This is the best recipe for making a delicious quick bread carrot cake bread from scratch with simple ingredients you can easily find in your pantry or your local grocery store. This moist carrot cake loaf is great to have for dessert, a sweet treat on your coffee break, or you could even try it for breakfast! You know you want to!
Table of Contents
Is Carrot Cake Bread healthy?
As you know, I love carrot cake, and while I do feel like it’s slightly healthier than other cakes because it has carrots in it I’m not sure that it would actually count as ‘healthy.’ We can dream! This is a really simple and delicious recipe to make though and it’s a good way of using up carrots when you have too many! Additionally, it’s always a big hit with the kids, so, that’s one way of getting them to eat veg, right?
The great thing about this recipe is that it’s perfect all year round. Carrots aren’t seasonal like pumpkin or summer squash, so you can become a Carrot Cake Bread expert and whip up a loaf for any special occasion, event, or get together! It also makes a great substitute in fall when you want a spiced quick bread loaf but have had your fill of all things pumpkin.
The main flavors in this recipe are cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, which together work to make this cake deliciously warm and inviting!
This carrot cake bread recipe is amazing on it’s own but with our simple sweet cream cheese frosting it is perfection on a plate!
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Bread Loaf:
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Salt
- Large eggs
- Sugar
- Canola oil
- Vanilla extract
- Carrots
- Dried cranberries
- Walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Cream cheese
- Unsalted sweet cream butter
- Confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
- Heavy cream
- Vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×3 bread pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- Using a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt until combined.
- Using another large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until combined.
- Next, mix in the oil and vanilla until combined.
- Gradually mix in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully combined and the mixture is smooth.
- Then fold in the grated carrots, cranberries and walnuts.
- Lastly, pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove the carrot loaf cake from the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack
Cream Cheese Icing
- Using a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until the mixture is smooth.
- Gradually add in the powdered sugar and beat until combined.
- Next, beat in the heavy cream and vanilla until the mixture is smooth.
- Evenly spread the frosting over the top of the cooled loaf.
- Slice to serve.
Suggestions and Alternatives
- Try my sweet cream cheese frosting detailed in the recipe or make it a cinnamon sweet cream cheese frosting by adding ½ tsp cinnamon to my frosting recipe. Alternatively, an icing glaze would also work wonders like on my Orange Cranberry Quick Bread.
- Add golden raisins, chopped pecans, or chocolate chips!
- Use freshly grated carrots. Pre-packaged grated carrots tend to be dry so it’s best to freshly grate carrots for this recipe. To do this you can use a food processor to grate the carrots into tiny slivers, although you could also use a grater and just individually grate each carrot until you have the amount needed for the recipe. About 2-3 medium to large carrots will grate into a cup.
- Add nuts or raisins. Some people like nuts in their carrot cake while others don’t, therefore this recipe allows for you to add about ½ cup of walnuts, pecans, or other chopped nuts into the batter if you so wish.
- Monitor baking time. Ovens can vary so be sure to keep an eye on the loaf as it nears the end of its baking time. You want to remove it while they it is just golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- To use different types of sugar: substitute brown sugar with white granulated sugar or coconut sugar but this will make the loaf less tender and moist.
- Substitute baking soda for baking powder by using ⅓ the amount needed, for example, ⅓ tsp baking powder for this recipe.
- Cinnamon cream cheese frosting – add cinnamon to the cream cheese frosting for an added cinnamon dimension
- Parchment paper – some people like to line the loaf pan with parchment, leaving some hanging over the sides to easily pull the bread form out of the pan
How long will a Carrot Cake Bread Loaf last?
An unfrosted carrot cake bread loaf will keep for up to five days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
A frosted loaf will last up to three days at room temperature, make sure to cover with plastic wrap or similar.
How do you keep frosting from melting?
Make sure your loaf is completely cool before adding the frosting. Allow it to completely cool on a cooling rack, or additionally place it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, before adding the topping.
If, like me, you’re a fan of quick bread cake loaves like this one then check out my other quick bread cake loaf recipes here:
- The Best Banana Bread Recipe
- Blueberry Bread Recipe
- Moist and Delicious Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread
- Orange Cranberry Quick Bread
Want more Spiced Cake Recipes?
The Best Carrot Cake Bread
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Bread
- 1 ⅓ C all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 C sugar
- 1 C canola oil
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 C grated carrots
- ½ C dried cranberries
- ½ C chopped walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ brick 4oz cream cheese softened
- ¼ C unsalted sweet cream butter
- 1 ¼ C confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 tsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Carrot Cake Bread
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×3 loaf pan with pam baking spray
- Using a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt until combined.
- Using another large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until combined.
- Next, beat in the oil and vanilla until combined.
- Gradually beat in the dry ingredients until fully combined and the mixture is smooth.
- Then fold in the grated carrots, cranberries and walnuts.
- Lastly, pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Using a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until the mixture is smooth.
- Gradually add in the powedered sugar and beat until combined.
- Next, beat in the heavy cream and vanilla until the mixture is smooth.
- Once the loaf has fully cooled, evenly spread the frosting over the top of the loaf.
- Slice to serve.
Notes
- Use freshly grated carrots. Pre-packaged grated carrots tend to be dry so it’s best to freshly grate carrots for this recipe. To do this you can use a food processor to grate the carrots into tiny slivers, although you could also use a grater and just individually grate each carrot until you have the amount needed for the recipe. About 2-3 medium to large carrots will grate into a cup.
- Add extra nuts or raisins. Some people like nuts in their carrot cake while others don’t. This recipe allows for you to add about ½ cup of walnuts, pecans, or other chopped nuts into the batter.
- Monitor baking time. Ovens can vary so be sure to keep an eye on the loaf as it nears the end of the baking time. You want to remove it while it is golden on top or when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- To use different types of sugar: substitute brown sugar with white granulated sugar or coconut sugar but this will make the loaf less tender and moist.
- Substitute baking soda for baking powder by using ⅓ the amount needed, i.e. ⅓ tsp baking powder for this recipe.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
Shelly says
This recipe is so delicious!
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
glad you liked it!