Café-Style Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Cake Bars

These café-style carrot cake bars bring bakery-case indulgence to your kitchen without any gluten, dairy, or eggs. Finely grated carrots, warm cinnamon and ginger, crunchy walnuts, and sweet golden raisins come together in a tender almond flour base that's naturally gluten-free and incredibly moist. Ground flaxseed stands in for eggs, binding everything together while keeping the bars soft and rich. The crowning touch is a luscious whipped coconut-cashew frosting, soaked and blended cashews combined with coconut cream for a tangy, creamy finish that mimics classic cream cheese frosting without any dairy. A splash of lemon juice adds brightness that balances the warm spices and natural sweetness of the carrots and raisins. Perfect for a leisurely weekend breakfast, meal-prepped brunch, or an afternoon treat with coffee, these bars store beautifully in the fridge and taste even better the next day as the flavors meld. They're a wholesome, plant-based way to satisfy a carrot cake craving while sneaking in some extra veggies first thing in the morning.

Ingredients

• 1 cupraw cashews, soaked in hot water for 1 hour, drained
• 2 tbspground flaxseed
• 5 tbspwater, divided
• 2.5 cupsalmond flour
• 1 tspbaking soda
• 2 tspground cinnamon
• 0.5 tspground ginger
• 0.5 tspFine sea salt
• 0.75 cupCoconut sugar
• 0.5 cupMelted coconut oil
• 3 tbspmaple syrup, divided
• 1.5 tspvanilla extract, divided
• 1.5 cupsFinely grated carrots, packed
• 0.5 cupChopped walnuts
• 0.5 cupgolden raisins
• 0.5 cupCoconut cream, chilled, solid part from a can of full-fat coconut milk
• 1 tbsplemon juice, fresh

Method

No instructions listed.