Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Maple Buttercream Icing

Carrot cake is one of my favourites. When I was a kid, I used to get so excited when we were at a party and they were serving carrot cake. I loved the simple and tasty cake. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually tried to make my own! Had I known it was so easy, I would have started a lot sooner!

Carrot cake is the perfect cake for every occasion. This gluten free carrot cake is easy to make, doesn’t take long, and is so delicious, you’ll want to eat carrot cake for breakfast. You can even make it into muffins! If you want a lower sugar muffin, just leave the icing off. Although, the icing is delicious as well and adds that perfect pop to this gluten free carrot cake.

This gluten free carrot cake is taken up a notch with the delicious addition of maple to the buttercream icing and candied pecans. You can even make extra pecans to just snack on!

RECIPE

Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Maple Buttercream Icing
Makes one 8×8 cake

Cake Ingredients

3/4 cup gluten free all purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp avocado oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated carrots
1/4 cup plain yogurt

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
   
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, eggs, carrot and yogurt.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined.
4. Pour the batter into the 8×8 pan and smooth out with a spatula. Bake in the oven for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cake cool for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Let cake cool completely before icing.
   

Maple Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup icing sugar
3 tsp maple syrup
1-2 tbsp oat milk (any type of milk will work)

1. Beat the butter and maple syrup together in a mixer. Slowly add in the icing sugar. Add in just enough milk to create a spreadable icing. The icing should be nice and smooth but not runny.

Candied Pecans

Ingredients

1/4 pecans
1-2 tsp maple syrup

1. Chop the pecans into small pieces.

2. In a large non-stick frying pan, toast the pecans over medium heat for about a minute. Add in the maple syrup and stir until the maple syrup thickens. The pecans should start sticking together. This takes about two minutes. Once the pecans are sticking together, transfer them to a plate with parchment paper. Spread out the pecans until they aren’t touching. Let them cool.