Costco Vs Publix: Which Has The Better Carrot Bar Cake?

Like any other confection, making a layered carrot cake is an investment in ingredients as well as time. You may need to grate up several cups worth of carrots to get the proper amount needed for a particular cake. To save you time, Publix and Costco both offer a carrot bar cake that will be just as well received as a homemade version at your next springtime gathering.

As a newer member of Costco, I was delighted to see that the grocery store offered carrot cake since one of my other favorite grocery stores, Publix, also offers a carrot cake I quite enjoy. Knowing how much I've enjoyed the Publix carrot cake in the past, I was curious how the Costco version might stack up. As one of my family's favorite desserts, Costco faced some pretty stiff competition. Ultimately, I tasted both to determine which carrot cake you should buy the next time you're in need. My verdict was ultimately based on the comparison of carrot cake flavors, textures, and presentation.

Publix is a very popular grocery store in the South, especially Florida, where (at the time of writing) it had 877 locations. The state with the next closest number of locations was Georgia, with 218 stores. Considering that Winter Haven, Florida, was the town where Publix was founded, it's easy to imagine that Florida would have an exorbitant number of locations. As a Florida resident myself, I have access to two locations less than eight minutes from my home, and I like to imagine that more spots are on the way.

Publix has gained a fair amount of notoriety thanks to the Pub sub, a sub sandwich made by the deli at Publix. Around lunchtime at most Publix locations, construction, maintenance, and other work trucks descend upon Publix for lunch time. While I enjoy a pub sub, it's not my favorite part of the store. Rather, the Publix bakery is quite the shining star in its own right. Stocked with birthday cakes, tarts, cookies, and breads, the bar cakes are where the magic is at. Having sampled many of these, I can say that the best among them is the carrot cake. It even has a carrot decoration piped over the top, making it a fantastic contribution to dessert to bring to a party.

There's much to love about Costco. Between the deli and those famous Costco hot dogs, an abundance of grocery deals, learning which parts of the store best suit you and your family is all part of the process. Perhaps you and your crew are nearly fully decked out in Kirkland clothing, or maybe half your weekly menu is made of Kirkland meal kits. Then again, maybe your family has a ginormous sweet tooth, like mine. For Costco shoppers like us, there's perhaps no better part of the store than the Costco bakery.

We fell in love with these items quickly. First, it was the Costco muffins that certainly lived up to the hype. Next, the chicken pot pie became a favorite around my house. Before long, my family snuffed out the limited-time treats, like a tuxedo cake decorated for St. Patrick's Day. I have also had some pretty outstanding cheesecakes from Costco. If you come across Costco's new cheesecake inspired by one of Italy's most popular desserts (the tiramisu cheesecake), you simply must try it. Now, with the spring weather nearly in full swing, I've turned my attention to the carrot cake. It's one of many bar-style cakes among Costco bakery items.

The very first thing you notice about the two cakes is that Costco's is much bigger, and the serving size is several grams more, too. Publix's carrot cake is 90 grams, and Costco's is 97 grams. Even with a bigger serving size, there are 12 servings in the Costco bar cake, while Publix's has six servings.

Nutritionally, the Publix carrot cake bar is heavier at 400 calories per serving, while the Costco version is 30 calories less at 370 calories. Publix's cake also has more fat at 24 grams compared to Costco's 21 grams, and 41 grams of carbohydrates for Publix with 40 grams of carbohydrates for Costco. Interestingly, there's less sugar in Publix's cake at 19 grams of sugar, compared to 28 grams in Costco's cake.

Both cakes are made of traditional ingredients you'd find in carrot cake, like carrots, raisins, and walnuts, among other cake ingredients like flour, eggs, milk, and the like. Notably, the Costco cake had sweetened pineapple and a very long list of additive ingredients. Publix's cake also had several food colors, like yellow 6, yellow 5, or blue 1.

During the spring, you'll see carrot cake cropping up everywhere, and Costco and Publix bakeries are no different. Admittedly, the craving for carrot cake seems to hop out around the same time that a certain egg-toting bunny makes his appearance, so the timing works well. While Costco has had many of these cakes in stock, when I visited Publix to pick up the cake for this tasting, I grabbed the last one. Not only that, but it was hidden in the back of the case, behind other bar cakes.

Half the size, the Publix cake is also less than half the price. At my store, it cost $7.99. At Costco, a cake over twice the size was over twice the price, $18.99. Comparatively, the Costco cake clocks in at 1,164 grams and the Publix one is 540 grams. With the base price of $7.99 for the smaller cake, at that rate, even the larger cake should come in at $17.22 based on Publix's pricing convention, roughly $1.77 less than the actual cost of Costco's cake.

The Costco carrot bar cake was very long, with three layers. It sat atop a gold cardboard piece that made it look festive, perfect for a gathering, and looked like it came from something closer to a traditional baker rather than a grocery store bakery. The biggest thing I noticed about Costco's cake is that it was absolutely full of shredded carrots, and rather large pieces, at that. The cake was also full of plump raisins and crunchy walnuts.

The top had a sprinkling of walnuts across the center of the cake, as a nice accent and slight texture addition. The frosting on top and between layers was tart and thick without being too dense. Instead, it had something of a light feel to it. The flavor tasted homemade and balanced out tart and sweet in one bite. More than anything, the cake offered a perfect bite with interesting textures and moisture permeating the entire cake.

The only potential concern about this cake is that the container was so large, fitting the whole thing in your fridge for leftovers may be difficult. After all, there was just so much cake here, you'll likely be eating off of it for dessert over the course of about a week. For this reason, pay close attention to the sell by dates when purchasing and choose one as far out as possible so you have enough time to make it through the whole cake with your family.

Publix's carrot cake looked quite a bit different from the Costco one. Rather than having a simple decoration on top, each Publix carrot bar cake had a piped carrot on top with bright orange and green frosting. From most of the cakes I have picked up from Publix, this carrot tends to get a little squished against the plastic container, and this one was no different, especially since it was the last one available.

Rather than being three layers, the Publix carrot cake was just two layers of carrot cake. Comparatively, it was half the size of the Costco carrot cake, so it didn't look quite as impressive or even fancy as the Costco one did. It looked very much like it came from a grocery store bakery.

For flavor, the Publix carrot cake tasted very sweet. Some of that sweetness overshadowed other flavors going on in the carrot cake. I didn't get as much tartness in this version of carrot cake as I did in Costco's version. I also found that it was a little more dry than the moist carrot cake from Costco.

All of that said, this carrot cake still had visible pieces of carrot, raisins, and walnuts. Though there were significantly fewer pieces of carrot visible in Publix's cake, and I noticed it had fewer raisins, even if there were more walnuts. The texture element was still pretty strong here.

Tasting the two carrot cakes side-by-side, the clear winner came from Costco. Not only did that cake look like it came from an upscale bakery, but it tasted like it too. There was also quite a bit more cake on this option, so for a gathering you might need it for, it'll definitely serve you better. I found that I preferred the balance of textures and flavors more with the Costco cake than I did with the Publix version. Simply put: For a balanced cake that tastes in every way like a carrot cake should taste, with no single aspect overwhelming the cake, pick up one of these carrot bar cakes from Costco.

If you don't have a Costco membership and need to settle for the Publix one, I'll admit that it would be hard to turn down a piece of the cake if it was all that was available. Even so, tasted beside the Costco option, it's clear that there's a winner between the two cakes.

To determine whether the Publix or Costco carrot bar cake is a better purchase, I picked up one of each cake from their respective stores. I purchased each cake the same day so that I could taste them together. Then, I cut a piece of each cake and sampled them one right after another. I made my decision based on the comparison of the flavor of each cake, its texture, and the presentation.

The winning cake should have a balance of flavors without one single part overwhelming the rest. For its texture, I wanted a cake that had an interesting bite, not feeling overly moist or dry, while also offering variance from the ingredients like raisins and walnuts. For the presentation, I looked for a cake that was pleasing to look at, as though it came from a high-quality bakery.