Carrot Cake Banana Bread

If only carrot cake were always in season. I’d be so happy posting carrot cake-themed recipes all year round. But since possibly no one else besides me wants to eat carrot cake in December, I try to pack as much carrot cake as I can into the few weeks between St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.

Because I’ve already posted carrot cake cupcakes, carrot cake oatmeal, and actual carrot cake recipes on the blog, this year I decided to turn the flavor into banana bread, which is one of my other favorite recipes. I knew the carrot cake banana bread was going to be good before even trying it; there was no possible way it couldn’t be good – it was carrot cake AND banana bread!

Side note: If you want to go the more traditional route, here are the recipes I mentioned for the cupcakes and cake:

For decoration, I sprinkled crushed walnuts and shredded carrot over the top.

While the carrot bread is completely delicious on its own, if you’re like me and think one of the best things about carrot cake is the frosting, feel free to use any of my Healthy Frosting Recipes – the link includes recipes for both cream cheese frosting and greek yogurt frosting.

I also really love frosting this banana bread with about 1/2 cup of softened coconut butter, as shown in the photos.

Ingredients

2 cups white, spelt, or oat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
optional 1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cup mashed, overripe banana
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
1/2 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
1/4 cup milk of choice
1/4 cup oil OR additional milk of choice
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
optional, crushed walnuts, coconut, etc.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9×5 pan, or line with parchment. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. If desired, you can add 1/2 cup crushed walnuts and/or a handful of shredded coconut. Whisk liquid ingredients—including carrot and banana—in separate bowl. Pour wet into dry, and stir to form a batter. Smooth into prepared pan. Bake on the center rack 37 minutes, then do not open the oven door at all but turn off the heat and let sit in the closed oven 10 additional minutes. If still undercooked at this time, simply turn the oven back on and continue baking—checking every 5 minutes–until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Taste and texture are much better the second day (and even better the third day as it gets sweeter). Leftovers can be sliced and frozen for up to a month. If you want to frost the bread, I included a few links to some frosting recipes above in the post, or you can use about 1/2 cup softened coconut butter—sweetened if desired.