Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze
I’m so excited to share this Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze because it’s super easy to make and absolutely delicious. Plus, it’ll make your whole kitchen smell heavenly while it’s baking, and who doesn’t want that? This carrot bread is perfect to serve for breakfast, a snack, or for dessert. It also makes a great gift to a friend or neighbor and I think it would be a hit at a potluck as well. Basically, no matter what the mealtime or occasion, you should probably make this bread! It’s moist, fluffy and although it uses less sugar than many of the similar recipes out there, I think you’ll find it’s just sweet enough. Plus, the cream cheese glaze drizzled over the top is the perfect sweet addition that makes this Carrot Cake Bread decadent enough for dessert!
You’d never guess this Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze is lightened up by the taste, but each slice is just 127 calories or 5 WW Points on the current Weight Watchers program! I also love that I almost always have all the ingredients to make this recipe on hand in my kitchen. The prep time is minimal, so whenever I get the urge to make carrot bread I can just shred a couple carrots, stir the ingredients together, pour them into a loaf pan, and bake! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Bread or Cake?
I went back and forth between whether to refer to this as a carrot bread or a carrot cake. I used a similar recipe to what I’d use for other quick breads like zucchini bread, banana bread, or my blueberry bread, and I made it in a loaf pan, so my first reaction was to call it a bread. However, I did add a cream cheese glaze and I think it’s sweet enough to eat for dessert, so I decided to just use both and call it Carrot Cake Bread. You can of course refer to it whichever way makes you happy!
Recipe Notes
- To Glaze or Not to Glaze: In my opinion it’s definitely worth the extra 12 calories or 1 WW Point per slice to add the cream cheese glaze – it puts this recipe over the top! However, the carrot bread is still delicious without it, so if you don’t have any cream cheese or you’re looking to save a WW Point or a few more calories to can choose to skip it. A slice without glaze is 115 calories or 4 WW Points.
- Alternative Sweeteners: I haven’t personally tried making this using a zero-calorie sweetener in place of sugar, but I feel confident that it would work out just fine. Just make sure the sweetener you’re using has a 1:1 substitution ratio with sugar so that the sweetness level isn’t off.
- Add-Ins: I think walnuts or pecans would be great in this if you’d like to add nuts! Raisins would also be a tasty addition. Keep in mind that either of these add-ins will of course affect the nutrition information/WW points listed if you’re tracking either.
Storage Tips:
You’ll want to store any leftovers of your Carrot Cake Bread in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese glaze. I like to slice up my loaf and then put it in an airtight container in the fridge. If you decide to skip the glaze, you can store the bread by placing it on a paper towel in an airtight container and leaving it on the counter for 4-5 days.
To Freeze:
I love how easily this Carrot Cake Bread comes together, and it’s great to bake once and eat for a few days straight! You can also freeze it by just wrapping the loaf or individual slices in plastic wrap once they’re completely cool and putting them in a freezer bag. You can either defrost them to room temp or heat them up in the microwave before eating.
Want more easy, tasty, lightened up baked goods?
Looking for more tasty varieties of lightened up muffin and quick bread recipes? Check out my Blueberry Bread, Banana Zucchini Muffins, Pineapple Upside Down Baked Oatmeal Singles, Morning Glory Muffins, Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins, Carrot Muffins, Banana Bread, Chocolate Raspberry Muffins, Apple Cinnamon Muffins, Banana Blueberry Muffins, Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins, and more in the Muffins section of my recipe index!
Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
For the Bread:
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons light butter, melted (I use Land O’Lakes light butter spread with canola oil in the tub)
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups shredded carrots
For the Glaze:
- 1 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon skim milk
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mist a 9” x 5” loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the egg, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla extract and stir together until well combined. Add the melted butter and stir together.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and whisk until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir together until just combined into a batter. Stir the shredded carrots into the batter until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Transfer the bread in the loaf pan to a wire cooling rack and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, invert the pan to release the bread onto the cooling rack and then flip it over so that it’s right side up. Allow the bread to rest directly on the rack until cool.
- To make the glaze, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a small mixing bowl and beat together with a hand mixer. Add the ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract and the tablespoon of milk and continue to beat together until smooth.
- Once the bread is cool, drizzle the glaze over the top of the loaf and then slice the loaf into 12 (3/4” thick) slices.
Notes
127 calories, 22 g carbs, 9 g sugars, 3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 2 g protein, 1 g fiber, 205 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
3 per (1 slice) serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Looks delicious, definitely going to make it. What can I use instead of the light butter. In Canada we don’t have light butter.
Love all your recipes. Thank you so much for sharing!
I would probably just use regular butter. You can probably sub in a little more applesauce for some of the butter if you want to lighten it up while using the higher fat butter. I hope you like it!
I made 12 muffins instead of a loaf. Mine baked in 15 minutes but my oven runs hot. These are very tasty. Don’t skip the glaze. It just adds that extra something.
So glad you liked them!
yay for this comment, I came looking for muffin info specifically, thanks!
How long does it take you to bake them?
If you mean the muffins, I baked them for 15 minutes but my oven runs hot so check with a toothpick.
This was very moist but bland – and that’s after I subbed light brown sugar for the white. Next time, I think I’ll use dark brown sugar, up the cinnamon to 1 1/2 tsp, and add some nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Worth tinkering with, though!
I’m sorry to hear you thought this was bland! I obviously feel differently (I love it), but thanks for leaving your thoughts about additional spicing!
Carrot cake is so yummy. It’s so soft and tasty.
I really was excited to try this . I’m sorry that it just didn’t work for me. I doubled the cinnamon and vanilla. I also added nutmeg and allspice. It just lacked a lot of flavor, even with that. I don’t know why.
Having said that, I ❤️ Your recipes 99% of the time, and use your recipes a lot.
I made the cake and I made the glaze it was delicious. I really recommend to make it and taste you won’t want to stop.
Definitely I give Emily 5 Stars and more.
I am making this for 2nd time.this time a double tevipe so both my husband and i can have our own loaf. It is that good. I use monk sugar.