This healthy oatmeal carrot cake is studded with carrots and raisins, naturally sweetened with maple syrup and topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting. It's gluten-free and super easy to whip up in your blender.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray three 6-inch cake pans with cooking spray or coconut oil and set aside.
Add 2 ½ cups rolled oats, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, orange juice, applesauce, maple syrup, eggs, oil and vanilla extract to a high powdered blender. Blend until smooth, using a tamper as needed.
Once batter is combined gently fold in remaining 1 ½ cup oats, shredded carrots and raisins.
Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool for about 10 minutes. Remove cake from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Once cake is at room temperature frost it with the healthy cream cheese frosting and top with chopped walnuts, if desired.
Cut cake and serve.
Video
Notes
6" pans: I tested this cake in two 8" pans and it worked well! I would just bake the cake a little longer (25-30 minutes). My layers were done at 27 minutes!
Orange juice: If you don't have orange juice on hand you could use pineapple juice or more applesauce.
Applesauce: If you don't have applesauce you could try using mashed banana or canned crushed pineapple instead.
Maple syrup: Honey or agave nectar could be used instead of maple syrup.
Eggs – I haven’t tested this recipe without eggs, so I’m not sure how a vegan substitute like flax seed eggs or chia seed eggs would work, but let me know in the comments if you decide to try it!
Raisins – If you aren’t a raisin fan, you can use chopped dates, figs or skip them all together.
Walnuts – These are optional, so feel free to skip them or you can sub them with a different nut like almonds or pecans.
Frosting – I love the carrot cake + cream cheese frosting combo, but feel free to use your favorite store-bought or homemade frosting.