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
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!