With the remains of Costco’s giant apple berry pie still sitting in my refrigerator, I found myself called, once again, to the store’s bakery this week. A new seasonal bar cake had landed in the bakery’s refrigerator section, and I wasn’t going to miss my chance to try it. 

Costco introduced the carrot bar cake sometime over the past two-ish weeks, and with Easter season officially upon us, I knew they were going to sell like, well… hot cakes. 

Weighing in at 2 pounds and 9 ounces, Costco’s carrot bar cake is big but not too big. It features three layers of deliciously moist carrot cake studded with plump raisins and walnut pieces, tangy cream cheese frosting, and a sprinkle of toasted walnuts on the top. It’s both attractive and big enough to feed a crowd—two things that make the $18.99 price tag go down smoother. 

Digging into it, I was pleasantly surprised by how soft it was. It’s a tall cake, so a thin slice does the trick. In my opinion, it checks every box a carrot cake should: moist, tangy, not too sweet, and light on the nuts and raisins. Plus, it has the ideal frosting-to-cake ratio. 

So, you can imagine my shock when I saw what the good people of Reddit were saying about it. While most found the cake delicious, many were horrified by the addition of an ingredient I didn’t think twice about: raisins.

“Carrot Bar Cake $18.99 good, but has raisins,” the headline on one post reads. What follows is what can only be described as a raisin war.

“Love carrot cake and love raisins….. can’t do both together unfortunately,” one user commented. “A carrot cake SHOULD have raisins,” another chimed in. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever had carrot cake with raisins. I must be a lucky person,” an anti-raisin commenter wrote. “Original and more authentic recipes all have raisins,” another argued. 

A quick poll of my colleagues revealed that nearly all of them fell firmly in the raisins-don’t-belong-in-carrot-cake camp. After a quick Google search to confirm, it was clear to me that I had accidentally stumbled upon a true confectionary controversy. 

While I love the pop of sweetness raisins give to carrot cake, apparently not everyone feels that way. But you know who does? The great minds at Costco.

If, like me, you’re not offended by raisins in your carrot cake, Costco’s carrot bar cake is available now in the bakery’s refrigerator section. I highly recommend grabbing one while you can.