Carrot Cake Bars
The name says it all. When you take these to a party, don't expect to bring home any leftovers!
Servings: 24
Calories:
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup butter melted
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 4- ounce jar baby food apple sauce
- 3 4- ounce jars baby food carrots
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup coconut
- Icing
- 10 tablespoons butter softened
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 tablespoons half & half may need a bit more
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Generously spray a a 10x15-inch sheet pan or a 9x13-inch cake pan with baking spray.
- Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.
- Place eggs in a medium size bowl. Whisk until well combined. Add sugar, melted butter, oil and vanilla, stir well. Add all of the baby food. Stir until combined.
- Add the flour mixture and stir till smooth and all flour disappears. Add vanilla and coconut and stir to combine.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes for the 10x15-inch sheet pan and 30-35 minutes for 9x13-inch pan or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before icing.
- For the icing, combine butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar and mix on low speed till powdered sugar is incorporated. Add vanilla and half & half and continue beating for 3-4 minutes or until icing is light and fluffy. If it's a bit too thick, add a little more half & half. If too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.
- If you're going to complete the cake bars with the decorative carrots, reserve 1 cup of the icing. Spread the rest evenly over the cake with an angled knife, smoothing the top as much as possible. Set aside for 1-2 hours before serving or adding carrot decorations.
- For decorative carrots, divide reserved icing into two medium size bowls. Add orange and green food coloring till desired shade is achieved. (I didn't have orange so I used an equal amount of red and yellow food coloring. For the green carrot tops, I used standard liquid green food coloring and added a few drops of yellow to make a more spring-like green) Transfer colored icing to 2 decorating bags (one for each color) fitted with piping tips. I used a Wilton 224 for the carrot tops and Wilton 10 for the carrots themselves. Here is a great tutorial on making carrots. I'd never attempted carrots before so I did a lot of practicing as you can see in the picture below.
- [url href="https://thecafesucrefarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Super-Easy-Crazy-Good-Carrot-Cake-Bars-31.jpg"][/url]
