A delicious healthy recipe for carrot cake banana bread made with no refined sugar, plump raisins, and an easy and delish vegan cashew cream cheese frosting! Enjoy for breakfast or to bring to a holiday brunch!
If you love carrot cake or banana bread, well I’ve got the perfect match for you. Bet you didn’t ever really think to combine two of life’s greatest desserts into one? Well, I did.
Anytime I can get away with eating carrot cake for breakfast is a perfect day to me.
Carrot Cake Banana Bread
Something about the two of these combined just tastes like my childhood in a loaf. It’s almost like sweet, healthy banana bread made with ripe bananas and fresh carrot cake filled with plump raisins and walnuts just had a baby.
This recipe is a healthier twist on the traditional banana bread recipe and the traditional carrot cake recipe.
Carrot Cake Banana Bread Muffins
Yep! I said it, you can easily turn this carrot cake banana bread into muffins if you want! All you need to do is line a muffin tin with liners or spray it real good with nonstick spray, then pour batter into each cup until it’s 2/3 full.
You’ll want to bake for 17-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out nice and clean.
Ingredients in carrot cake banana bread
- Bananas and grated carrots, of course! Super ripe bananas and fresh grated carrots work best in this recipe.
- White whole wheat flour – you can swap this with all purpose, regular whole wheat flour, or gluten-free 1:1 flour but I prefer the fluffy texture of white whole wheat best.
- Coconut oil – more below on my tips for baking with coconut oil
- Honey – one of my favorite ways to sweeten a banana bread is with natural sugar. Bananas already have some sugar in them so you don’t need much!
- Eggs
- Spices like cinnamon and nutmeg
- Raisins
- Walnuts or pecans
Baking with coconut oil
If you haven’t realized by now, baking with coconut oil is my absolute favorite way to make anything sweet. It’s the only oil I use when baking, actually, because it can be fragrant and subtly sweet for baking. But it can also be completely flavorless!
Since most coconut oil solidifies at room temperature, you’ll want to measure it once it has been completely melted. I sometimes even buy liquid coconut oil so that it always stays liquid at room temperature and is easier to measure.
My biggest tip for working with coconut oil that isn’t always room temperature: bring all of your other ingredients to room temp. If you try to whisk eggs straight from the fridge with your coconut oil, it will solidify and clump up. I bring my eggs to room temp placing them in the oven for about 5 minutes while it starts to heat up.
This same thing is to be said with any other ingredient that you’re using straight from the fridge!
Unrefined vs. refined coconut oil
Unrefined coconut oil undergoes minimal processing, which causes there to still be a little bit of coconut flavor in the oil, whereas refined coconut oil does not have any flavor whatsoever because it has been high-heat processed, and ‘refined’ a little bit more.
Other banana bread recipes
- Healthy Banana Bread
- Peanut Butter Banana Bread
- Tahini Banana Bread
- Cinnamon roll banana bread
- Perfect Paleo Banana Bread
If you make this recipe, be sure to comment below and let me know how it was! Also tag @erinliveswhole on Instagram and use the hashtag #erinliveswhole so I can see it and feature you!
Carrot Cake Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 45
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
A delicious healthy recipe for carrot cake banana bread made with no refined sugar, plump raisins, and an easy and delish vegan cashew cream cheese frosting! Enjoy for breakfast or to bring to a holiday brunch!
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Banana Bread
- 2 medium overripe bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs, whisked
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1/2 cup raisins
Vegan Cashew Cream Cheese
- 1.5 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight or in hot water for at least 2 hours
- 1/2 cup filtered water
- 3 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and prepare bread pan with nonstick spray or parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together mashed bananas and eggs.
- Add in oil, honey, and vanilla. Stir till combined.
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg.
- Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until fully combined.
- Add in grated carrots, nuts, and raisins.
- Stir in any desired mix-ins.
- Pour into prepared bread pan and bake in oven for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- While baking, combine frosting ingredients (cashews, filtered water, maple syrup, vanilla, salt) in a high powered blender, like a Vitamix.
- Blend until completely smooth, scraping along the sides as needed. This could take a couple minutes.
- Place in refrigerator to thicken.
- When loaf is COMPLETELY cooled, ice the top of the bread.
- Enjoy!
- Category: dessert, breakfast
Keywords: banana bread, carrot cake, dessert, breakfast, whole wheat
There may be affiliate links in this post! By purchasing a product I recommend, I may receive a small compensation. However, I only recommend products I absolutely love and use myself. Thank you for supporting Erin Lives Whole, it helps keep this blog afloat 🙂
Traci says
Looks amazing! What kind of GF flour can I use instead of whole wheat if I’m gluten intolerant?
★★★★★
Erin says
Any 1:1 gluten free flour replacement should work just fine!
Sarah says
This cashew cream is life changing. It’s soo simple. Added a bit of cinnamon to it too! The carrot banana bread is so perfect! Made it with a packet of apple sauce and a little bit of avocado oil bc I was too lazy to melt and cool coconut oil. I also used half honey and half maple Syrup. And bc I was making this for Passover I used almond flour and a few table spoons of coconut flour. Seriously, even though I changed so much, this was the perfect base to do spin offs! Thanks Erin 🙂
★★★★★
Erin says
YOU ARE AMAZING!! I need to try it with almond flour and coconut flour – you obviously know what youre doing in the kitchen because that is the perfect gluten-free blend! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!
Tessa says
Can I use roasted instead of raw cashews in the frosting recipe?
Erin says
I would only use raw! Roasted are greasier and will be tanner in color.
Tina says
I would love to make this with almond flour, but not sure on the ratio. I also have coconut flour. Thanks , looks delish.
Erin says
I would try two cups of almond flour!
Jenna says
The recipe turned out delicious!
I had never tried cashew frosting before, and it pairs perfectly with the bread. Thanks for a quick and tasty bread recipe!
★★★★★
Erin says
YAY! I’m so happy that you like it!!! Thanks for sharing
Kasie Kolosik says
How much cashew cream cheese frosting does this make? I’m wondering if it’s enough to frost your GF Healthy Carrot Cake recipe (between layers and on top, not necessarily sides) or if I’d need to double it for that. And am I able to leave the frosted cake at room temperature for a party? Thank you!
Erin says
Yes! Will be enough for top and middle. I would double if you want full sides.
It will keep okay at room temperature for about 5-6 hours.