Carrot Bread (Carrot Cake Loaf)

Name: Carrot Bread (Carrot Cake Loaf)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 2 cup flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 egg; 1 cup milk; 1/3 cup vegetable oil; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 1 cup carrots (grated); 4 oz cream cheese (softened); 1/4 cup butter (softened); 1 teaspoon vanilla; 1 cup powdered sugar

55 minutes

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By: Julie Blanner18 Comments
Updated: 4/7/21

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Carrot Bread is the best carrot cake, in bread form. Carrot Cake Bread is easy to slice, serve and most importantly, enjoy! This Carrot Cake Loaf is covered in a delicious cream cheese glaze for the perfect cake to frosting ratio!

The other day, a friend of mine mentioned that she loves all of my bread recipes and suggested I make a Carrot Cake Bread.

I personally don’t eat a lot of carrot cake {shocking, isn’t it?} but love eating cream cheese icing by the spoonful, so I enlisted Chris’ help on taste testing to perfect my Carrot Cake Loaf recipe. I’ve made carrot cake muffins and carrot cake cookies, so why not carrot cake bread?

Carrot Bread is like carrot cake in loaf form, which makes it perfectly acceptable to enjoy at breakfast. For some reason, it seems to be a spring favorite, but I think it should be enjoyed year round!

A carrot loaf is easier to slice and store. In fact, you can even freeze it because you know you’ll want to save some for later!

You can make one large loaf pan (1 lb) or if you prefer, 6 miniature loaf pans. Just reduce baking time. I love miniature loaf pans for easy gifting.

Table of Contents

The Best Carrot Bread

I combined all your favorite carrot cake recipe flavors and integrated it into my famous sweet bread. After a few tests, it has been perfected, and I am so excited for you to try it! Even I can’t keep my hands off of it.

Carrot Bread has the most amazing cake to cream cheese frosting ratio. It can be enjoyed for breakfast, snack or dessert! It’s a sweet treat any time, for any occasion!

What’s in a Carrot Loaf?

It’s made with fresh grated carrots which makes the carrot bread so incredibly moist! It’s also made with classic sweet bread ingredients including sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla with a hint of cinnamon.

The Cream Cheese Glaze is made with cream cheese, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar (also known as confectioner’s sugar).

What’s really amazing about this carrot bread (other than the incredibly amazing taste) is that it just takes 10 minutes hands on time to make! This no yeast bread recipe rises perfect, every time!

In my opinion, the most important element in Carrot Cake Bread is the cream cheese frosting. It not only adds a lot of flavor, but it is incredibly beautiful as well! It solidifies, but doesn’t harden, offering beautiful slices (and perfect for Easter entertaining.)

I mean, look at that glaze!

Questions About this Carrot Loaf Recipe

I hope you enjoy the best carrot cake recipe, in bread form! If you try it, please take a moment to comment and rate it using my 5 star system. Here’s what readers are asking about this recipe!

Nan says: “Do you buy the grated carrots? Bread sounds delicious.I like making smaller loaves of bread to give to shut ins. This is perfect. One large loaf recipe usually fills 3 smaller throw away pans and ALL freeze well. Thanks!”

- She makes a great point- this carrot bread works beautifully spread across smaller pans, and it freezes well too! To freeze Carrot Bread, cover in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag. This will prevent any freezer odors from seeping in along with freezer burn.
- I fresh grate my carrots using a cheese grater. This ensures maximizes moisture in the carrot cake loaf.

Tips to Make the Best Carrot Cake Loaf

Don’t over-mix!
You can add more or less grated carrot depending on your texture preferences. You can also grate it into smaller or larger pieces!
While I kept this recipe simple, you can certainly add your own spin! Some people love the additions of walnuts or raisins to their carrot bread texture.

How to Make Carrot Cake Bread

Prep – Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 1 lb loaf pan or miniature loaf pans and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients – sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Combine wet ingredients – In a mixing bowl or mixer, beat egg, milk and oil.
Gradually add dry mixture to wet until just moist. Add grated carrots.
Bake – Pour into prepared pan and bake 50 minutes or until golden brown and set.
Ice – Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Warm 15 seconds in a microwave until smooth and pourable to make cream cheese frosting. Pour over bread (this is the quickest, easiest, prettiest way!)

You can allow it to cool completely on a wire rack which will set the icing or you can serve it warm. The choice is yours!

Easter Recipes You’ll Love

Serve this Carrot Cake Loaf 12 months out of the year, but if you’re looking for more easy Easter recipes, you’ll love these! You can find a comprehensive list of all my Easter Recipes here – there are over 125 memorable recipes to choose from!