Carrot & Zucchini Bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I decided to do this post after this recipe I found recently on one of my favorite food websites, Real Mom Kitchen.  She has so many awesome recipes that I knew this would be no exception.  I instantly Pinned it on Pinterest, and it went viral.   Two weeks later and over 5,000 ‘re-pins’, I am sure there are tons of people who have already tried this.

My bars turned out a little more dense that I would have expected, but they were still delicious.  My whole family loved them, and since they were so easy to make, I will probably make them again soon.  Next time I will try mixing less and also getting more water out of the shredded zucchini….which I think could have been the culprit behind making these extra dense.  It could have also been the fact that my baking soda has been in my fridge for like a year…who knows!  I will post the recipe below, but you can also find it here.

Ingredients:

Carrot and Zucchini Bars with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 (8 oz) pkg reduced fat cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, oil, honey, and vanilla.  Don’t worry about clumps of the brown sugar, those will dissolve as it sits while you prepare the remaining ingredients.  Then fold in the carrot, zucchini
2. In another bowl combine add the flour, baking powder, ginger, and baking soda.  Whisk to blend together.
3. Add to flour mixture to the wet mixture. Stir just until combined. Spread batter into an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
4. Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
5. Once the cake is cooled prepare the frosting.   In a medium mixing bowl, beat the fosting ingredients with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.  Spread or pipe the frosting over the cooled bars.  Makes 36 bars.

Recipe adapted from Real Mom Kitchen who adapted from Better Homes and Garden