Vegan Gluten-Free Carrot Cake

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper, greasing the sides with coconut oil.

In a large bowl, stir almond flour, tapioca starch, coconut sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, sea salt, nutmeg, coconut flakes and pecans until well mixed. Add carrot baby food and pineapple into the bowl, but don’t mix. Let them sit on top of the dry ingredients.

Make 3 wells in the dry ingredients and put coconut oil in one, apple cider vinegar in the other, and vanilla in one. You don’t want them to mix together yet.

Pour water over top of everything and use a fork to stir everything together until well mixed.

Divide between 2 cake pans, spreading out evenly. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 33–35 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan.

To frost, place one of the cakes, bottom side up, on a cake pan. Gently spread 1 cup of the frosting (an offset spatula helps a lot here) all over it, letting some hang off the sides. Gently place the other cake, bottom side-up on top and gently press to secure.

Spread a heaping 3/4 cup of frosting very thinly over the rest of the cake, to seal in the crumbs. It doesn’t have to look pretty yet! Refrigerate for 20–30 minutes, or until frosting is hard.

Spread the rest of the frosting all over the cake and decorate with pecans. Devour!

Notes:
1. As with all gluten-free baking, please weigh your flour to ensure accurate results
2. If the frosting isn’t spreadable, microwave for 6–10 seconds.
3. If you chill the cake before serving, let it come to room temperature before serving so that the frosting isn’t hard.