Moist Cream Cheese Swirled Carrot Cake Bars are easier than layer cake and don’t need any frosting!
Want more dessert recipes to try? My Snow-Capped Lemon Cookies, Carrot Souffle, Chocolate Zucchini Bread are just a click away!
I have this thing where I get really annoyed when the weather doesn’t obey the seasons. It’s ridiculous. And if you live anywhere without 4 distinct seasons you probably can’t even relate but here in Utah we are pretty much used to our 4 very distinct, well-defined seasons.
We have a chilly, wet Spring, followed by a very dry and hot Summer, then a cool and colorful Fall, finished by a frozen white winter.
But of course, our weather does not like to stick to the confines of quarterly seasons. So even though our January was the most mild I’ve ever experienced while living here, pretty much empty of any snow storms, our March has been very white and cold.
It shouldn’t, but it’s totally bugging me.
Which is part of the reason we jumped on the opportunity to take a weekend vacation down to St. George in Southern Utah with my inlaws. My sister in law has a lacrosse tournament down here this weekend and we don’t need much excuse to take a getaway to somewhere with warm weather and palm trees. ROAD TRIP.
And what’s a road trip without snacks yeah?? You better believe I brought a plate of these cream cheese swirled carrot cake bars on the road with us. So. Good. If you love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, you’ll love these!
What people are saying about these Cream Cheese Swirled Carrot Cake Bars
“These turned out great gluten free! All I did was sub oat flour. The texture was soft and spongy; not crumbly at all. The bars were also incredibly moist. Thanks for the great recipe!” – Jasmine
“Absolutely the easiest and delicious recipe. Thank you so much for sharing. 5 star for sure!!!!!” – Tammy
“Easy and delicious – I’ve decided, though, that I’ll use a tablespoon of cinnamon next time! It just needs more spice!” – Janet
“I’ve made these today and they’re absolutely delicious! Thank you!” – Meike
Cream Cheese Swirled Carrot Cake Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup finely shredded carrots - (I used two large carrots and a box grater)
- 1 cup sugar - (may reduce to ¾ up if desired)
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup flour
Cream Cheese Swirl
- 4 ounces cream cheese - softened
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
- In a large bowl combine carrots, sugar, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla and mix well. Add baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and flour and mix until combined. Spread batter in your prepared pan.
- In a medium bowl mix cream cheese sugar, vanilla, flour, and egg until smooth. Drizzle over the top of your cake batter. Use a knife to swirl the cream cheese mixture into the batter.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars and serving. Store in airtight container chilled or at room temperature.
Hi Tiffany,
I just made this for the first time yesterday and followed the recipe exactly as noted.
I give it a 10++++
Thank you for sharing and your recipes never disappoint me.
Wow, that’s so kind of you! Thank you so much!
When making the dough I already noticed it was extremely runny so I doubted if it would turn out well. I wish I read the comments before making them. Once I put them in the oven I noticed they spread like crazy and became one sheet pancake lol so I did a wild move and took them out of the oven after 3 mins and back into a bowl. I added about half a cup of flour and put them in the fridge for almost 2 hours. Then I baked them with 6 cookies per batch. They turned out well in the end. Theyre soft but not try and really taste like tiny carrot cakes. I also added pecans to mine.
Super easy are used sugar substitute and it turned out wonderfully I’ll be making it again
Why do you add an egg and flour to the cream cheese?
To make the swirl more dense and cake like
In the cream cheese swirl portion, you have 1/4 sugar and then 3 tablespoons of sugar again in the ingredients, but then in the instructions, it mentions flour. Since there’s no flour in the ingredients for that portion, can I assume the 3 tablespoons refer to the flour?
Thank you for pointing out that typo. It is fixed now!
Hi Tiffany. These look delicious! I notice you are in Utah. Do you mind telling me what elevation you bake at? I ask because I’m wondering if I need to make adjustments, and I’m at 7000 feet.
Thanks!
We are about 4,300 here.
Hi! what is a good substitute for applesauce?
Hi! I am from the philippInes and applesauce is not available in our country. What can I use as a substitute for this?
Hi Joanne! You can substitute for an equal amount of oil!
Absolutely the easiest and delicious recipe. Thank you so much for sharing. 5 star for sure!!!!!
This recipe is great. I didn’t have any applesauce at home but added a little melted butter instead and added raisins as well and they turned out great, perfect with a good cup of tea.
Easy and delicious – I’ve decided, though, that I’ll use a tablespoon of cinnamon next time! It just needs more spice!
I’ve made these today and they’re absolutely delicious! Thank you!
These turned out great gluten free! All I did was sub oat flour for ap flour 1:1. The texture was soft and spongy; not crumbly at all. The bars were also incredibly moist. Thanks for the great recipe!
The carrot cake cream cheese swirl recipe call for 2 eggs in the carrot part but the instructions never call for them! I am right in the middle of making this amd it does feel right or look right!
Hi Jodi – so sorry for the confusion that was a typo on my part!! The eggs go in with the vanilla and applesauce, I’ve updated the recipe!
Can you use a boxed carrot cake for this?
I haven’t tried it myself but I’m sure you could sub that for the cake part of the dessert and then follow the directions for the cream cheese swirl as written! 🙂