Vegan Carrot Cake Bars

vegan carrot cake bar recipe 

I have a great post for you this week from one of my favourite foodie blogs. If you haven't heard of The Cake Hunter you are in for a treat, although I'm sure you had considering Sophie won the Cosmo food blog award last year. Some favourite posts from her would include this Triple Layer Berry Victoria Sponge  and this Blood Orange and Almond Syrup Polenta Cake mmmm. Sophie has been kind enough to share this Vegan Carrot Cake Bar recipe with Tigerlilly Quinn readers, it looks easy enough for even me to make, can't wait to try it!

Hi, I'm Sophie from The Cake Hunter and I'm delighted to be guest posting here with my recipe for vegan carrot cake bars. These are dead easy to make and absolutely delicious. I love vegan baking, it's like an extra little challenge I like to try and turn everyday bakes into vegan friendly dishes. These bars are a great snack to have on hand in the day, especially when the 3pm sugar cravings strike.

There are all sorts of ways to replace eggs when making cakes vegan friendly but my favourite way is to use flaxseed. It's really easy to find in the shops and you can't tell the difference in the final product. I've used it as an egg replacer in cakes and cookies and they have all turned out great. As a rule, 1 tablespoon of flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water and left to sit for 5-10 minutes equals one egg. Very simple and it even adds extra fibre for your gut, which, let's face it, helps us pretend that cake is healthy. These bars are so easy to adapt as well, you could try replacing some of the carrot with parsnip or courgette or adding in dried fruit, nuts and dark chocolate chips. I'm going to double the recipe next time, divide between two bowls and try out different add-ins.

Vegan Carrot Cake Bars

makes 12 bars

130g plain flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

100g light brown sugar

150g coconut oil, melted

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tablespoons cold water

450g carrots, peeled and grated

100g desiccated coconut

for the glaze:

60g icing sugar

2 tablespoons almond milk

Preheat your oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a 29x18cm/11"x7" tray with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicard, salt and spices.

In another small bowl, whisk the coconut oil, sugar and flaxseed egg.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.

Fold in the carrot and coconut until evenly distributed.

Tip into the baking tray and bake for 30 minutes.

Leave to cool completely before removing from the tray and slicing into bars.

For the glaze, sift the icing sugar (so important if you don't want lumps) and mix it with the almond milk. Pour into a piping bag and snip the very end of then drizzle the icing over the bars.

Thanks so much for sharing Sophie!