I love a good slice of carrot loaf, especially with cream cheese icing and walnuts, yum! I enjoy challenging myself to create my favorite baked goods into Weight Watcher® friendly treats and this carrot loaf is so good! It is a dense loaf, remember when baking with applesauce, yogurt and even mashed banana you are not going to have a fluffy loaf or muffin that you would when using butter and oils, it did take me a little time to get used to the texture of baked goods when changing up the ingredients and I know it might not be for everyone, but I’ve come to love it and I’m able to keep my recipes very point friendly. You can make this loaf with or without the icing, but for only 4 smart points I say go for it and include the icing and the walnuts.. only 3 SP if you leave the nuts off.
Carrot loaf with cream cheese icing
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/3 cup non fat plain greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup apple sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1.5 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cup shredded carrots
- FOR THE ICING
- 1/4 cup softened light cream cheese
- 1/4 cup icing sugar confectionary sugar, white powdered sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp light butter soft
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- Top loaf with 1/4 cup chopped walnuts *optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F, spray a regular sized loaf pan.
- In a bowl whisk together your eggs and brown sugar
- Stir in yogurt, applesauce and vanilla
- Mix in your flour, baking powder, soda and spices.
- Fold in carrots, I used a food processor for carrots
- Pour batter into loaf pan and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, until baked all through.
- Let cool before removing from pan.
- To make icing mix your cream cheese, icing sugar, butter and vanilla together until creamy, you can do this while loaf is baking and then store in fridge till ready to ice loaf. Spread icing on then sprinkle with walnuts, makes 10 slices.
- *Icing and walnuts are optional, loaf with no icing or nuts is 2SP per serving, just icing is 3SP and icing and nuts is 4SP, also note this is a dense carrot loaf due to ingredients used, it might sink slightly once it has cooled down.
- Store in fridge, loaf will freeze well.
Notes
Smart Points- (green) 5 using WW recipe builder
Points plus- 3 using PP calculator
Nutritional info (incl carrots & applesauce) Calories... 140...Fat 3.1g...Sat fat 1.4g...Carbs 22.9g..Fiber 0.7g...Sugar 7.3g...Protein 4.2g using My Fitness Pal *Old SP & PP determined before adding carrots & applesauce, so if using these numbers in a calculator you may get a different point value
25 Comments
This looks great! What a nice treat. Thanks for options on icing and/or nuts, and for the tip on freezing. I’ll make this soon and share my thoughts!
Hope you enjoy it Mary Beth 🙂
I made this as muffins! Carrot cake with cream cheese icing is one of my favourite things in the world and this recipe totally hit the spot. I made it into 10 muffins….iced it with the icing and then froze them for when the craving strikes. Baked them for about 24 minutes. Perfection! Thanks so much!
Hi Amy, thanks for the tip 🙂 so glad you enjoyed them!
4 sp for how big a piece?
Well it says the loaf cuts into 10 servings 🙂
Well I’ve made the Egg Cups last night. Had two for breakfast… AMAZING!
I just finished making the Carrot Cake, which my favourite cake. My home smells delicious!! Thanks for doing up these recipes. I really miss my desserts.
You are very welcome, So glad you enjoyed 🙂
I made the carrot cake loaf and the loaf itself had no flavor at all, I was so disappointed. The only tasty part was the frosting. I’m going to try it one more time and add stevia to the batter. I used unsweetened applesauce, was I supposed to use regular applesauce? This is your first recipe that I wasn’t happy with so I definitely want to give it another try.
Hi Maggie, I’m sorry you did not enjoy it 🙁 no I always use unsweetened applesauce, It is not a sweet load and that only comes from the icing, maybe you can play around with it to get it to suit you better 🙂
I’ve started using erythritol (confectioners style, not the granular, as it’s not great at dissolving and can be gritty). It’s ‘0’ points and it doesn’t take much. 🙂
Excellent recipe. Love the fact that I can make this and enjoy it for 4 points!! I had the idea to add chopped pineapple and then completely forgot bc I was so focused on following the recipe. I think it would have made it even better!
Haha, that sounds like something I would do 😉 so glad you enjoyed it and let me know if you try the pineapple 🙂
oh man, I was so sad after eating a piece. I have to agree with Maggie..the bread didn’t have any flavor in my opinion. The frosting was very good though! I had even added an extra 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a 1/4 tsp salt to the batter too. I think I’ll add extra 1/2 tsp nutmeg and and 2 tsp cinnamon total to the batter next time
🙁 I’m sorry you didn’t like it, I think increasing the spices would help for sure
This loaf is amazing! Didn’t know how it would taste without the oil and the sugar,but you hit a home run with one! Yum! It made a big loaf too so 10 pieces were a good size.
Hi Nancy, so glad you enjoyed the carrot loaf 🙂
Could I make this as a cake instead do you think?
I don’t think it will rise like you would want a cake too
Hello, I cannot have dairy , I was wondering do u think it would taste okay if I didn’t use the yogurt? I could replace it with coconut or along yogurt but there are no fat versions that I have found yet. Thank you
Hi Maureen, you’d need to replace it with something to make up for the loss, what about apple sauce?
Will have to try this recipe. Your carrot cake donuts were a hit with my WW group.
Thanks for all your yummy recipes.
Yay, so glad they all enjoyed them 🙂
Thank you for sharing, excellent healthy cake recipe. I made into ten muffins (but 12 would be fine too) using homemade apple butter instead of applesauce and some cream cheese frosting I already had. They were tasty. (Note that my teen commented that he could tell it was a low-sugar recipe but was quickly pacified with 1/2 teaspoon more frosting. My sugar-hound spouse was happy, as was I.)
Hi Marla, thanks for sharing, so glad everyone enjoyed the muffins, great idea making them into muffins 🙂