These Gluten Free Carrot Cake Bars are seriously dreamy. The cake is soft and luscious and the vegan frosting tastes just like real cream cheese frosting. These Gluten Free Carrot Cake Bars are also dairy free, soy free, egg free, and nut free. They are also suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
With Easter quickly approaching I wanted to create some amazing carrot cake bars. They turned out incredible and I will definitely be serving these at our Easter dinner to my family members who don’t have any allergies. Trust me, these bars are that good. Whether you have allergies or not, you’ll love these gluten free vegan carrot cake bars.
These Carrot Cake Bars are so easy to make for a big group. I prefer making bars like this instead of cupcakes when I have to serve a lot of people. They are much easier to frost because you can frost them prior to cutting the bars. It’s also nice because you can cut them into very small or very large pieces depending on how many people you are serving.
If you are brand new to Eat or Drink be sure to sign up for the newsletter so you never miss a thing. Eat or Drink is my Food and Lifestyle blog with a focus on Allergy-Free eating and living. If you want to find more posts focused on the food aspect of Eat or Drink, just click here. If you want to find more posts focused on Allergy-Free Living, click here. Or if you want more lifestyle and faith-based posts, click here.
You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and to see some social media exclusive recipes, tips, and giveaways.
What’s Inside these Gluten Free Carrot Cake Bars?
There are so many options when it comes to carrot cake. You can add in nuts, raisins and other dried fruit, citrus, and so much more. I decided to keep things simple. Here’s what I added to give these Vegan Carrot Cake Bars a delicious flavor and texture.
Carrots are vital when making these gluten free carrot cake bars. The carrots give these bars a wonderful taste and color. They also add moisture when they bake. It’s important to shred the carrots on a fine or medium grater. If you grate them too large they won’t cook down enough and will leave you with an unpleasant bite.
Canned Pineapple gives this cake a nice sweetness so I was able to reduce the amount of cane sugar. It also adds a wonderfully moist texture to these gluten free carrot cake bars.
Cinnamon adds a touch of spice to these vegan carrot cake bars. Some carrot cakes incorporate a lot more spices. I chose to stick with a small amount of cinnamon. It adds a nice flavor without turning these bars into spice cake.
Vanilla Extract really compliments the cinnamon and helps round out and brighten all of the other flavors.
Choosing the Right Vegan Cream Cheese
My new Favorite vegan cream cheese is WayFare original cream cheese. The taste is pretty mild, the texture is perfect for this frosting, and the price tag is on point. WayFare is still a small company and is not sold in every market. If you can not find WayFare, Daiya plain cream cheese is your next best option. While I prefer the taste of Kite Hill cream cheese to Daiya, Daiya is much cheaper and has a suitable texture for frosting.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake Bars
Ingredients
Cake Bar Dry Ingredients
- 3 cups Gluten Free Cookie Flour Blend – an Eat or Drink recipe <- Click for Recipe
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Xanthan gum
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon Salt
Cake Bar Wet Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Ground flax
- 9 tablespoons Warm Water
- 1 cup Room temperature dairy free butter
- 1 cup Cane sugar
- 6 tablespoons Light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup Finely grated carrots – be sure to grate them using a medium to fine grater
- 1 cup Canned crushed pineapple – be sure to drain the liquid off well prior to adding to your cake bars
Dairy Free Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- 1 cup Dairy free cream cheese – see blog post for my brand suggestion
- 3 cups Powdered sugar – sift your powdered sugar if it’s chunky
- 1/2 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
- 1 pinch Salt
Instructions
Cake Bar Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9″x13″ baking pan with parchment paper with the parchment paper coming up on the two long sides. This will help you pull the cake out after baking. Grease the edges that are not covered with parchment paper with a small amount of dairy free butter.
- Whisk together all your dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together your ground flax and water and set aside to thicken while you do the next steps.
- Combine butter and both sugars in your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed for about a minute or until slightly fluffy. Add in your flax egg and vanilla and combine again on medium for another minute until combined and fluffy.
- Next, add your finely grated carrots and drained crushed pineapple to the bowl and mix on medium until combined for about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Next, add all of your dry ingredients and mix on low just until combined, do not overmix. Pour into your prepared baking pan, spread until flat with a rubber spatula, and bake in the center of your preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.
- After baking, carefully remove using the edges of the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting and cutting.
Frosting Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add in your dairy free cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix starting on low and working your way up to medium-high until combined and creamy.
- Spread your vegan cream cheese frosting onto your cooled cake using a rubber spatula. Then cut your cake into bars.
Notes
