Carrot Cake Bars - Celebrating Sweets

Publish date: 2024-07-28

Published: Feb 21, 2024 by Allison · 1 Comment

These carrot cake bars are packed with shredded carrots, warm spices, and pecans and topped with cream cheese frosting. They are soft, moist, and chewy and taste like a cross between carrot cake and a buttery blondie.

You know I love taking a classic recipe, like carrot cake, and adding a fun twist to it. We should have a carrot cake recipe for whatever our heart desires, right? Carrot cake cookies or carrot cake cupcakes…or perhaps, pineapple carrot cake or pumpkin carrot cake is more your thing? Today we’re talking about carrot cake bars!

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Why you’ll love this recipe

Flavor: Butter, brown sugar, vanilla, warm spices, and pecans add lots of flavor.

Texture: The bars are part cake part blondie so they bake up a bit more moist, dense, and buttery than a cake.

Ease: No difficult techniques or fancy equipment needed.

Key ingredients

Melted butter: This recipe uses ¾ cup of melted butter for flavor and texture.

Brown sugar AND white sugar: I tested this recipe multiple ways and I found that this combination of sugars was the best.

Egg plus egg yolk: Adding the extra yolk enriches the flavor and texture of the bars.

Warm spices: This recipe uses a combination of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg for the best flavor.

Shredded carrots: Grate whole carrots on the small or medium holes of a box grater.

Pecans: Chopped pecans are used in the batter as well as on top of the bars. The buttery crunch of pecans goes great with the other flavors.

Recipe overview

*Full recipe below in recipe card*

Start by making the bars:

Combine melted butter and sugars

Whisk in egg, egg yolk,and vanilla

Add flour, spices, salt, and baking powder

Stir in carrots and pecans

Spread the batter into a 9×9 pan and bake

Cream cheese frosting:

Beat butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Once the bars have cooled, spread or pipe the frosting on the bars.

Recipe tips

After melting the butter it needs to cool for about 5-10 minutes. Use this time to grate your carrots and combine your dry ingredients.

Shred the carrots using the medium or small holes on a box grater. Don’t use pre-shredded carrots, they are too thick and they won’t soften during the bake time.

Allow the bars to cool completely before slicing. They will slice the cleanest if they are chilled in the refrigerator first.

For a pretty presentation: cut the bars before frosting them and pipe the frosting in a zigzag pattern.

Serving and storage

Store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

These bars are best served at room temperature. Remove them from the fridge one hour before serving.

More bar desserts

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Recipe

Carrot Cake Bars

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 23 minutes

Total Time: 53 minutes

Servings: 16

Calories: 290kcal

Author: Allison – Celebrating Sweets

Ingredients

Instructions

Bars:

Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the center of the oven. Line a 9×9 square metal pan with foil or parchment and lightly grease it.
In a large bowl, whisk melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for one full minute, until well combined. Whisk in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and whisk until well combined, being careful not to overmix. Tap the excess batter off the whisk and remove it from the bowl. Using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, stir the carrots and pecans into the batter.
Spread the batter into an even layer in the prepared pan. Bake for 22-26 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The bars will rise just a bit but stay flat. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla. This frosting is on the softer side, if it appears too soft you can add a bit more powdered sugar or pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes or so.
Spread or pipe the frosting on the cooled bars. Top with pecans, if desired. Note: I like to cut the bars first, then pipe frosting in a zigzag pattern on top of each bar.
Bars should be stored in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature one hour before serving.

Notes

Carrots: Shred the carrots using the medium or small holes on a box grater. Don’t use pre-shredded carrots, they are too thick and they won’t soften during the bake time. Serving and storage: Bars should be stored in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature one hour before serving.

Nutrition

Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.

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