These carrot cake bars are easy to make and unbelievably delicious. They're moist, perfectly spiced, and topped with an incredibly fluffy cream cheese frosting.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray or butter a 9x9 inch baking dish.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the apple sauce, oil, eggs, sugars, and vanilla.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and nutmeg. Add this to the large bowl then mix until just combined. Fold in the carrots and any optional ingredients then pour the batter into the baking dish.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and let the bars cool completely in the pan.
When the bars are completely cool, make the icing. Add the softened cream cheese and butter to a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and mix to combine. Add the powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar for a thicker frosting or more cream for a thinner frosting.
Spread the frosting over the carrot cake then cut them into bars.