Dense and chewy, these date-sweetened, vegan carrot cake bars are packed with spicy flavor. Plus they’re soy-free and can be made gluten-free.
I love getting recipe ideas from readers! Next to traveling and dining at vegan restaurants, it’s my favorite way to discover new foods. So I was thrilled to receive an email recently from Sharon Starr in San Francisco asking me to figure out the recipe for Whole Foods’ Vegan Carrot Spice Cake, which she described as “moist, dense and somewhat chewy.” I’m always up for a challenge (especially when it involves dessert), so I told her I would give it a try.
Before I get to the recipe, I have a little housekeeping to do. A few weeks ago I added a feature that should make searching for recipes a little easier for you. If you go to the top of the page and click on Recipe Index, you’ll see a new link to Master List of All Recipes. When you click on that, you’ll find a list of all the recipes on this blog, alphabetically by category, on one page. No photos, just titles. Now you have four ways to look for recipes: the search box in the upper right corner, by category (such as Salads), by tag/topic (such as Eat to Live), and this new page. You’ll also find this feature on the main Fatfree Vegan Recipes site, up in the top menu bar as Index. I hope it helps you find what you’re looking for.
Now on to this recipe:
Sharon sent a photo of the Whole Foods cake along with the ingredients list from the package. Her photo showed a dense bar, almost like a blondie, with lots of dark areas that I assume were the dates and raisins and just a few hints of orange from the carrots. The ingredient list was as follows: Carrots, Unsweetened Applesauce, Dates, Whole Wheat Flour, Raisins, Walnuts, Baking Powder, Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Allspice, Clove.
By law, ingredients must be listed on packages in decending order by weight, with the main ingredient listed first. Knowing the order of ingredients is a help, but it’s certainly not a formula, and if you don’t know the exact proportions, it’s hard to duplicate a recipe, especially a baked item. But I gave it my best shot. I began by weighing all the ingredients and deciding on a starting amount of my first ingredient, carrots. The 5 medium carrots I used weighed 7.4 ounces; once I had that measurement, I tailored the amounts of the other ingredients in descending order, using a little common sense and a lot of guesswork.
In the end, I guessed wrong about the amount of flour. My desire to avoid too much refined starch probably had a lot to do with my underusing the flour (according to my calculations, I could have used almost twice as much and still been on target, weight-wise). So my bars came out moist and dense and a little chewy, but not cake-like. However, my family absolutely loved them, so much so that we ate the entire pan in one day.
I considered trying again, using more flour and baking powder, but we’d already blown our family’s weekly sugar budget because even though these treats are refined sugar-free, they still contain a lot of sugar from the dates and raisins. I decided having another batch around would be too much temptation. And besides, my husband told me to leave them alone–they were perfect this way.
I may make the recipe again, once my sugar high wears off, and aim for a cake-like bar next time. But I think these bars stand on their own as a different kind of dessert, somewhere between a raw “Larabar” and a piece of Impossible Pumpkin Pie. Thank you, Sharon, for sending me off on this quest!
Carrot Cake Bars
Ingredients
- 10 medjool dates , pits removed (about 5.5 ounces)
- 2 cups shredded carrots (from about 5 medium carrots)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 teaspoon double-strength vanilla extract (or 2 tsp. regular)
- 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour , white whole wheat flour, or gluten-free flour (such as brown rice flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Lightly spray or oil an 8×8-inch glass baking dish (or use a non-stick silicone pan). Preheat oven to 375F.
- Place the pitted dates in a food processor and pulse until the dates are chopped and begin to form a paste. Scrape them into a bowl and add all ingredients EXCEPT flour, baking powder, and walnuts. Stir until all ingredients are well-blended.
- Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and mix well. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until just blended. Spoon it into the prepared pan, sprinkle with walnuts if desired, and press them lightly into the batter with the back of a spoon. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into bars and serving.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
P.S. Try not to eat the whole pan!
Please pin and share!
Richa@HobbyandMore
I made a similar cake from The starch solution and was very surprised with the sugar and fat free moist cake! these look fabulous. so dense and delicious.
HSGAVolunteer
Thank you for posting this recipe — I’m not vegan, but I love carrot cake and am an avid food journaler, so I love that you post nutritional information on your blog. And I hate reduced fat or vegan cream cheese — so I can’t wait to try these bars!
Becky
These look super-delish!
Melissa
What happens if you leave out the dates? Will the bars still hold together?
Susan Voisin
No, I don’t think so. And they wouldn’t be very sweet at all.
Millie Snyder
Yum these look delicious, I think the density would be yummy. I’m not even vegan and I’m going to try this. Thanks for sharing!
Redd H from Salted Spoon
Oooh these look great! I love that you were able to create a recipe based on a picture and ingredient list. That sounds like a really fun little experiment that I might have to try sometime!
Sally
Does this recipe call for baking POWDER or baking SODA? The instructions don’t match the ingredient list.
Susan Voisin
Baking powder. Thanks for pointing that out.
Megan
Wow. I will be making these this weekend! Thanks! Wow…
Kristina
Susan these look fantastic! I love to use my juiced carrot pulp in baking – I bet I could do that here? I love a dense dessert bar!
veganamericanprincess
This looks delicious!! On May 30, 2012, I posted a blog entitled “Carrot Cake With Vanilla Frosting-In a Jiffy”. I used boxed ingredients and veganized them and the results were great!!! Not fat-free but delicious and simple!!! Susan’s recipe looks that much healthier!! http://veganamericanprincess.com
Janae @ Bring-Joy
I think carrot cakes/bars are the best because they are so easy to do oil-free while still tasting delicious.
I really like your combination & mixes of spices. I love your fearless, experimental attitude in the kitchen–I aspire to that :)!
Francesca
What a lovely recipe and brave challenge – you are ever so talented and very inspirational. Thank you for sharing your ‘quest’ – I’m glad your family enjoyed the carrot cake bars – the next batch should be for you though, to meet your cakey desires.
spicygirl
Thankyou so much for a yummy gluten free ,soy free, sugar free recipe! I can’t wait to make this for my family!
Elaine Lynch
I can’t wait to try this! I just love your site. Thank you so much!
sharon
Gluten free vegan and sugar free recipes are so hard to find. Thanks so much.
Lisa @ The Raw Serenity
This recipe sounds amazing! Sounds like a brownie texture.
Can’t wait to try this one out!
I never add refined sugar so this is perfect.
X
Caralyn @ glutenfreehappytummy
oh my gosh Susan those look outrageous! i love carrot cake – these bars are right up my alley!
Melissa Lang
I made these tonight!!! Fabulous and I agree with your husband – they are perfect how they are. (But if you do a cake version, I’d love to try that recipe, too!) I accidentally left out the ground ginger, but I’ll add it next time. I used cashews instead of walnuts and added a dollop of ND whipped topping to make it very decadent. Thank you, Susan!!!
elaine
Sounds delicious. I have not had any refined sugar since January, so having this will be a real treat! Thank you!
moonwatcher
Hi Susan,
These look great! I will have to wait until more people are around before I try these out, because I WILL want to eat the whole pan. 🙂
xo
moonwatcher
Angie@Angie's Recipes
These carrot bars look terrific!
marie townsend
Susan, Carrot bars sound great just as all other recipes I’ve tried from you collection. I’ve been a vegatarian for quite sometime, but went vegan a few years ago. And a first I thought it would be a challange and sometimes it is when dining out. I do enjoy cheesecake on my b-day and my grandkids as well. I appreciate your recipes you have given me much insipation. I will be making carrot bars earky on the 4th before the temp. is above 90. Happy Holiday
Janhavi
I was wondering if I could use bananas in this recipe somehow? I have 3 that are a little too ripe for me to eat right now and I want to use them for something and this looks delicious!
Susan Voisin
You could try replacing the apple sauce with mashed banana, but it might turn out overly moist and mushy. How about trying one of my banana recipes, such as banana bread, banana-cashew balls, or banana coffee cake?
Kathleen @ KatsHealthCorner
What an absolutely delicious recipe! THANK YOU SO MUCH! <3
Laina
What pretty looking bars! I look forward to making them. Also’, thanks for another way to search. You’re so thoughtful.
Btw, I love your signature! 🙂
Laina 🙂
Legolas813
I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but everyone at work loved it. This is what I did.
1 lb. bag whole baby carrots
2 mini cups of applesauce
1.5 cups raisins
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground allspice
0.5 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup walnuts
Combine all ingredients in Blendtec. Cook at 375 for 45 minutes.
brook
Thank you so much for this recipe! You should really call them “carrot crack bars,” because I suspect they’re as addictive. I’ve made them 3 times since you posted the recipe! Everyone loves them! Thanks again.
Azahara
“P.S. Try not to eat the whole pan!”
How do I do that?
Jacqueline
They do look good Susan. I add carrot to flapjacks (Scottish flapjacks made from oats, not pancakes) and they go lovely and caramelly, I bet they do in this cake too. Yum!
Scottish Mum
These look absolutely lovely. Found them when Jacqueline tweeted.
Stuart Vettese
These look amazing! A diabetic friend has been asking me for ideas for sugar free recipes – I will certainly give this one a try 🙂
Johanna GGG
the carrot bars sounds lovely – I love dense over cakey!
also wanted to say I love the masterlist index – sometimes that is all I want and the photos make indexes quite hard to wade through because they are not many on a page!
Tika
My word! These bars are incredible.
Melissa
Susan, this was a delicious recipe though I did not have allspice, so I don’t know what I missed but I certainly could have eaten the whole pan in one sitting. I will say I did not think I cooked them long enough due to the very moistness of the cake. I made my own raw applesauce which may have caused this, but even being extremely moist(almost like undercooked brownies) it was still good to me. I did not have anyone else try them yet, though I suppose I must to be nice:)
S
These bars look delicious! A great alternative to cookies as a snack for my toddler. Do you think the recipe would work with packaged date paste?
Susan Voisin
Probably so, but I don’t know how much of it you should use.
S
I used the packaged already mashed dates, and it came out great. The package I bought was 2lbs, and I cut off a 6oz chunk.
Didn’t use the food processor, just used lightly greased hands to mix everything together.
Thanks!
Dyan
These are great! I was tempted to stop before the flour and baking powder and just blend everything together and eat it raw, but I wanted to see the recipe through and I’m glad I did. I’ve polished off half the pan already. That said, I still want to try a raw version. Next time! Thanks for this recipe. I’ve never seen one like it and I think it has a lot of potential for experimentation.
jamie
This looks great! I’m delighted that you posted this. Carrot cake is a favorite and I am excited to sweeten with the dates as I’m not using sugar much these days. Might be trying these out this week! Thanks!
Kim
These look great! Any idea if they’ll freeze well (so I can avoid eating them all at once)?
Susan Voisin
I haven’t tried freezing them but I can’t see any reason it wouldn’t work.
Azahara
I finally didn’t eat the whole pan and ended up freezing some servings. Just thaw them in advance and you won’t notice the difference.
Susan Voisin
Thanks for checking on that! Freezing is a great solution for keeping them around longer.
Ninufar
Thanks so much!! There’s a carrot-cake Lara bar, but it’s got pineapple in it & I’m mildly allergic to that, so here is a wonderful alternative!
I will try it w/”ivory” teff flour, maybe cut with some arrowroot starch.
Laura
I made these the other night and can verify that they are awesome!! I did not have applesauce so I puréed 1.5 bananas for an equivalent volume, which worked out great in my opinion. Even the six-year-old sugar-crazy boys running around called them delicious — I’m not making that up!