Every year for my very lovely friend’s birthday on March 12, I bake a carrot cake. Last year, as with tradition, I did so and got (jokingly) yelled at for baking an entire cake for one person. While I implored him to just freeze part of it, he opted to have a rather festive birthday night – as birthdays often can do – and proceeded to eat half of it in one sitting, making himself sick.

So, rather than repeat this incident, I thought I’d make carrot cake bars this year, which I must say were far simpler than baking a cake. Probably much easier to free too, if you don’t eat them all in one sitting.

Dense, goey cake covered in cream cheese frosting, finished off with chopped pecans.

Happy Birthday, friend!

Carrot Cake Bars

• 8 oz. unsalted butter, melted
• 1.5 c. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk at room temperature
• 1 c. carrots, grated
• 1.5 c. plust 2 T. flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans
• 1 tub cream cheese frosting (save yourself some time here)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line a 9″x12″ baking dish with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray.
3. Combine butter, brown sugar, vanilla until smooth.
4. Add in egg, egg yolk, and carrots.
5. Add in flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt until just combined.
6. Stir in chopped pecans.
7. Pour batter into pan and bake about 32 minutes.
8. Cool bars completely and ice with cream cheese frosting.
9. Top with more pecans if desired.