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Adorable Carrot Cake Cookies are so easy to make. Topped with homemade cream cheese frosting, they’re hard to resist!

Carrot Cake Cookies are cute and festive for Easter and they have the best flavor! These other carrot look-alike dessertsCarrot Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Pudding Carrot Cups—are more favorites to make around this time of year.

Carrot cake cookies frosted and served on a white platter.


Cookies are a really popular dessert to make during holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, and sometimes holidays like Easter get forgotten about.

I’m a firm believer that every holiday (or every day really) is a good time for cookies – especially Easter!

We have a few Easter cookie recipes, like Easter Basket Cookie Cups, Mint Blossoms, and Bird’s Nest Sugar Cookies, but this Carrot Cake Cookie recipe is another perfect Easter cookie!

Carrot Cake is most popular around spring and Easter anyways, but now it’s in a deliciously chewy cookie form – similar to Oatmeal Cookies!

With only a handful of additional ingredients, you are on your way to delicious Carrot Cake Cookies!

Carrot cake cookie dough mixed in a bowl.

How to Make Carrot Cake Cookies

You’ll love how simple these Carrot Cookies are!

PREP. Preheat oven to 350°F.

WET INGREDIENTS. In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat until combined and creamy. Add eggs and vanilla making sure to mix well.

DRY INGREDIENTS. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and beat to combine. Fold in carrots and chopped pecans. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix until combined.

BAKE. Use a cookie scoop, and drop cookie dough onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges should be lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.

FROSTING. Make the frosting by combing cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Reserve a little bit of the frosting for the carrot design on top.

Frost cookies. Use food coloring to dye parts of the reserve frosting green and orange. Pipe carrot design onto the cookies.

Carrot cake cookies in dough balls ready for baking.

RECIPE TIPS

Here are a few tips for the perfect Carrot Cake Cookie recipe.

Variations:

  • Replace pecans with walnuts or raisins.
  • Remove frosting or replace with Buttercream.
  • Add in a teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, or allspice.

For bright-colored frosting, use gel food coloring (like these) rather than liquid food coloring.

Piping. Easily pipe the icing on using a Ziploc bag with the tip cut off.

Grate your own carrots as the ones in the bag are too dry. Depending on the desired texture, use the large holes or small holes of a box grater.

Room temperature ingredients. Soften butter is key This post will show you How to Soften Butter Quickly.

Cookie scoop. Use a cookie to scoop to help get even balls of dough that will bake at the same rate.

Prepared baking sheets. Line the baking tray with parchment paper or a split tray.

Make sandwich cookies. Spread the cream cheese frosting on top of one cookie, and stack a second one on top. They would work fine with any shape cookie, but circular cookies are the most popular choice.

Cream cheese frosting in bowl for topping carrot cake cookies.

Storing Info

STORE frosted cookies in an airtight container or Ziploc bag in the fridge for up to 5 days.

FREEZE Carrot Cake Cookies unfrosted, frosted, or just the dough!

  • Unfrosted. Place cooled cookies in an airtight container or bag and store them in the freezer.
  • Frosted. Freeze one layer of cookies until the frosting is hard, place a layer of wax/parchment paper on top, add another layer of cookies, freeze, and repeat this process until all of your cookies are frozen in separate layers.
  • Dough. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then in foil or a freezer bag. Freeze for a few months. When you’re ready to use, thaw the dough in the fridge until it’s workable enough to roll out and cut.
Carrot Cake Cookie Recipe topped with cream cheese frosting.

Recipe FAQ

What toppings are best for Carrot Cake Cookies?

We love the decorative carrot, but sprinkles, chopped pecans and/or a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar all work great!

Can you make these cookies ahead of time?

Of course! Check out our section above about refrigerating and/or freezing. We like to make these the day before we need them, along with the frosting and store them in the fridge until ready to frost and serve.

For more Easter Treats:

4.77 from 21 votes

Carrot Cake Cookie Recipe

By: Lil’ Luna
Adorable Carrot Cake Cookies are so easy to make. Topped with homemade cream cheese frosting, they're hard to resist!
Servings: 24
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 12 minutes
Refrigerate/Freese: 2 hours
Total: 2 hours 22 minutes

Ingredients 

Frosting

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat until combined and creamy. Add eggs and vanilla making sure to mix well.
  • Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and beat to combine. Fold in carrots and chopped pecans and mix until combined.
  • Drop dough scoops onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges should be lightly browned. Let cool.
  • Make frosting by combing cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla and beating until smooth. Reserve a little bit of the frosting for the carrot design on top.
  • Frost cookies. Use food coloring to dye parts of the reserve frosting green and orange. Pipe carrot design onto cookies.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 352kcal, Carbohydrates: 45g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Cholesterol: 55mg, Sodium: 241mg, Potassium: 96mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 34g, Vitamin A: 2286IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 31mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
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Share it with us on Instagram using the hashtag #lilluna, so we can see what you’re creating in the kitchen!


About Kristyn

My name is Kristyn and I’m the mom of SIX stinkin’ cute kids and the wife to my smokin’ hot hubby, Lo. My mom’s maiden name is Luna, and I’m one of the many crafty “Lil’ Lunas” in the fam. On this site I like to share all things creative - from recipes to home decor to gifts and home decor ideas. Welcome!

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Recipe Rating




56 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Carrot Cake is a favorite of mine, so I knew that I would love these cookies! So simple to make too!

  2. 5 stars
    Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!

    1. Sorry for the confusion. The “flour” in the ingredient list is not the boxed cake mix – it is just flour. I will make that change in the body of the post. Thanks so much for catching that. I appreciate it!

  3. 5 stars
    I have a question: Where is the recipe for using cake mix, I can’t wait to try this recipe and my other question i do you have a recipe for pumpkin cookies using cake mix.
    I know you are busy and would understand if you don’t have time to answer.
    btw, i love all of your recipes and the simplicity of them.

  4. 4 stars
    My cookies spread out soooo much… like paper thin I don’t know if it is me, or if this recipe needs more flour. I wish they came out, because the picture looks so good!!

    1. Oh, I am sorry they did! There are many factors that can cause that, but it’d hard for me to know, since I was not there. I would suggest googling it & see if it was any of the reasons suggested. Hope you figure it out.

  5. Says use box carrot cake mix to make the cookies but then gives a from SCRATCH RECIPE. An error I assume but does not help me to convert my box cake mix.

  6. 5 stars
    I was looking for the original carrot cake cookies that yOu Posted here bY the barefoot baker. The cUtout ones. Do you still have that recipe? Im Sure this neW recipe is just as good but we like the cUtout ones, we come back year after year to make them. I should have printed it out.

      1. Hi Jerrica,

        The drop cookies look great, but I also am looking for the original carrot cake roll-out cookie recipe. You mentioned that you did print it out. Would you share the recipe? Thanks!