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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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Pin ItBaked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
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
The Recipe Critic Whisk
The Recipe Critic Spatula
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Very nice recipe chef 👍👌👏. Delicious 😋. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024 🥂🍩. Thank you for your effort 😎🌞
Hello! If I want to make these as mini donuts, how would I adjust the time/temp? Thank you! Looks like a great Easter treat!
I would keep the temperature the same and just decrease the baking time by 2-3 minutes.
Hi there! I’m looking to make a blueberry white chocolate cheesecake. Do you have a recipe for that?
MMM! That sounds delicious! I will have to come up with a few ideas. At this time I don’t have a recipe for that or similar. Thanks for following along with me! I will have to give it a try! XOXO