This easy carrot cake cookie recipe is everything you love about carrot cake in a quick, perfect cookie. Soft, fluffy, and full of flavor, these carrot cake cookies are a great dessert for Easter, spring parties, or any carrot cake fan.
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Calling all carrot cake lovers! You need to try this quick and easy carrot cake cookie recipe.
These scrumptious carrot cake cookies are perfect when you don’t want to make or have a whole cake.
They’re also easier to make, transport, and eat (no fork needed) than classic carrot cake.
BUT, they have the same great taste and texture. They’re even topped with homemade cream cheese frosting.
All the flavors of carrot cake in cookie form!
If you like easy cookie recipes, you should check out:
- Easy Funfetti Cookies from Scratch
- Refreshing Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Easy, Delicious Almond Joy Cookies
Loaded with Grated Carrots
This carrot cake cookie recipe calls for 1 cup of grated carrots.
I highly recommend using fresh, whole carrots and grating them at home instead of buying packaged, pre-shredded carrots at the grocery store.
Pre-shredded carrots are too dry, long, and hard for this recipe or any of your favorite carrot cake recipes.
Fresh carrots naturally add so much moisture to carrot cakes, carrot cake cupcakes, and these delicious carrot cake cookies.
For best results, use the smallest holes on a box grater to grate the carrots. I like to use this Spring Chef Professional Box Grater, Stainless Steel with 4 Sides.
Some people use a food processor to grate the carrots. I haven’t tried this yet though.
Walnuts, Pecans, or Nut-Free
Walnuts give the perfect crunch to these soft Carrot Cake Cookies. I like to add them IN the batter and on top of the tangy cream cheese frosting.
Pecans work great too. Just chop them up a bit before throwing them in or on the carrot cookies.
These cookies are also great without a crunch. They’re just as delicious without nuts.
Topped with the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting
THE. BEST.
I love it so much that I turn into a little kid who excitedly licks the rubber spatula… then scrapes the sides of the bowl so I can do it again.
This cream cheese frosting recipe is also used on the Best Carrot Cake Cupcakes (they're easy, moist, and perfectly spiced).
My biggest recommendation for the best cream cheese frosting is to allow the cream cheese and butter to soften to room temperature before starting.
It’s also important to use a block of regular cream cheese (full fat). Tubs of cream cheese are usually spreads and not ideal for frosting. They contain more moisture than brick cream cheese, which can lead to a runny consistency.
For creamy, luscious, delicious cream cheese frosting, use brick-style, full fat cream cheese (the one that is wrapped in foil).
The best way to make cream cheese frosting is to use an electric mixer. It creates a silky, whipped texture that is hard to get by hand.
I absolutely LOVE using this KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer. But, a hand mixer, like KitchenAid 9-Speed Hand Mixer, works great too!
If using a stand mixer, it’s best to use the paddle attachment. Last year, I tried to use the whisk attachment to make frosting. 🤦🏻♀️ The butter and cream cheese just got stuck inside the whisk… continuously.
Save and organize your recipes with this adorable Recipe Card Printable. Available HERE.
Tips for the BEST Carrot Cake Cookies
- Allow all ingredients to warm to room temperature before beginning.
Do not soften the butter in the microwave. This will cause the cookies to spread too much while baking.
- Cream butter and sugar together for a lighter, fluffier texture.
- Use the small holes on a grater to grate the carrots.
- Do NOT overmix after adding the flour mixture. This will yield denser cookies.
- After baking, allow the soft cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. They firm up as they cool. If you move them too soon, they may break.
- Also let the cookies cool completely before frosting. Otherwise, the cream cheese frosting will start to melt and slide off the delicious cookies.
How to Decorate
These carrot cake cookies are amazing with or without the cream cheese frosting. I do recommend frosting at least half of your cookies though. The cream cheese frosting is so so good.
There are many ways to decorate these cookies. Just frosting them is one option.
Adding chopped walnuts on top of the cream cheese frosting is another.
I like to make orange-colored cream cheese frosting to add pops of color to the tops of the cookies.
Sometimes, I use it to make stripes on top of the white cream cheese frosting then I add chopped walnuts.
My favorite thing to do is to make adorable carrots on the cookies. This requires some green-colored cream cheese frosting as well.
To add color to your frosting, put some of your prepared cream cheese frosting in a small bowl. (Use a separate bowl for each color.) Add a couple drops of food coloring then mix. Continue adding drops and mixing until you reach your desired color.
Orange food coloring can be purchased on its own in this Betty Crocker Neon Gel Food Colors Pack. Or you can mix regular yellow and red food coloring together.
I use piping bags and tips to create my stripes and carrots. I have this Icing Piping Tips and Bags Set and LOVE it. It has everything I need and SO many design options!
A great recipe for Easter
If you’re making these cookies as an Easter dessert (and you should. They’re always a huge hit.), adding festive sprinkles is an easy, fun way to decorate these carrot cake cookies.
Amazon has this adorable Easter sprinkle mix that includes bunnies and carrots. The bunny sprinkles even have little faces so they definitely feel like the Easter bunny.
This Easter sprinkle mix includes carrots, flowers, and different shades of green sprinkles. It feels like walking outside on a warm spring day.
How to Store
These cookies taste even better the day after baking. The flavors develop even more! So, you can definitely make them the day before serving.
Just store them in an airtight container or ziplock bag in the fridge.
Please do the same with any leftovers (if you have any). They should keep for 4-5 days in the fridge.
For other Easter dessert ideas, check out:
- Best Carrot Cake Cupcakes {Easy, Moist, & Perfectly Spiced}
- Easy Lemon Cupcakes from Scratch
- Blackberry Buttercream Frosting with Fresh Blackberries (great on the lemon cupcakes!)
Quick and Easy Carrot Cake Cookies (with Cream Cheese Frosting)
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Cookies
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter softened
- ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
- ¾ cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs large
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 ½ cups Flour
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon ground
- ¼ teaspoon Ginger ground
- ¼ teaspoon Cloves ground
- 1 cup Carrots grated
- ½ cup Walnuts chopped
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter softened
- 8 oz Cream Cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
For Carrot Cake Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Prep a cookie sheet with parchment paper or oil. Set aside until ready to use.
- Peel and finely grate carrots. Measure, lightly packed, in a 1 cup measuring cup. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat until smooth and creamy.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix.
- Add the baking soda, flour, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and cloves. Mix until just combined.
- Stir in the finely grated carrots and chopped walnuts.
- Scoop dough into balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Leave space between each cookie.
- Bake for about 9-13 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes. The cookies firm up as they cool. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
For Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a large bowl, beat together room temperature butter and cream cheese until completely smooth.
- Add vanilla and salt.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until combined (or it’ll fly up into your face and all over your kitchen… I speak from experience.). If you are using a hand mixer, add about a ½ cup of powdered sugar, mix on low, add another ½ cup of powdered sugar, mix on low again, and so on. Do this until everything is combined.
- Once combined, increase to medium-high speed and beat until thick and creamy (about 1-2 minutes).
- Frost cookies after they cool completely. Decorate as you wish! Tips are in the post above.
If you make this carrot cake cookie recipe or any of my other recipes, I'd love to see them! Please tag @lovemischka on pinterest, fb, or insta. You can also comment on the recipe below. Thank you!
outlet meubelen says
Don t reach for one right away. These soft-baked cookies are fragile when they first come out of the oven, but they firm up as they cool. Make sure to leave them on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes to set up before you transfer them to a wire rack. Otherwise, the cookies will crumble! If you want to frost them, allow them to cool completely first. Just like when you make carrot cake, you need to allow the cookies to cool to room temperature before you top them with frosting. If they re still warm, the frosting will melt!