Baked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting

These Baked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting are a real treat! They are healthier than traditional donuts and perfect for a Spring brunch or Easter dessert. Incredibly moist and flavourful!

Hi friends! It’s Ashley from The Recipe Rebel back with you again with some baked donuts.

I know the real donut fanatics are probably wondering how good a baked donut can actually be, but once you get the right recipe, I guarantee you’ll jump on board 🙂

When I first got my donut pans, I had a big recipe flop and put them away for a long time. But once I busted them out and perfected my recipe, I definitely became a believer! I started with these Lemon Blueberry Donuts and never looked back.

Donuts are such a fun treat for breakfast or brunch (these would be perfect for your Easter get togethers!), even without frosting. I have a hard time holding my kids off long enough to get any frosted! I think they’re suckers for the fun shape 😉

But since the only reason for anyone to eat cake with vegetables in it is the frosting, we’ve slathered these in a creamy, tangy cream cheese frosting.

Frosting holds up better than a glaze on donuts, which means you can easily make these ahead of time and store in the fridge or freezer completely frosted. Just pull them out a couple hours before you need them and you are good to go! No one will ever know they’re not fresh out of the oven 😉

You can mix things up by adding in some raisins or toasted coconut into the donut batter, but I like to keep these simple and just sprinkle with a little toasted coconut on top. It adds a fun little crunch and goes perfectly with the carrots and cream cheese!

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Baked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting

5 from 1 vote

By: Ashley Fehr

These Baked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting are a real treat! They are healthier than traditional donuts and perfect for a Spring brunch or Easter dessert. Incredibly moist and flavourful!

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 14 donuts

Ingredients 

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Donuts:

• ▢ 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
• ▢ 1/4 cup oil
• ▢ 3/4 cup sugar
• ▢ 1 cup milk
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 large carrots peeled and shredded (about 2 cups)
• ▢ 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ pinch of nutmeg

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• ▢ 4 ounces 1/2 package cream cheese, room temperature
• ▢ 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions 

Donuts:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and spray donut pans with non-stick spray. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, stir together butter and oil. Whisk in sugar until combined.
• Add milk, eggs, vanilla and whisk until combined. Stir in carrots.
• Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and nutmeg and stir until combined.
• Spoon batter into prepared pans or use a large piping bag, filling about 3/4 full.
• Bake for 7-8 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on high speed until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth -- this might take 4-5 minutes.
• Spread on cooled donuts and decorate as desired (I used toasted coconut!). Serve.
• Leftovers may be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 3 months.

Notes

Alyssa Also Recommends:

Want to make this even easier? Here are a few products that I LOVE:

The Recipe Critic Measuring Cups
The Recipe Critic Whisk
The Recipe Critic Spatula

Nutrition

Calories: 277kcalCarbohydrates: 39gProtein: 4gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 43mgSodium: 121mgPotassium: 100mgFiber: 1gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 265IUCalcium: 49mgIron: 1.2mg

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

Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!