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!

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4.34 from 6 votes

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Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 45 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr

Calories: 127kcal

This lighter Carrot Cake Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze is easy to make and delicious for breakfast, dessert, or a snack!

Yield: 12 slices

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

WW Points per slice: 5 (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)

To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!

Nutrition Information per (1 slice) serving:
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)

Author: Emily Bites

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Carrot Loaf, Lighter, Quick Bread, Weight Watchers, WW Baking