These carrot cake bars are easy to make, super moist, packed with carrots and are topped with a dreamy cream cheese frosting. You can make them with all-purpose, whole wheat or gluten-free flour.
Here’s a really simple Easter dessert. I’ve been making the layer cake version of this recipe since 2009. I make it every year for Easter, and every year, people ask me for the recipe.
The recipe was adapted from my Healthy Carrot Cake, which was adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s carrot cake recipe.
I used 25% less sugar, 60% applesauce and 40% oil instead of 100% oil, less salt, and a bit more carrots.
The cake recipe has three layers, but I know not everybody needs or wants a 3-layer cake, so I halved everything for a 8″x8″ pan.
These bars are easy to make and take about 23 minutes to bake, so they’re perfect for a last-minute event. You’ll need to let the bars cool completely before frosting, which takes just over an hour, so keep that in mind.
This frosting is less sugary than your typical cream cheese frosting. It’s my Healthier Cream Cheese Frosting that I use in every recipe that requires cream cheese frosting.
If you can’t have dairy, you could use my Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting, which is made with maple syrup, coconut milk/yogurt and oil.
Yes, generally tomato ketchup is suitable for vegans. Its core ingredients are usually tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, herbs and spices, all of which are vegan friendly. But the ingredients list isn’t the only thing we need to look at in order to get to the bottom of this question.
Can I use a different type of oil?
I’ve listed canola or vegetable oil, but you can use any neutral-tasting oil, such as grapeseed or olive oil.
You can taste the olive oil when the cake is hot and fresh out of the oven, but you won’t be able to taste it once it cools.
But don’t use a very flavorful or expensive olive oil. If you have light olive oil, that’s a great choice.
I haven’t tried coconut oil, but if you do, I’d recommend using refined coconut oil unless you want some coconut taste in the cake.
The cake wouldn’t be as moist if you used butter instead of oil. Butter is 80-82% fat, and oil is 100% fat, so it’s best to go with the oil for the moistest cake.
You can’t use a liquid sweetener in place of the granulated sugar. But you can use coconut sugar!
The cake will be darker in color, which you may not like if you like the orangeish color. But it does taste good.
This recipe already calls for 25% less sugar than the original, so I really don’t recommend reducing the sugar. Reducing it even more would result in a dry cake.
How to make them
Here you can see it’s a super basic cake base recipe. No egg separating, creaming butter, or anything.
The full recipe is below.
Some people like step-by-step photos, so here they are. If you find them useless, please just keep scrolling. 🙂
The carrots don’t need to be finely grated. I used the grater attachment on my food processor, and it worked great.
If you live outside of the US or Canada, be sure to read the notes concerning cream cheese under the recipe.
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VERY GOOD PLANT-BASED KETCHUP
FAQ
What ketchup is not vegan?
Is ketchup and mayo vegan?
Is Heinz Tomato Ketchup Simply vegan?
Can vegans eat ketchup?
If you want to avoid eating ketchup that has been filtered with bone char, stick to ketchup that is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar, or choose organic varieties. Required for french fries and delicious when paired with many meals, ketchup is a vegan’s dream condiment as it’s almost always plant-based.
Are turnips keto friendly?
Although many root vegetables don’t fit well into a keto-friendly diet, turnips are one of the keto-friendly root vegetables. Per one cup serving turnips contain at about 6 grams of net carbohydrates. The total daily carbohydrate goal for most ketogenic diets is about 30 grams per day. Turnips are low in carbohydrates and are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Are ketchup bottles vegan?
Nevertheless, there are some exceptions, and many vegans worry that the ketchup bottles they see on the shelves may contain animal products. Although the herbs and spices used by individual brands will vary according to taste, they are usually plant-based seasonings.
How do you make vegan ketchup?
Making your own ketchup at home is SO easy to do with only a few ingredients in about 10-minutes. With this sugar-free vegan ketchup, you get to control exactly what goes into it. Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan on medium-high heat. If using date paste in place of the maple syrup, the ratio is 1:1, so 1.5 tablespoons.