A fun recipe to keep the kids busy in the kitchen

Hello Polar Vortex! With the chilling arctic weather keeping my children home from school for an extra two days of winter vacation, we had more time to bake! Along with our usual baking routine of muffins and cookies, I added Carrot Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting to the list. Both kids arranged the ingredients, measured, stirred, cracked eggs, made messes and slathered on the frosting.

It kept them busy for about an hour!

Carrot Cake Bars

Ingredients

Serves 30

  • Nonstick cooking spray
  • 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • 3 eggs and 1 egg white
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • ½ cup canola oil
  • 3 cups carrot- shredded
  • ½ cup walnuts- chopped (optional)
  • 1/3 cup raisins

Frosting

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, applesauce, canola oil, brown and white sugars and carrots. Slowly mix in flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, walnuts and raisins.

Transfer batter into baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a fork poked into the center comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

In a mixing bowl, beat together powdered sugar and cream cheese until smooth.

Spread frosting over cake and slice into bars.

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