Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
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Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting taste just as amazing as your favorite Carrot Cake, but in an easier handheld version! These are better for kids and group gatherings where no one wants to sit down with a slice of cake (like an Easter Egg Hunt!). You’ll love them—I know it!
Spring means more sunny days just around the corner, gorgeous delicate blossoms blooming all around us and carrot cake of course! It’s definitely my highlight of spring because every year around Easter I always make this Carrot Cake or these cupcakes it at least once (oh and now I’ve got this Carrot Cake Cheesecake to add to that, two of the worlds best kind of cakes in one). Carrot cake is definitely one of my favorites. I love all the sweet spices and how incredibly moist the cake is from the carrots, and of course I can’t get enough of the cream cheese frosting.
Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
I might be slightly obsessed because I did already post a carrot cake cookie last year, but they were made with oats and nuts mixed into the batter and they were made into sandwich cookies. So, I wanted to switch things up a bit this time around and make them more similar to the texture of carrot cake without any oats (don’t get me wrong those cookies are delicious too, I just mostly wanted an excuse to make something carrot cake again :).
Everyone in my family loved these cookies, kids included. Now they are an Easter dessert must have in our house! Carrot cake may get a bad wrap by some because it’s made with a veggie, but with a fair amount of sugar does it even matter? Yes, it’s like turning a healthy, nutritious thing into candy but don’t we all need that every once in a while? I definitely think so! Especially when the end result are these delicious, cake-like Carrot Cake Cookies!
Follow Easy Cooking Zone
Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (213g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup (106g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (55g) packed light-brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (118g) finely grated carrots
- Chopped pecans or cinnamon , for decoration (optional)
Frosting
- 5 oz cream cheese , softened (don't over-soften it)
- 6 Tbsp (3 oz) butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups (220g) powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg for 20 seconds, set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy. Blend in egg and vanilla extract. With mixer set on low speed, add half of the flour mixture and mix just until combined, then mix in carrots, then mix in remaining 1/2 of the flour mixture just until combined. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is properly incorporated.
- Scoop dough out with a medium 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop and drop onto baking sheets lined with silicone liners, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven until set (they should still be soft to the touch though), about 11 - 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. After 5 - 10 minutes of cooling on rack finish cooling completely in an airtight container so they don't dry. Once cool, frost with cream cheese frosting and top with pecans if desired.
- For the frosting:
- In a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and powdered sugar and whip again until light and fluffy (if slightly runny chill in freezer about 5 minutes then mix one last time). If doing the carrot decoration set aside about 2 Tbsp to ting green and 2 Tbsp to tint orange (I used a Wilton #2 tip for the green and #4 for the orange).