Well which one is it? A Carrot Cake or an Apple Bread?
It’s both of those things in one recipe for Carrot Apple Cake Bread!
Iced with cream cheese glaze, this recipe is going to change your life!
A slightly modified version of my original Carrot Cake recipe which already has shredded apples in the batter
Some added flour and an extra boost of baking powder for that bread rise we all love.
By taking out some of the oil and replacing it with applesauce I’ve also lightened up the fat calories. *read more below
It’s a one bowl mix so you don’t even have to break out your electric mixer!
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Notes for Success:
This recipe makes 2 smaller standard loaf pans (8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75 inches)
Unfortunately it just would have been too much to add all that batter for just one 8.5″ loaf pan, so I apologize in advance for the strange yield of this batter.
If you have a jumbo loaf pan then you would bake all the batter into 1 -10″ x 5″ pan
Makes 18 standard sized muffins
WATCH THE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE A TRADITIONAL CARROT CAKE
Carrot Apple Cake Bread
Ingredients
- Vegetable Oil 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
- Applesauce ½ cup (113g) *or more veg oil
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Light Brown Sugar ½ cup (105g)
- Plant Milk 2 Tablespoons (30ml)
- Hot Water 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Flax Meal 3 Tablespoons (24g)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoon (10ml)
- Fresh Ginger 1 teaspoon *optional
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Cinnamon 1¼ teaspoon
- All Purpose Flour 2 cups (250g)
- Baking Powder 1½ teaspoons
- Baking Soda 1 teaspoon
- Shredded Carrots approx 3 medium for 1½ cups
- Shredded Granny Smith Apple 1 medium for ¾ cup
- Lightly toasted walnuts ¾ cup *optional
for the icing
- Confectioner's Sugar ½ cup
- Vegan Cream Cheese ¼ cup
- Vegan Butter melted 2 teaspoons
- Vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
- Lemon juice fresh squeezed 2 teaspoons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F & Grease a standard sized loaf pan
- Combine the flax meal with the hot water and whisk smooth- reserve
- Shred the apple and carrots and reserve
- In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and whisk to combine evenly
- In another bowl combine the oil, applesauce, fresh ginger *optional, flax paste, vanilla extract, plant milk and both sugars. Whisk smooth then add to the dry ingredients in the bowl
- Whisk everything together by hand until evenly combined then add the shredded carrots & apples & walnuts
- Divide the batter into your loaf pans or whatever pans you are using. *see notes above in text for pan sizes.
- bake in preheated 375°F oven for 10 minutes then turn the temperature down to 350°F and continue to bake for another 30-35 minutes or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist NOT RAW crumbs.
- Cool in the pan(s) until you can safely touch it with your fingers them turn the bread(s) out onto a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Once it is thoroughly cooled, combine the confectioners sugar with the vegan cream cheese, vanilla extract, lemon juice & melted vegan butter and whisk smooth, pour over the bread.
Notes
Un-Iced Carrot apple cake bread can be kept at room temperature for 1-2 days wrapped loosely.
This is a very moist bread that can encourage fast molding, so it is best to keep this bread in the refrigerator for up to 1 week wrapped loosely.
Or freeze well for up to 2 months wrapped well
Chris H
I tried this with great hopes but it didn’t turn out as well as it smelled while baking. I think it needs more than a half cup of sugar. Also, even though the toothpick came out clean, it was like carrot bread pudding inside. I put it back in the oven for a total baking time of an hour. I wasn’t planning to frost it but I think I will. It seems very healthy though, with a good cinnamon carrot flavor. I didn’t put in fresh ginger, but added a little ground ginger.
Chris H
I just realized it probably took longer because I put the whole recipe in a large loaf pan.
Gretchen
Hi Chris! Thank you for commenting, I appreciate the feedback. I will bake this again (maybe tomorrow) since I can sometimes have bad math in the conversion of recipes from testing 2-3X then when I write the final I am sometimes crazed and glazed! LOL But I will definitely see what I come up with after a another review!
Chris H
Okay, Update here! I added a lemon glaze and stored it in the fridge overnight. It all came together in the fridge and now it’s amazing! Moist and spicy and firm. It just needed to chill.
This is also my first attempt a vegan baking, BTW.
Lynn Fishstein
Hi, I made this vegan cake bread and in the instructions it said to use both sugars. I only saw granulated sugar in the recipe. Is there some brown sugar in the recipe like your vegan carrot cake?
I have tried a lot of your recipes and they are all delicious. Thank you!
Lynn
Gretchen
Hey thankyou for catching that! I’m not sure how that got messed up! But this is a spinoff from my Tropical carrot Cake recipe which has both light brown & granulated sugars!
Danielle
Hi Gretchen! I am definitely making this recipe. I was wondering if I could make muffins out of this recipe instead of a bread…? Would I need to add something else? Thank you so much!