Moist, easy to stir together, and loaded with the classic flavors you expect from carrot cake, these Carrot Cake Bars are a perfect treat to share.
Carrot Cake Bars
I love Carrot Cake Muffins in the spring and these bars? They are absolutely delicious! The cake is moist and tender, and filled with flavors including cinnamon and vanilla. And the frosting is a simple Cream Cheese Frosting that offers a perfect texture combination with the cake. Together, they’re a festive dessert, snack, or even breakfast to share.
The key to making moist carrot cake is usually oil, but in this recipe, I use both oil and applesauce to add natural sweetness and flavor, too. The full cup of fresh carrots also ensures that the batter stays moist.
I love these as an Easter recipe, Mother’s Day brunch, or for any time we need a dessert to share.
(You may also like my Greek Yogurt Cake, Healthy Breakfast Bars, Lemon Yogurt Cake, easy Vanilla Cake and my Zucchini Cake, which is similar to this but with zucchini.)
Table of Contents
Your toddler won’t eat? Help is here!
Sign up for our email updates to get tips and ideas sent to your inbox.
Ingredients You Need
To make this recipe you’ll need to have the following ingredients on hand to start baking the recipe.
- Grated carrots: I prefer the finer texture in Carrot Cake Bars when you grate a whole carrot on a box or handheld grater.
- Butter or neutral oil: You can use melted unsalted butter here or an oil such as coconut, canola, or avocado.
- Applesauce: I use unsweetened smooth applesauce here and you can use homemade applesauce or store bought.
- Eggs: Eggs help the batter hold together and bake up with a tender crumb. I bake with large eggs.
- All-purpose flour: This type of flour helps to keep the final bars light and moist. You can substitute a gluten-free cup-for-cup flour blend as needed.
- Brown sugar: I add a little brown sugar to this recipe for sweetness. I like the way it bakes up in combination with the rest of the ingredients but know you can use honey or maple syrup of you prefer.
- Cinnamon: A hefty sprinkle of cinnamon ensures that classic carrot cake flavor we expect.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These help to ensure that the cake rises and bakes through.
- Golden raisins: I love to add raisins for additional sweetness—and because the Carrot Cake I remember eating as a kid always had raisins!—but if you don’t want to add them you don’t have to. Any type of raisins will work here, we just prefer golden.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a look at the process involved in making this Carrot Cake Bars recipe. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full information, including the amounts and the timing.
- Preheat the oven and grease your pan well. Grate the carrot if not using store bought grated carrots. Stir together the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the dry, being gentle to avoid overworking the flour.
- Spread batter into an 8×8-inch metal pan lined with parchment paper or coated with nonstick spray.
- Bake! Cool fully on a wire rack.
TIP: Try not to over-bake the Carrot Cake Bars. The center of the pan will take the longest to set, so keep an eye on that as well as the timing.
Carrot Cake Frosting
The Cream Cheese Frosting for these Carrot Cake Bars is a simple mix of cream cheese, vanilla extract, and honey. Once the cream cheese is softened, all you need to do is beat the ingredients together with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds or until fluffy.
So easy!
How to Store
You can make it up to 24 hours ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or tightly covered in plastic wrap and frost before serving. Or, make the whole thing and refrigerate for up to 4 hours before serving—it’s actually really great served cold.
Use the flour called for in the recipe, which is designed to make moist carrot cake bars when paired with the rest of the ingredients. And avoid over-baking.
Many families prefer to add raisins, but if you are not one of them, you can simply leave them out.
Yes, use an 11×17-inch pan and plan to bake a little longer to ensure that the center is cooked through. Test with a toothpick or cake tester.
Best Tips for Success
- Grease your pan very well to eliminate the likelihood of the Carrot Cake Bars sticking. Or line with parchment paper.
- Gently fold the ingredients together to avoid overworking the batter.
- Use store bought grated carrots or grate them on a grater at home.
- Make sure that the cream cheese isn’t super cold, and is instead softened at room temperature for at least an hour, so it mixes up smooth. It will otherwise be lumpy.
- Taste the frosting and add more honey if desired for sweetness.
- Substitute chopped walnuts or even chocolate chips for the raisins if preferred.
- Dairy-free: Use oil in the batter and vegan cream cheese and butter in the frosting to make dairy-free Carrot Cake Bars.
Related Recipes
Breakfast
Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
Breakfast
Favorite Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Vegetables
10 Best Baby Carrot Recipes
Breakfast
Blueberry Yogurt Cake
I’d love to hear your feedback on this recipe if you try it, so please comment below to share!
Favorite Carrot Cake Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 cup applesauce
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (melted and slightly cooled or neutral oil)
- 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup golden raisins
- 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat an 8×8-inch baking pan (metal is best) with nonstick spray. (I also line with parchment paper so it's easy to lift out and slice without scratching the pan. That is optional.)
- In a large bowl, stir together the carrots, applesauce, eggs, butter, and vanilla.
- Add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Gently stir the carrot mixture into the flour mixture. Stir in the raisins.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out cleanly.
- Let cool and top with Cream Cheese Frosting, if desired.
Equipment
Notes
- Once cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Serve cold.
- You can also freeze the cut cake, frosted or unfrosted (though unfrosted is cleaner) in a freezer bag with as much air removed as possible for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in 15 second increments in the microwave.
- This bakes best in a metal pan, rather than glass. If baking in glass, the middle will take longer to set. Follow the recipe, then cover with foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Gluten-free: Substitute cup-for-cup gluten-free flour in place of the wheat flours.
- Top with Cream Cheese Frosting. Soften 8 ounces cream cheese and ¼ cup unsalted butter at room temperature. Add to a bowl with ¼ cup honey (for kids over age 1) and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Start mixing on low with a handheld mixer until fluffy. Place on top of the cooled bars and spread evenly.
- Dairy-free: Use oil in the batter and vegan cream cheese and butter in the frosting.
- If you prefer your baked goods sweeter (or if you leave out the raisins) increase the brown sugar to ½ cup.
Nutrition
This post was first published March 2019.
I made this and it is so delicious. So moist! I used cake flour instead of all-purpose as that’s all I had and it worked well.
If I sub out the brown sugar for maple syrup, would I use the same amount? Also would that require any other tweaks to the recipe? Thanks 🙂
No other tweaks and use the same amount. Enjoy!
Just made these for breakfast for my family and they were absolutely delicious. Quick, easy, healthy and so yummy! I did not have enough honey for the cream cheese frosting recipe so I used some maple syrup instead. I will be making these again and again. Thank you!
I guided my 4 yr old granddaughter who made this as a super secret surprise dessert for her grandfather We grated the carrots which I think kept the carrot cake bars nice and moist The cream cheese frosting was easy to make and not overall sweet When we served it to her grandfather all we could hear was yum, yum, yum, this is so good ! He told us to keep this recipe which we definitely will I highly recommend this recipe it’s not too sweet and easy to make Keep up the good work Amy !
Thank you for a great recipe
Oh, that’s so sweet! I am so glad he enjoyed it and thank you for sharing it!
Ate every last bite of these up in mere moments. SO GOOD. Seriously satisfied my love of carrot cake in a healthier recipe. Delicious straight from the fridge too! I also added some toasted pecans to the top ::chefs kiss::
Moist and delicious bars. My 7 year old son LOVED them and he’s usually picky. (I left out the raisins because he doesn’t like them right now and used 1/2C brown sugar like you mentioned in your notes.) Oh and I didn’t even frost them! Thank you.
So good! Another winner!! Delicious and easy to make – great recipe thanks!!
Excellent recipe. Moist and sweet without being overpowering. My daughter loves this recipe!
I just made and enjoyed these with my 3 year old and 1 year old. They were a bit hit! Regular raisins tasted great in our bars. The cream cheese frosting made them perfectly sweet; however, I’ll be adding the extra brown sugar to the batter next time. Thanks for the great recipe!
P.S. The instructions are missing when to add brown sugar to the batter 🙂
Ah, I fixed that, thank you! (Amazing what humans can miss even when three of us proofread it:) Glad you enjoyed them!
Do you recommend combining the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before mixing with the carrot mixture? I wasn’t sure based on the wording in steps 3 and 4.
I usually don’t and just make sure to stir it together well. You can if you prefer.
Loved the frosting! My husband liked it too, normally frosting is too sweet for him.
These look delicious! Can these be made as cupcakes/muffins?
Sure, check out this recipe for Carrot Cake Muffins https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/healthy-carrot-cake-muffins/
hiya is it possible to have these vegan? could i sub the eggs for flax?
My favorite egg replacer in baking is the store bought one from Bob’s Red Mill. After that I like 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 milk per egg. After that a flax or chia egg. Flax eggs may be fine here, but they may make them a little less firm. Let me know how it goes!
I want to make sure I understood this correctly. Replace one egg with 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 milk. My baby is allergic to eggs but almost everything has eggs
Yes, that’s the amount per egg. OR buy the egg replacer from Bob’s Red Mill to use in your baking as that sounds like it would be a helpful staple for you to have on hand since it works so well.
Just made these and they are absolutely delicious!!! I didn’t miss the frosting (I don’t feel like running out for cream cheese). How many servings can I have til it’s no longer so healthy? Hahaha
Oh yeah, the toddler likes these too.
I’m so glad to hear that (and who’s counting? not me!).
The incredible taste of your favorite carrot cake but in bar form! These Carrot Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting are as easy as 1-2-3 and disappear just that quickly! Beat the butter and cream cheese until nice and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until nice and smooth.
Have you ever tried to make these as muffins/cupcakes?
Is it possible to email me your response or alert me via email when it’s posted?
Thanks,
Joyanne