremely oily. Is 200ml correct for the oil? I used canola oil because I have a food sensitivity to Sunflower. Is there an adjusted amount for other oils?
Curly says
Hi Nic, I don’t think we have canola oil here but I googled and think it is vegetable oil which I have used for this cake lots of times. Sorry to hear it was a bit oily but vegetable oil should have worked fine.