These gluten-free and vegan carrot cake blondies with cashew-coconut icing have all the carrot cake necessities—flecked with walnuts, dotted with raisins, and packed with carrots and warming spices. As opposed to white flour and sugar, oat flour lends heartiness and a generous fiber boost while coconut sugar offers a rich, caramel-like sweetness. But carrot cake isn't carrot cake without a little something on top, and these blondies keep it classic with a thick slathering of vanilla cashew-coconut icing.
Every now and then, the kitchen stars align and a recipe comes together magically. Well, the universe must have been feeling extra generous when I was recipe testing earlier this week, because these Vegan Carrot Cake Blondies with Cashew-Coconut Icing are as close to magical as they come.
What started out as an attempt to make carrot cake cookie bars ultimately resulted in the most wonderful blondies. They have all the carrot cake necessities—flecked with walnuts, dotted with raisins, and packed with carrots and warming spices—plus the irresistible soft and chewy texture of a blondie. As opposed to white flour and sugar, oat flour lends heartiness and a generous fiber boost while coconut sugar offers a rich, caramel-like sweetness.
But carrot cake isn't carrot cake without a little something on top, and these blondies keep it classic with a thick slathering of vanilla cashew-coconut icing. . .
The icing is made by blending together homemade cashew cream, coconut butter, maple syrup, a tiny bit of coconut flour (to thicken and add structure), vanilla, a splash of apple cider vinegar (to offer a subtle tang reminiscent of a traditional cream cheese frosting), and a pinch of sea salt. It's thick and creamy with just the slightest tanginess, and it's the perfect complement to the carrot cake blondies.
While you certainly could make the blondies without the icing, you'd be selling them short and limiting their true potential of deliciousness. And nobody puts baby these blondies in the corner.
So slather them with a thick layer of icing and let them shine. . .
Vegan Carrot Cake Blondies with Vanilla Cashew-Coconut Icing
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Blondies
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ½ cup natural unsalted almond butter (stirred well before measuring)
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (113g) shredded carrots, from about 2–3 medium carrots
- 1 ½ cups (176g) oat flour*
- 1 ½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg or more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger or more to taste
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
- â…“ cup raisins
- â…“ cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional)
Vanilla Cashew-Coconut Icing
- ¾ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
- ½ cup unsweetened cashew milk or other plant-based milk, at room temperature
- ½ cup melted coconut butter, measured in a melted state—it should be runny and pourable—see note**
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons coconut flour
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or the seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (for a cream cheese like tang)
- â…› teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
Garnish
- 2 tablespoons chopped raw or toasted walnuts (optional)
Instructions
For the Carrot Cake Blondies
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8-inch square pan with parchment paper (double-check your pan size, because 9x9-inch won’t work for this recipe).
- Add the the coconut sugar, almond butter, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl. Using a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or hand mixer fitted with beater attachments, beat together on high for 1 minute. The mixture should appear crumbly at this point. Add the shredded carrots and beat for 30 seconds, or until incorporated. The moisture from the carrots should soften the sugar, yielding a wet, damp mixture.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and sea salt. Place within reach of the mixer.
- With the mixer off, add the oat flour mixture. Then, pour the almond milk over the oat mixture and begin beating on low. Increase speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds or until the flour mixture is just incorporated. Do not over-mix. The dough should be sticky and should loosely hold its form (almost like a very, very thick, gooey muffin batter). Add the raisins and walnuts and stir or beat to incorporate.
- Scoop the dough into the lined pan and use a spatula to smooth into an even layer. At first it might seem like there isn’t enough, but keep smoothing it outward until it’s nearly touching the sides of the pan.
- Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, or until the edges are golden and crackled and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs at the tip. Do not over-bake.
- Let cool completely in pan.
For the Vanilla Cashew-Coconut Icing
- Get started on the icing as soon as the blondie is in the oven.
- Add the soaked cashews and cashew milk to a high-speed blender, and blend on high until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as often as needed. The texture should resemble thick cream. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds, or until smooth.
- Scoop the icing into a medium mixing bowl and freeze for 15 minutes to thicken slightly.
To Assemble
- Once the bar is completely cool, smooth as much of the icing as desired over the surface. Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts (if using). Freeze for at least 30 minutes (but preferably 1 hour) to thicken and set the icing.
- Once the icing is set, grasp the edges of the parchment paper to gently lift the bar from the pan, and use a sharp knife to slice into 9 squares; then, slice each square in half on a diagonal, creating 18 triangular bars.
- Return the bars to the pan and loosely cover with foil. Store in the refrigerator*** for up to 1 week.
Notes
**It's very important that 1) all ingredients are at room temperature for the icing (or warmer) and 2) the coconut butter is in a liquid state before measuring and blending. I find it easiest to make a fresh batch of homemade coconut butter and simply measure off ½ cup while it's still in a liquid state. However, store-bought coconut butter will yield a smoother icing because it's typically much smoother than homemade coconut butter. That said, store-bought coconut butter can be tricky to melt because it scorches and burns easily which leads to a seized, hardened texture.
***Keep the bars chilled until just 5 to 10 minutes before serving to maintain the icing's thick, creamy texture.
I look forward to trying these. I've made your caramel squares a couple of times and LOVE them.
The KFC ads on the side banner, not so much :-(
Glad you're enjoying the caramel squares! AND thank you for letting me know about the KFC ads—unfortunately, there's no way to block entire genres of ads (e.g., "meat" or "fast food"), but specific ads (e.g., KFC) can be blocked. I'll let the company that manages my ads know to add that one to the banned list.
Carrot cake is one of my favorite types of cakes, alongside red velvet. I guess because there's cream cheese frosting involved, ha! Oat flour is awesome, isn't it? So close to regular flour.
Yes, oat flour is the best. Definitely my go-to flour for any and all baked goods!
Thanks! I've been craving carrot cake---but almost every one has readymade cream cheese. This is perfect. Have all the ingredients except coconut butter, so will have to wait....unless I try to make my own. You've given me some stuff to think about. I know you said not to sub coco flour for the oat flour---I agree. Have lots of oat flour (used to buy it ready made, but cost effective to grind own from oats in Blendtec). But how about subbing oat flour for coconut flour in the icing? Don't have any coco flour and hate to buy a package just for 2 teaspoons. This seems great for the fall (not that it feels like autumn in Atlanta yet). A seasonal treat before I became vegan used to be cranberry bliss bars from Starbucks (hint! hint! You have a couple months to perfect this). I can see where this would be every bit as good (and healthier and more compassionate).
Definitely try to make your own coconut butter if you can—it's MUCH more affordable than store-bought which can be upwards of $14 per jar (whereas a batch of homemade only costs about $2 depending on the brand of shredded coconut). I can't say for sure since I haven't tried it myself, but I have a feeling that oat flour won't work as a substitute for the coconut flour in the icing. Since coconut flour is so highly absorbent, you'd likely have to add considerably more oat flour to achieve the same results and adding too much could lead to a textural shift in the icing (pasty most likely). Some places (e.g., Whole Foods) carry coconut flour in bulk, so you could try and purchase a small amount if you don't want to have too much on hand. We're lucky to have a Trader Joe's nearby, and they sell it for just $2.99 per bag and it keeps for quite a while, so I usually purchase it from there. As a last resort, you could try adding a bit more coconut butter to thicken the icing but it would have a more coconutty taste (certainly not a bad thing if you don't mind it). Hope this is helpful and hope you enjoy the bars!
p.s. Hint taken regarding the cranberry bliss bars! ;)
These look incredible! Like Ellen, I'd also like to know if there's a substitute for the coco flour in the frosting? I love your blog and can't wait for your book! :) x
Thanks for the kind words and support, Laura—it really means so much! Also, checkout my comment above for thoughts on a coconut flour sub! xo
This looks amazing! I was wondering what kind of camera do you use to take these beautiful photos?!
Hi, Yasmin! I shoot with the Canon 5D Mark III. Depending on the angle, I use a 100mm macro lens or 50mm. For more information, definitely checkout my FACTS page as I go into a bit more detail there. Hope this is helpful! xo
Yum!!!! These look amazing! Interesting addition of the ACV to add the cream cheese tang. I love that! Can't wait to make them.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy them. :)
Carrot cake +blondies=mind blown.
Hi there...
My daughter and I would love to make these carrot cake blondies; however, we do not use dry sugar in any of our recipes. Could you suggest any way we could substitute maple syrup for the 1 cup coconut sugar? By the way the icing is ingenious - so nice to see one without coconut creme!! :)
Hi, Kate!! Happy to hear you're excited about the recipe! I'll happily keep this substitution idea in mind for future testing, but I'm reluctant to make suggestions for substituting maple syrup for the coconut sugar without having properly tested it myself. Given that it would be liquid sugar in place of a dry sugar, the substitution is likely to require significant tweaking to other ingredients in the recipe. I'm sorry I can't be of more help at the moment, just don't want to steer you in the wrong direction!
WHOA!! Just made these. Haven't tried the whole cake together but the frosting is too die for!!! I was licking the blender. The frosting is the best frosting I've tried in a long time. The frosting is freezing right now and I'm hoping I'll have enough willpower to actually ice the cake. thank you for your fabulous icing creation!
Hey Ashley,
I'm going to take a stab at making these and have even made up some DIY coco butter, per the recipe in your cookbook. But I'm wondering if it's okay to use homemade, unstrained cashew milk in the frosting or if that would mess with the consistency?
Thanks for the exciting recipe. :)
Aidan
Hi Aidan! So glad you're going to make the blondies. This is one of my favorite desserts at the moment. I wouldn't advise using unstrained cashew milk because it would likely impart a subtle grit, but feel free to use homemade as long as it's been strained. Enjoy!
Oh my goodness, Ashley, these are completely amazing. I strained the cashew milk as you suggested so not gritty at ALL. In fact, I think the frosting is the best part - but by a narrow margin; the blondies themselves are delectable. I haven't figured out what to do with the leftover frosting... I wish I could convince myself it was just "cream cheese" and eat it with my toast!
Thank you so much for another awesome recipe. :)
These are amazing!! I've made them several times now! My husband and I are seriously obsessed!
Happy to hear you and your husband are enjoying the blondies, Chelsea! Thanks for taking time out of your day to come back and share your rating and feedback—means so much.
Addictively delicious! Subbed chopped figs for raisins. Mmmmm!