Healthy gluten free, dairy free & vegan carrot cake bars topped with a cashew cream frosting – easy to make and made with wholesome ingredients! These bars are soft, moist and perfectly spiced! | Grain Free + Paleo + Egg Free
Quick poll time:
Are you a raisins person or no? In carrot cake? In life?
When preparing this recipe I came to learn that there are a LOT of different opinions a person can have when it comes to carrot cake. Do like it with pineapple? Do you add coconut flakes, walnuts, orange zest, applesauce? Buttercream or cream cheese? The list goes on.
So it would seem that there are a lot of good ways to enjoy carrot cake. However you like it there’s something for everyone to love in these gluten free + vegan carrot cake bars! This recipe also has a lot of flexibility when it comes to certain preferences – add the raisins or not – it’s totally up to you!
Let’s get to it!
Vegan Carrot Cake Bars
What’s in this recipe? If you’ve done a lot of paleo/vegan baking then nothing too special or fancy. Just a simple flour blend, some spices, coconut sugar, almond milk + coconut oil. Breaking it down a little more:
- Almond flour + tapioca flour – The almond flour adds protein & taste while the tapioca is important for the soft, chewy texture. Arrowroot starch would also work.
- Sweetened & spiced with coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and vanilla extract
- Baking powder for a little rise – more on baking powder down below in relation to paleo baking
- Coconut oil + almond milk for moisture and fat
- Carrots – what’s a carrot cake without carrots?
- Walnuts + raisins + coconut for topping – these are optional!
Mixing it all together is just a matter of whisking together the dry ingredients and then adding in the wet. Stir in the grated carrots until combined and then finally your add-ins if using. Once combined, bake, cool and then all that’s left is the frosting!
Cashew Cream Frosting
While the bars are baking you can start working on the cashew cream. This is a really simple cashew + maple frosting also seen on my paleo pumpkin spice donuts and paleo pumpkin cake. So long as your cashews have already had time to soak and softened in water for a couple of hours this will comes together in minutes.
All you need to do is throw the cashews into a high powdered blender along with the remaining ingredients and blend until you get a thick, glossy cream. Taste and season the frosting with a little more sweetener if you like and that’s it. Set aside until your bars have cooled enough to frost and that’s it.
Is Baking Powder Paleo?
Technically no. Baking powder is usually contains corn starch which makes it not technically paleo friendly. Fortunately, it’s really easy to make your own baking powder at home by mixing together a small amount of arrowroot starch, baking soda and cream of tartar. I include the amounts needed in the recipe below if you’re interested in making it.
That being said – if you’re not bothered about following a strict paleo diet this recipe only needs one teaspoon so it’s not much at all.
Substitutions
- You can use any type of oil in place of the coconut oil except for the oil in the frosting.
- Any type of milk dairy/non dairy will work.
- Raisins can be subbed with any type of chopped dried fruit – I accidentally picked up a bag of dried cherries so that’s what’s in the ones pictured here.
- I have not tried this using any other combination of flours so I can’t give much advice here. If you’re looking for a coconut flour based carrot cake you might prefer this paleo carrot cake loaf but keep in mind it does contain eggs.
Vegan Carrot Cake Bars
Healthy gluten free & vegan carrot cake bars topped with a cashew cream frosting - easy to make and made with wholesome ingredients! These bars a soft, moist and perfectly spiced! | Grain Free + Paleo
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups almond flour (192g)
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch (55g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled (56g)
- 1/4 cup room temperature almond milk or another dairy free milk (60ml)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (110g) grated carrots
- 1/4 cup raisins and/or chopped walnuts (optional)
Cashew 'Cream Cheese' Frosting
- 3/4 cup cashews soaked in water overnight (or at least 4 hours)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp melted coconut oil (32g)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (60g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Optional Topping
- toasted coconut flakes
- chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C and grease or line an 8x8inch square baking tin. Set aside.
- Whisk together the flours, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg baking powder and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
- Stir in the oil, milk and vanilla and mix until combined with no remaining lumps. Stir in the grated carrots.
- Pour the batter into your prepared baking tin. Smooth across the bottom and sides evenly. Place in the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes until the top has goldened and the cake is cooked through. Let cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes in the pan before removing.
Frosting
- Drain the water from the cashews that have been soaking and place the cashews in a high powered blender with all of the other frosting ingredients and blend until smooth.
- Once cooled, frost with your cashew cream, top with chopped walnuts and/or toasted coconut flakes and enjoy!
Notes
Make your own paleo baking powder by mixing: 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon arrowroot starch + 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
I haven't yet tried this using other types of flours so I can't advise on using alternatives here. If you're looking for a coconut flour based carrot cake you might prefer this recipe here (it does contain eggs).
Keep this stored in the fridge up to five days.
Betsy DiJulio says
Hi. Not sure what I am missing. 1/2 cup total liquid (soymilk and oil) was not even almost enough to create a batter when combined with 2.5 total cups flour. I added another 1/2 soymilk and 1/4 cup pumpkin to achieve a batter and it was still quite thick.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Betsy! Just checking – were you using almond flour and tapioca flour?
Almond flour has a lot of natural fat which means it doesn’t need as much liquid as other types of flour (like coconut flour or rice flour for example). It’s also weighs less than all purpose flour when you compare equal volumes. For example, 1 cup of all purpose GF flour is 140g while 1 cup of almond flour is 96g.
Tapioca flour is really more of a starch is quite light compared to more traditional flours. 1/2 cup tapioca flour/starch weighs only 55g compared to 1/2 cup all purpose GF flour which is 70g.
So while the total flour/starch ratio is 2.5 cups in volume, the total weight is about 250g. When you add up the milk & oil you get about 120g. The grated carrots will also add a ton of moisture to the batter which in the end should be enough to create a moist batter.
Fran says
I made this recipe last night and my boys were so happy with the surprise on their lunch boxes.
So easy to make
Thank for all this indulgence
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Fran! So thrilled to hear you and your boys enjoyed the bars! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back to let me know what you guys think 🙂
Bree says
This was great! I only had 1 and 1/2 cups of almond flour so added in more tapioca. It needed more milk but still came out good. Love the frosting! I hadn’t had a cream cheese frosting since before going vegan many years ago. It was a nice surprise. 🙂
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Bree! So glad to heat you enjoyed these! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and let me know what you thought of the bars 🙂
Alina Sebastian says
We making this for the first time, we love our carrot cake with pineapples I was wondering how I would be able to add crushed pineapple into this? Would it make it too mushy and if not how much would I add
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Alina! So sorry it took me a week to get back to you – I just found you comment stuck in my spam filter.
I wouldn’t recommend adding pineapple to these bars as I’m almost certain that they would make it too mushy. As it is this is an extremely moist recipe and adding more moisture to it likely wouldn’t end well.
Sofie says
Maybe you could sub the raisins for pieces of dried pineapple?
Sarah Nevins says
That’s a great idea!
Rachna says
Hi
I tried this in my muffin pan and while the taste is yummy, I feel the inside is kind of raw – it’s thoroughly cooked from the outside and when I put the knife in, it came out clean. But the inside is soft and feels uncooked. Any idea what went wrong? I baked at 190 degrees C. Maybe I should have baked at a lower temperature since I used a muffin pan?
Thanks!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Rachna! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you – your comment got stuck in my spam filter and I’m just now seeing it. The insides should feel pretty soft but not uncooked. Maybe cooking it at a lower temperature for a little longer would help dry up some of the extra moisture without overcooking it. I also want to note that they’ll feel much softer right out of the oven but less so as they cool and set. Hope that helps!
Rachna says
Thanks for your reply. So I wrapped the muffin pan in foil and baked it again at a very low temperature for almost an hour. That helped to cook the insides better and the muffins turned out yummy! I’ll definitely be making these again. I’ll just bake them at a
Lower temperature.
Sarah Nevins says
Oh fantastic! That’s great to know about cooking it covered/low in case any one else runs into that problem. Thanks so much Rachna!
Genesis Jimenez says
Hello Sarah can I use cinnamon instead of nutmeg?
Sarah Nevins says
Absolutely!
Tessa says
I am SO excited to find this recipe! My significant other is obsessed with carrot cake everything. It will be really fun to surprise him with this treat after dinner. Yum!
Sarah says
Hope you guys love it as much as we did!
Natalie says
These carrot bars look so delicious!
Sarah says
Thanks Natalie!