Carrot Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

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These carrot cake bars are easy to make and unbelievably delicious. They are moist, perfectly spiced, and topped with an incredibly fluffy cream cheese frosting.

If you love dessert bars, also try these Lemon Coconut Bars and these Cherry Cheesecake Bars!

Carrot Cake Bars

We’ve been told a few times that these are the best carrot cake bars ever. They are perfectly moist, have amazing flavor, and the cream cheese frosting is truly magical. The bars + the frosting is a match made in heaven.

Carrot cake bars are a great way to enjoy carrot cake without the commitment of having to bake (and eat) a whole cake. To make these bars, we’ve taken our loved carrot cake recipe and scaled and tweaked it so that it works in a 9″x9″ pan. The bars turn out very soft yet are firm enough to pick up with your hands. Even so, we sometimes like to cut big squares and eat them with a fork. It’s just so good.

Carrot cake bars are an amazing year-round treat. In the springtime or at Easter, however, they are a must-make recipe. The moist cake, gentle spices, fresh carrots, and soft cream cheese frosting is a delicious way to celebrate and treat yourself!

Do you Love Carrot Cake?

Then you should also check out The BEST Carrot Cake Recipe EVER!

How To Make Carrot Cake Bars

It’s easy to make carrot cake bars!

1. Make the cake. Simply mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another bowl. Now mix them together and add some grated carrots. Then bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
2. Make the frosting. Beat some room temperature cream cheese with butter, powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and a splash of milk. Easy!
3. Put it all together. Once the cake is 100% cool (don’t rush this part or you’ll melt the frosting!) spread the cream cheese frosting over the cake then cut it into bars.

How to Decorate These Bars

We like to decorate our carrot cake bars with a little sprinkle of cinnamon. It’s simple yet really pretty. Here are a few other fun toppings you can try:

• A sprinkle of finely chopped nuts
• A whole pecan or walnut on top of each bar
• Small carrot-shaped candies
• Sprinkles
• A little finely grated carrot

Keep It Fresh With These Variations

• Pineapple – instead of the apple sauce, use crushed pineapple.
• Switch up the nuts – pecans, walnuts, and chopped almonds are all great.
• Brown butter – nix the oil and add tasty brown butter instead.
• Coconut – mix ½ cup of shredded or desiccated coconut into the batter.

How Big are These Bars?

That’s totally up to you! In the first picture above, you’ll see the bars cut into nine big, mouthwatering pieces. At this size, it’s a real sweet treat that’s more like a big slice of cake. Cut into twelve pieces is a bit more reasonable, but perhaps not quite as much fun.

We like to cut ours into 36 small pieces that are two bites each. In the last picture, you’ll see one of the bars cut to this size. The easiest way to do this is to cut nine bars then cut each of the large bars into 4 smaller bars.

How Long do Carrot Cake Bars Last?

These bars will keep well for 5-7 days if kept in a covered container on your counter. Make sure to read below to find out about storing the frosting!

How to Store Carrot Cake Bars

We store our frosted carrot cake bars on the counter and make sure that we eat them within 2-3 days. While many people agree that the sugar in the frosting acts as a preservative, other people feel more comfortable refrigerating it. If you live in a hot area, then refrigerating the frosting is a must.

But since carrot cake bars taste best if stored covered at room temperature, you may want to keep the frosting separately in the fridge and frost each bar before you eat it. Remember, the frosting will harden in the fridge and it will need about 10 minutes to soften enough to spread on the carrot cake bars.

Popular Carrot Cake Recipes

Carrot Cake Bars

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Author Kristen Stevens

Servings 9 large bars

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These carrot cake bars are easy to make and unbelievably delicious. They’re moist, perfectly spiced, and topped with an incredibly fluffy cream cheese frosting. 

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Carrot Cake Bars

• ½
  cup
  unsweetened apple sauce
• ¼
  cup
  neutral-flavored oil
• 3
  large
  eggs
• ½
  cup
  brown sugar
• ½
  cup
  granulated sugar
• 1
  teaspoon
  vanilla
• 2 ½
  cups
  all-purpose flour
• 2
  teaspoons
  baking soda
• 1
  teaspoon
  ground cinnamon
• ½
  teaspoon
  salt
• ¼
  teaspoon
  ground cloves
• ¼
  teaspoon
  ground nutmeg
• 2
  cups
  finely grated carrots
• ½
  cup
  raisins and chopped nuts (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 6
  ounces
  cream cheese
  softened
• 2
  tablespoons
  salted butter
  softened
• 2 ½
  cups
  powdered sugar
• 1
  tablespoon
  cream or milk
• 1
  teaspoon
  vanilla

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Serves: 9

Calories466kcal (23%)Carbohydrates86g (29%)Protein7g (14%)Fat11g (17%)Saturated Fat6g (30%)Trans Fat1gCholesterol89mg (30%)Sodium484mg (20%)Potassium117mg (3%)Fiber1g (4%)Sugar58g (64%)Vitamin A426IU (9%)Vitamin C1mg (1%)Calcium48mg (5%)Iron2mg (11%)

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.