These Carrot Cake Bars are deliciously moist dessert bars that are loaded with fresh carrots, rich with warm spices, and swirled with sweet cream cheese. It’s an easy carrot cake recipe for Easter and carrot cake lovers.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time45 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 9bars
Ingredients
For the Carrot Cake:
1/2cupUnsalted Buttermelted
3/4cupBrown Sugar
1/4cupGranulated Sugar
2Eggslarge
1tspVanilla Extract
1cupAll-Purpose Flour
1/4tspSalt
2tspCinnamonground
1/2tspGingerground
1/2tspClovesground
1cupCarrotsgrated
For the Cream Cheese Swirl:
4ozCream Cheesesoftened to room temperature
1/4cupGranulated Sugar
Instructions
For the Carrot Cake Bars:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Prepare an 8x8 baking pan with non stick cooking spray or parchment paper.
Grate carrots with the smallest holes on a box grater. Set aside.
In a small bowl (that’s microwave-safe), melt the butter in the microwave.
In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. If the mixture is too hot, it’ll cook the eggs. Let it cool some before the next step.
Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients (flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves) to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
Fold in the grated carrots. Set aside.
For the Cream Cheese Swirl:
In a medium bowl, mix the softened cream cheese and granulated sugar until smooth. Set aside.
Pour about half of the carrot cake mixture into the prepared baking pan. Spread it out with a rubber spatula.
Use about a quarter of the cream cheese mixture to drop spoonfuls on top of the carrot cake batter in random spots. It doesn’t need to be smooth or a continuous layer.
Pour the rest of the carrot cake mixture into the baking pan.
Plop the rest of the cream cheese mixture in random spots on top of the batter.
Take a butter knife and carefully swirl the mixtures. Be careful not to mix them completely together. There should be distinct swirls in the batter on top.
Bake carrot cake bars for 25-30 minutes, the edges will be golden brown and set.
Cool completely before cutting.
Notes
Allow the cream cheese to soften to room temperature before using. Otherwise, it won’t mix well with the sugar.
This carrot cake bar recipe does not include baking powder or baking soda. A lot of fudgy brownie/blondie recipes do not contain them either. The texture of these bars is similar.