Enjoy a rich, spiced carrot cake with a sweet, creamy frosting, curtesy of the Instant Pot! Plus, it’s gluten-free, naturally sweetened, with no butter or oil, so you don’t need to feel bad about that second piece!
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Can you ever have too much cake? I’ve been wondering this as I have been recipe testing over the past week, eating many cakes. My conclusion? No. You cannot.
I wanted to try a new dessert in my Instant Pot, and since carrot cake is a favorite dessert of ours, it was an obvious choice. A decade ago, we had carrot cake as our wedding cake. It was actually the only dessert I tasted during our dessert reception!
This carrot cake is a healthy version of a classic–but you wouldn’t know it by how it tastes. It is rich and so moist, and sweet enough to be satisfy your sweet tooth, even without any refined sugar in the cake or the frosting!
It’s spiced perfectly (the cake smells amazing when you take it out of the Instant Pot!), is packed with shredded carrots and chopped nuts, and has the traditional sweet cream cheese frosting. It’s also gluten-free, without any butter or oil!
The cake is made with brown rice flour and oat flour. If these are not flours you typically have on hand, you can blend rice and oats in a high-powered blender to make your own flour. I used my grain mill to quickly grind the rice and oats into a fine flour.
The cake is cooked in the Instant Pot in a 7″ pan, on a trivet. You can use the trivet that came in your Instant Pot. I use my springform pan that I also use for cheesecake, lasagna, pesto potato strata, and brownies! (The pan is very much worth having around!!!)
Instant Pot Carrot Cake
Necessary Equipment:
- Instant Pot or similar electric pressure cooker
- 7″ springform pan or 7″ round cake pan
- trivet your Instant Pot came with
Carrot Layer Cake in the Instant Pot
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes high pressure
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 7" Layer Cake 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: pressure cooker
Description
Enjoy a rich, spiced carrot cake with a sweet, creamy frosting, curtesy of the Instant Pot! Plus, it’s gluten-free, naturally sweetened, with no butter or oil, so you don’t need to feel bad about that second piece!
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3/4 C brown rice flour
- 1/2 C oat flour
- 2 tsp arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp allspice & ground cloves
- 1/3 C honey
- 1/3 C applesauce
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 C shredded carrots, about 2 carrots, patted dry with a paper towel
- 1/2 C chopped walnuts or pecans
Frosting*:
- 4oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. (Flours through the spices). Stir in the shredded carrots and chopped nuts until they are evenly incorporated in the dry mixture.
- Whisk together the wet ingredients. (Honey through the vanilla). Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until no streaks of flour remain.
- Pour the cake batter into a greased 7″ springform pan. Cover with foil.
- Pour 1 1/2 C water in the pot of the Instant Pot and place in a trivet. Set in the springform pan and put the lid on the Instant Pot. Close the valve to sealing.
- Cook the cake on high pressure for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, quick release the pressure. Carefully remove the pan from the Instant Pot, remove the foil, and loosen the wall of the springform pan. Let the cake cool completely.
- Use a bread knife to cut the cake in half, making two layers. Whisk together the frosting ingredients. Use half the frosting for the middle and half the frosting for the top of the cake.
Notes
*This makes just enough frosting for a layer in the middle and on the top. If you want a more generous amount of frosting, double the ingredients.
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any suggestions as a substitute for brown rice flour? Thank you.
This is just one of those amazing cakes. Love it.
Can you make the cake without the frosting? If so, what changes in cooking time/temperature need to be made? My hubby has issues with cheese and most dairy so icing is usually out of the question for him.
You would not need to make any changes to the cook time or cake recipe.
Can you substitute regular flour for the brown rice flour if gluten free isn’t an issue? Also is there a substitute for arrowroot powder?
Thanks!
I made this tonight but left out the nuts. After 30 minutes, the middle was still raw…not sure what I did wrong.
Different things could affect that– differences in measuring flour, the size of your pan, etc. The cake will also finish setting a little as it cools, but if it looked too undercooked, I would just put it back in for another five minutes.
Lisa, this is another win per my Husband:-) He loves ? his sweets and I have been trying recipes with natural sweetners. I only have a 6” springform pan so I did cook 5 minutes longer and it turned out perfect. The cake is awesome, but the icing???? I had my doubts but oh my goodness….it is PERFECTION! I used that new natural cream cheese, “Arla”. To me this cream cheese is like using butter instead of margerine. The difference in taste is soooo noticable :-). As always, thank you for your videos and guidence. Pam
★★★★★
Is it 1/4 tsp allspice and 1/4 tsp ground cloves or 1/4 tsp altogether?
1/4 tsp of each.
I want to try making this today.
My question is did you do Pot in Pot and cook both layers at the same time?
If so- and forgive me I am still new to the IP- did you do Pot in Pot method and if so do you just
stack one pan on top of the other?
I have an oat allergy. Is there another flour I can use?
Hannah you and many others never got a response did you??
No. Still hoping for one.
Hannah, I apologize I missed your question. You can substitute another flour of your choice.
I made this and when I cut it into layers i discovered that it was still uncooked in the middle. Perhaps I used too much carrot? The recipe calls for 2 carrots but does not specify what size… it would be helpful if there was a cup measurement for the grated carrot.
Kristy, thanks for the feedback. I actually just made this cake tonight and it was cooked through. Did you let it cool completely before cutting it? If you take it out and it obviously isn’t done, I would recommend just putting it back in for another five minutes.
Thanks for the suggestion about the carrots. I just corrected it on the recipe card.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment. 🙂
This sounds so good! I hope to try soon! Passing this recipe on to others.
My plan for today, after a snowy day here in Colorado.
Can you skip the arrow root powder?
I wouldn’t suggest it. You can find arrowroot at most grocery stores.