This Carrot Cake Bread comes out of the oven soft, moist and delicious. Grated Carrots are baked in with white sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon to create a dense comforting recipe that makes a great breakfast treat or fun dessert! We top this Carrot Cake Loaf with our cinnamon sugar cream cheese frosting to give it that extra kick of tasty fun!
After college, I worked for The Cheesecake Factory for a couple of years. While they are obviously known for their Cheesecakes, they actually also had one of the best Carrot Cakes I’ve ever tasted as well. This thing was monstrous. But delicious! Ever since then, I’ve had a soft spot for Carrot Cakes.
We’ve never posted a Carrot Cake recipe on this website. We’ve done things like Homemade Apple Banana Bread and Zucchini Chocolate Cake. But no Carrot Cake.
Today, instead of doing boring old Carrot Cake, I thought we’d do a Carrot Cake Bread!
Carrot Cake Vs Carrot Cake Bread?
Yeah, they sound a lot alike. And they are a lot alike. In my experience, traditional Carrot Cake is a bit lighter and sweeter than Carrot Cake Bread. Carrot Cake Bread is a bit more dense and without quite as much sugar. Sometimes, the bread isn’t even frosted. But we are gonna frost our because…. well… why wouldn’t we?!?!
Carrot Cake Bread Ingredients
I love this recipe because you probably already have a lot of these ingredients in your kitchen! I think that it’s cool that you can make a slightly different and fun recipe without any special trips to the store. Here is what you’ll need to get started!
For The Carrot Cake Bread:
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups carrots (finely grated)
For The Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 4 oz cream cheese (softened)
- 2 tbsp butter (softened)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
How To Store Carrot Bread
Once your Carrot Cake Bread is cooled and frosted, it should be good in an airtight container on your countertop for about 4-5 days. If you need to keep it longer than that, the good news is that Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting also freezes quite well.
Just put the Carrot Bread in the refrigerator for a couple hours before freezing. This will firm up the frosting so that you can wrap it in freezer paper or a freezer bag (or both) without disturbing it. It should be good in your freezer for about 6 months.
You can also slice your Carrot Cake Loaf into individual slices before freezing. This way you can just take out and thaw what you need.
Notes, Tips and Variations
- WHERE ARE THE NUTS AND RAISINS?- Many carrot dessert recipes have nuts (walnuts or pecans) in them. A lot have raisins as well. We didn’t put any nuts in because my son is allergic. We didn’t put any raisins in because we simply don’t really like them in there. But if you want to add these, go for it! You can also mix in dried cranberries or even chocolate chips!
- USE PARCHMENT PAPER IN PAN- Lining your loaf pan with parchment paper is the easiest and safest way to get it out intact. I strongly recommend doing this.
- CARROTS– We recommend shredding fresh carrots rather than buying them shredded at the store. Those are a little dry and your cake won’t be as moist. Use a food processor to make this an easy task.
- ALLOW BREAD TO FULLY COOL BEFORE FROSTING- I know it’s tough, but you really need to make sure your Carrot Cake Loaf is FULLY cool before trying to put on the frosting. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
- DIETARY SUGGESTIONS– Use reduced fat cream cheese to cut out some calories. You can also substitute in Gluten Free Flour to make this gluten free.
- WHITE AND BROWN SUGAR– We use 1/2 cup of white and 1/2 cup of brown sugar in this recipe. You can use a little more brown sugar than white sugar if you’d like, maybe 3/4 cup brown and 1/4 cup white. Or vice versa. Whatever sounds good to you. You can also reduce the total amount of sugar to make this less sweet and more like a traditional “loaf” than cake.
- SIMPLE ICING INSTEAD OF CREAM CHEESE FROSTING?– If the cream cheese frosting is a little much for you, you can make a simple sugar icing. Just mix together 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar and 1 tbsp of water. After the carrot cake has fully cooled, simply glaze to the top. This will give it a nice, slightly crunchy and sweet texture to balance out the soft, moist carrot bread!
- TESTING FOR DONENESS– You carrot cake is done when to top starts to harden and become golden. Insert a toothpick or a cake tester into the center. If it comes out clean, it’s done!
Tools To Help With This Recipe
I hope you enjoy this recipe for Carrot Cake Bread. Let me know how it turns out in the comments section! Thanks for reading!
Carrot Cake Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups carrots peeled and finely grated
For The Frosting
- 4 oz Cream Cheese Softened
- 2 tbsp Butter Softened
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9X5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper and grease sides.
- Peel and finely grate carrots.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- In another bowl, beat eggs and both sugars together.
- Add in Vegetable oil, applesauce, almond and Vanilla extract into wet ingredients.
- Mix in carrots.
- Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.
- In a mixing bowl, combine together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt. It is best to use a powered mixture to mix until creamy.
- Once Carrot Cake Bread is fully cooled. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting on top and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Nutrition
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