When we were kids, my mother used to make these! They are quite wet! The baby food holds the key!
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 13 to 9 x inch pan |
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 7 ½ ounces junior baby food carrots
- ½ cup fresh carrots, ground
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 (12 ounce) container softened cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, eggs, vanilla and oil in a large bowl. Add in the baking soda, salt and flour. Stir in the jar of baby carrots, raw carrots, raisins and walnuts. Mix well.
- Bake in a greased and floured 13×9 inch pan at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes. Check after 20 minutes by inserting clean knife into center. Knife should come out clean. Cool thoroughly before cutting.
- To Make Frosting: Cream together the cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Frost cooled bars.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 232 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 25 g |
| Cholesterol | 34 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 187 mg |
| Sugars | 20 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These are awesome!! So easy. I boil my raisins first so they are juicier. My hubby and kids loved them!
best carrot bar recipe out there….hav e made this for years and the family loves them……i sometimes sub the carrots for pumpkin and they turn out great!!!!!
I made this yesterday for my son’s 1 year birthday cake and it was delicious! The only changes I made was that I make my own baby food for him, so I used homemade cooked mashed carrots. Also, I halved the icing recipe, but it was still a bit too much for our taste, so I will try less next time–it was delicious though!
Even though I made some changes to this recipe (after reading all the reviews) I just have to give it 5 stars because I would not have been able to come up with something so incredibly good without the original recipe. Here are the changes I made: couldn’t find a 7 1/2 oz jar of babyfood so I used 2-4 oz. jars of baby carrots. I only used 1/2 c of canola oil since I had many times substituted applesauce for all the oil in a recipe, and only made 1/2 a recipe of the frosting using 1/3 less fat cream cheese. That made plenty of frosting. Also FYI, about 2 medium carrots, chopped in my mini food processor made 1/2 c. It may just be my oven, but I had to bake it for a total of 35 minutes before the cake tester came out clean. The end-product is a cake rather than a cookie, very moist, very delicious! I store this in the refrigerator due to the cream cheese in the frosting. Thank you, Star!
I made this recipe for friends and they loved it too. It was moist and the frosting was awesome. The kids love it too. the base recipe would be good for banana bars as well.
On the positive side, these bars had great flavor, and the icing was terrific, but I wasn’t impressed overall. The texture of the bars was way too mushy,it reminded me of baby food. The icing needs also to be cut in half.
Bugs Bunny has no clue what he’s missing! Incredibly moist and delicious. Next time though I’ll halve the frosting recipe, as I had quite a bit left over.
Half the icing was enough. Very good.
I brought it to work and it was a big hit. Very moist and easy to make. This is a keeper.
I’ve gotten nothing but rave reviews about this cake. It’s really more of a carrot cake than carrot bars, but who cares?! It’s delicious — and you’ll get the funniest look when folks find out that baby food is the “secret!”