This carrot cake bars recipe is easy to make, perfectly moist and lightly spiced and full of fresh carrots, and topped with the most heavenly cream cheese frosting.
If any of you happen to be craving carrot cake for Easter this year — but mayyybe don’t want to commit to a full-sized layer cake while we’re all stuck at home and can’t easily share with family and friends — I have the perfect alternative this year.
These carrot cake bars! ♡
I made a quick batch this weekend by halving my favorite carrot cake recipe (with a few small tweaks) and baking the bars in a 9 x 9-inch baking dish. And they ended up being so ridiculously delicious that I thought I would snap a few quick pics to share the recipe with you today.
These carrot cake bars are made with a homemade carrot cake base that is quick and easy to make, perfectly soft and moist, made with a few simple warming spices, plus lots and lots of fresh carrots. The bars are then topped with my favorite cream cheese frosting, which you’re welcome to make as gooey or as firm as you prefer. And together — I’m telling you — the combo is just perfection.
I highly recommend serving these carrot cake bars with a cup of strong coffee or hot tea. And as lovely as they are for dessert, my husband and I will be the first to admit that they make for a fabulous breakfast the next day too.
So who’s in for some carrot cake bars?!
Homemade Carrot Cake Bars Ingredients:
Ok first, let’s chat briefly about the ingredients you will need to make these carrot cake bars. The recipe calls for:
- Oil: I typically use avocado oil, but vegetable oil, canola oil or any other mild-flavored oil would work too.
- Sugars: We will use both granulated (white) and brown sugar.
- Eggs and vanilla extract: Because…cake. ♡
- Flour: I made this recipe classic all-purpose flour. But you’re welcome to sub in white whole wheat flour instead too.
- Spices: A warming mixture of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
- Baking soda and baking powder: This recipe uses both.
- Salt: I used fine sea salt. If you only have iodized (table) salt, I would recommend using a little less salt.
- Freshly-grated carrots: Either grate them by hand with a box grater, use the shredding attachment on a food processor, or save yourself a step and buy shredded carrots.
- (Optional add-ins): Feel free to also include chopped nuts (such as pecans or walnuts), shredded coconut, and/or raisins if you would like.
- Cream cheese frosting: Made easily with cream cheese, butter, salt, vanilla and powdered sugar. (Just add more/less powdered sugar to make the frosting as gooey or firm as you prefer.)
Detailed ingredient amounts and full instructions included in the recipe box below.
How To Make Carrot Cake Bars:
Here are the basic steps to make these carrot cake bars! (Full instructions included in the recipe below.)
- Make the batter. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, then combine and stir until smooth. (I typically make these by hand, but you can use a stand mixer if you prefer.) Fold in the grated carrots, plus any optional add-ins (such as nuts or raisins) that sound good.
- Bake. Pour the batter evenly into a greased 9×9-inch baking dish. Then bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the baking dish to a wire baking rack and let cool until the cake reaches room temperature.
- Make the frosting. Meanwhile in a separate mixing bowl, stir together all of the cream cheese ingredients until smooth. (I highly recommend sifting the powdered sugar before adding it in, if you would like to avoid clumps. Also feel free to add more/less powdered sugar to achieve your desired frosting consistency.)
- Frost and serve. Once the cake has cooled, spread it evenly with the cream cheese frosting. Then slice, serve and enjoy!
Possible Recipe Variations:
If you would like to customize your carrot cake bars, feel free to:
- Add nuts: Feel free to stir 1/2 cup chopped nuts (such as pecans, walnuts, pepitas or hazelnuts) into the batter, and/or sprinkle extras on top of the frosting.
- Add raisins: You could also stir in up to 1/4 cup of raisins.
- Add coconut: Or up to 1/4 cup of toasted shredded coconut.
- Spice the frosting: If you would like a bit of extra flavor in the frosting itself, I recommend stirring 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger into the frosting.
- Make the recipe gluten-free and vegan: Use this recipe (and halve it to make vegan gluten-free carrot cake bars).
More Favorite Carrot Recipes:
Looking for more delicious sweet carrot recipes? Here are a few of my faves! ♡
- The BEST Carrot Cake (3-layer cake version)
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Wholesome Carrot Muffins
- Carrot Patch “Dirt” Cups
- Carrot Cake Smoothie
Carrot Cake Bars
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 9 to 12 bars 1x
Description
This carrot cake bars recipe is easy to make, perfectly moist and lightly spiced and full of fresh carrots, and topped with the most heavenly cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Bars Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup avocado oil (or vegetable oil, or any mild-flavored oil)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch of ground cloves
- 8 ounces finely-grated* fresh carrots
- optional: 1/2 cup chopped nuts or 1/4 cup raisins
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 (8-ounce) package low-fat cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups sifted powdered sugar (use more/less to achieve your desired consistency)
Instructions
- Prep oven and baking dish. Heat oven to 350°F. Mist a 9×9-inch baking dish with cooking spray, and set it aside for later.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined and smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and cloves) until combined.
- Combine. Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture into the egg mixture, and stir until smooth. Fold in the grated carrots and stir until combined. If you would like to add nuts and/or raisins, stir them in at this time as well. Pour the batter into the baking dish, and spread it out evenly.
- Bake. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the baking dish to a wire cooling rack and let it cool until the cake reaches room temperature.
- Make the frosting. Meanwhile in a separate mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until evenly combined. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Feel free to add more/less powdered sugar to achieve your desired frosting consistency.
- Frost and serve. Once the cake has cooled, spread it evenly with the cream cheese frosting. Then slice, serve and enjoy!
Notes
Storage instructions: These carrot cake bars can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Grating the carrots: You can either grate the carrots by hand with a box grater or by using the shredding disk on a food processor. Or you can save a step and just purchase store-bought shredded carrots.
I’m a little confused about pan size. Are the measurements listed for a 9 X 9 pan and need to be doubled for a 9X 13 pan.?
Correct — the measurements listed are for a 9×9-inch pan.
If you want to use a 9×13-inch pan, there will be too much batter if you double the recipe. So if you want to double the recipe and use a 9×13, I would recommend removing (and discarding) a cup of the batter before adding the batter to the pan. Best wishes!
We couldn’t wait until Easter and made a pan last night. Sooooooooo good!
Delicious! I substituted Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free all purpose flour for the regular all purpose flour. I also added golden raisins & pecans. The ground nutmeg is really worth it for just the nicest hint of flavor. Finally, I always add a bit of fresh lemon juice to cream cheese frosting & it just perks it up perfectly. All in all, this is my best new carrot cake recipe. Thanks!
So happy to hear that it worked well with the GF flour blend! :) That all sounds delicious.
I was so disappointed! I added pecans, & coconut to batter but the cake was very dry!maybe if I had added some pineapple.?. The frosting was good though with the added cinnamon & ginger
Oh no! Hmmm, was the cake maybe in the oven a bit too long? Sorry to hear that it was dry.
Brenda I also found the cake to be a bit on the dry side (added chopped walnuts). I made the icing the same way as you did and I would agree that part was delicious!
My bars were dry, too. (35 minutes in the oven.) Also the center caved after I removed it from the oven. Cream cheese icing was good.
how many carrots is 8 oz if I’m shredding by hand?
Yes! Please, someone answer :) Now I’m reading about Metric cups, say what? Is a US measuring cup Metric? Guessing not. Yikes! Gonna just wing it….
Hi, I know that you mentioned in your post that you had made half of this recipe in a 9×9 pan, but in the printable recipe for the full recipe you have also written that it goes into a 9×9 pan. I just made the full recipe and it is definitely more batter than will fit in a 9×9. It should be a 9×13 pan. The baking time will also be about 8-10 minutes longer for the bigger pan. I haven’t tasted it yet as it needs to cool but the house smelled amazing while it was baking. Once it cools, I will top it with the cream cheese frosting and do my taste test.
Oops….sorry, I meant to say that when I doubled the recipe using the 2x tab, which changes the written recipe quantities…… it doesn’t change the pan size in the written recipe. I wasn’t clear in my previous message….too busy thinking about my first piece of frosted carrot cake, I guess.
Ah yes, sorry, the program that we use to double/triple the recipe amounts doesn’t always change the pan sizes too. Glad that you figured it out and enjoyed the cake!! :)
This will be just the perfect size for the two of us. It will be very strange not to spend Easter with our family! Thank you for the recipe! Happy Easter! ???
The taste on this is amazing, I’ve made the full version before. For whatever this reason when I made this for Easter, I made the cake the day before, then added the frosting on Easter morning. When I cute into it, all the carrots had turned black. We could figure out why. It couldn’t have molded that quickly, right? I threw away the rest just because it made me nervous. Anybody have this happen before?
Thank you and perfect timing! I’ve been craving carrot cake, but didn’t want to make a big cake since it’s just my hubs and I at home while we’re social distancing. This will be perfect for our Easter dessert!
Thank you! My birthday is next week and will be celebrated alone so a smaller version of my favorite cake is much appreciated. I like the addition of nuts/raisins AND also a small amount of crushed pineapple to the batter and the juice to the frosting for an additional taste treat. Thanks for your great posts and recipes.
Thank you Ali! These are SO happening!!! I love your recipes for bars. You are wonderful ?