Vegan Carrot Cake Easter Bars
These soft and fluffy vegan carrot cake bars are topped with a delicious dairy free cream cheese frosting and vegan chocolate eggs!
Servings: 12 Cake Bars
Calories: 334kcal
Ingredients
For the carrot cake batter:
- 165 g freshly grated carrots
- 60 g walnuts finely chopped
- 200 ml soy milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 190 g all-purpose flour sifted
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 0.5 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 50 ml canola oil rapeseed
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 100 g vegan cream cheese room temperature
- 65 g vegan butter block room temperature
- 250 g powdered sugar sifted
- 0.25 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping:
- Finely chopped walnuts optional, to taste
- Vegan chocolate eggs optional, to taste
Instructions
Preparation:
- Preheat your oven to 177 Celsius. Grease an 8x8 inch square baking tin and line with non-stick parchment paper.
- Make sure that your carrots are grated, and your walnuts are chopped beforehand, then make the vegan buttermilk by mixing the soy milk with the apple cider vinegar.
- Set the grated carrots and chopped walnuts aside. Let the vegan buttermilk curdle for 8 minutes.
Make your carrot cake batter:
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the dry cake ingredients (including the carrots and the walnuts) until combined.
- Next, pour in the curdled soy milk, canola oil and the vanilla extract. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined and all the flour lumps are gone. Don’t over-mix the carrot cake batter.
- Pour your cake batter into the lined, square pan. Spread the carrot cake batter to the corners. Make sure it is even and flat.
Bake the cake:
- Bake your carrot cake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. A toothpick will come out clean when it is ready.
- Let the cake cool inside the tin for 10-15 minutes, then transfer over to a cooling rack to cool completely. Don’t add the frosting until all the warmth has left the cake.
Make the cream cheese frosting:
- In a stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, cream together the vegan cream cheese with the vegan butter on a high speed until creamy.
- Gradually, add in the powdered sugar. Allow the stand mixer to keep mixing while you add it. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, pour in the vanilla.
Decorating the carrot cake:
- Spread your cream cheese frosting over the cake and smooth out with a palette knife. Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top and vegan chocolate eggs/vegan mini eggs if you wish to make this cake Easter themed. If you are making this cake at a different time of the year, feel free to skip the chocolate eggs.
- Slice the cake and serve the carrot cake. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- When mixed correctly, this cake is one of the lightest and fluffiest on my entire blog. However, by over-mixing this cake could become very sad. You've bought all of your ingredients and the last thing you want is a dense lump of cake. Not ideal. Be conscious when mixing. Fold instead.
- Freshly grated carrots are where all the moisture is. Pre-packaged ones may have been sat around inside shops for a long time and little moisture will have been retained as they will have dried out. Fresh wins every time.
- The vegan cream cheese frosting is made inside a stand mixer. In the past, I have occasionally made them by hand, but it's much better watching a machine do the work for you! It's really is easy to make. You just need to cream the ingredients together and then it will begin to thicken nicely.
Nutrition
Calories: 334kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 420mg | Potassium: 129mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 2558IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 96mg | Iron: 1mg