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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 Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Carrot Cake Cupcakes are more favorites to make around this time of year.
A Carrot Cake Twist to Love!
Cookies are a really popular dessert to make during holidays and Easter is no exception.
Our go-to for the holiday are these carrot cake cookies, which taste so delicious!
What’s not to love:
- Easy. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples, and even though there are a few of them, the recipe is still so simple.
- Delicious. These cookies are soft and sweet and sure to be a hit.
- From cake to cookie. Carrot Cake is most popular around spring and Easter, but now it’s in a deliciously chewy cookie form – another great Easter dessert!
Simple Ingredients
- unsalted butter – Softened butter is key. This post will show you How to Soften Butter Quickly.
- granulated sugar
- brown sugar
- large eggs
- vanilla extract
- all-purpose flour
- baking soda
- cinnamon
- salt
- grated carrots – Grate your 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.
- chopped pecans
- cream cheese softened
- powdered sugar
- green food coloring
- orange food coloring
How to Make Carrot Cake Cookies
- 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 to the wet mixture and beat to combine. Fold in carrot shreds and chopped pecans. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix until combined.
- BAKE. Use a cookie scoop, and drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet (or line the baking sheet with parchment paper). Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges should be lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.
- FROSTING. Make the frosting by combining cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Reserve a little bit of the frosting for the carrot design on top of each cookie.
- Frost cookies. Use food coloring to dye parts of the reserve frosting green and orange. Pipe carrot design onto the cookies.
RECIPE TIPS
- For bright-colored frosting, use gel food coloring (like these) rather than liquid food coloring.
- Piping. If you don’t have a piping bag, put the frosting in a Ziploc bag with a small portion of the tip cut off.
- 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.
- Decorate. We love the decorative carrot, but sprinkles, chopped pecans, and/or a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar all work great!
- Variations.
- Replace pecans with walnuts or raisins.
- Remove frosting or replace with Buttercream.
- Add in a teaspoon of cinnamon, ginger, or allspice or even.
Storing Info
- Make it ahead of time. We like to make these the day before, along with the frosting, and store them in the fridge until ready to frost and serve.
- 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.
For More Easter Treats:
Carrot Cake Cookies
Adorable carrot cake cookies are so easy to make. Topped with homemade cream cheese frosting, they're hard to resist!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups grated carrots, (about 4 carrots)
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- green food coloring
- orange food coloring
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 a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges should be lightly browned. Let cool.
Frosting
- Combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Beat 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
Notes
Store the dough. Cover and store the dough in the fridge for 1-2 days or freeze it for 3 months. See How to Freeze Cookie Dough for tips.
Store baked cookies. Let the frosting set and carefully stack cookies to avoid smearing. You may separate layers with parchment or wax paper. Store frosted cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in a freezer bag for 2-3 months.
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.
i love the colors of this cakes thanks
What a great cookie idea! Yummy AND cute!
Lisa does such a great job of creating yummy AND cute cookies, huh?! Have a great Easter. 🙂
I am in the middle of trying to make these and realized that I can’t tell if I’m supposed to add the flour to the dough when I add the other ingredients (nuts, carrots, etc.) or if the flour is just for rolling purposes! Please help!
Thanks so much!
Hi Val. This is Kristyn. Lisa made these, but after looking at the recipe it looks like (to me) that you use the dough just for rolling purposes. Hope that helps. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Hi,
I am a little confused too about the flour in the cookies. It specifically says to “add the rest of the ingredients, including the flour and mix.” 1 cup seems like a lot of flour for just rolling purposes. I just made a batch adding the flour to the mix and the dough is super crumbly…with all that being said, I need a little clarification! Thank you!!
Mmm Sounds yummy!!!
These are very cute! I’m making my iced sugar cookies this week and I made some carrots!
These are too too cute! YUM, I LOVE anything carrot!!!
Wish it wasn’t so late, I am really wanting a sugar fix looking at these!
I am so happy to be on Lil Luna’s blog! You all are so sweet! I am glad you like them and I had fun making them for you!
CUTE! These are darling!! 🙂
Thanks!! Didn’t she do a great job?!
love!!! they are too cute, and carrot cake COOKIES?! great idea!