Carrot Snack Cake – A square single-layer carrot cake is topped with a homemade cream cheese and sprinkled with chopped pecans to make for an easy spring dessert.
Easter isn’t the same without carrot cake. But who has the time to make a three-layer carrot cake? I sure don’t anymore. So I love making snack cakes – one layer cakes with a nice layer of frosting on top. This Carrot Snack Cake has all the flavors of your favorite carrot cake – cinnamon, carrot, nutmeg, brown sugar, and pecans – but with half of the effort.
This snack cake is made in a 9×9 square pan. And it takes up every inch of the pan so don’t use anything smaller than that. After the cake is baked and cooled, I leave it in the pan and add the frosting to the cake. You can take the cake out of the pan before frosting, if you want. But this is a snack cake, so I like to keep the process simple.
Here is my Carrot Snack Cake!
Tips & Tricks
- Freshly shred the carrots. Do not buy the matchstick carrots. When you freshly shred the carrots, they are a little softer and taste better in desserts like this snack cake.
- Bake until center is done. When checking the cake for doneness, make sure you stick a knife into the center. Do not remove too soon or the center will fall and will be raw.
- Cool cake completely. The cake must be completely cool before adding the cream cheese frosting. This ensures that the frosting doesn’t melt.
Carrot Snack Cake
Ingredients
For the banana cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated carrots about 4 large
- ¾ cups chopped pecans
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup butter unsalted, softened
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
For the banana cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×9 cake pan and set aside. Note: if you are using a dark cake pan, reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees to prevent edges of cake from browning too much.
- In a medium bowl, combine, flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- In a bowl fitted for a stand mixer, beat butter until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add sugars and continue beating until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time until combined. Scrap down the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and mashed bananas and combine.
- Add 1/3 flour mixture to wet ingredients and combine. Add 3/4 cup of buttermilk to wet ingredients and combine. Repeat one more time. Finish mixing process by adding last 1/3 of flour mixture and combining. Do not overmix – a few lumps are okay.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Remove cake from the oven and let it cool completely before topping with frosting.
For the cream cheese frosting:
- Add butter and cream cheese to a bowl fitted for a stand mixer. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy – about 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat for another 3 minutes.
- Spread frosting onto cooled cake and serve immediately or place in fridge to store for later.
Notes
Pin for later:
More recipe you’ll love:
Easy Banana Cake
Carrot Raisin Muffins
Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
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The aroma of the cake is really light and brings joy to the people to enjoy. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful dish
Drooling over this carrot cake. Looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
This looks so good! Perfect for spring and Easter!
The texture looks so perfect – I can’t wait to make this!
I definitely need to bake this up asap! Looks absolutely amazing. 🙂
I love carrot cake! This recipe was so easy to follow and perfect for the spring weather we’re having!