carrots + cake

Usually when you think about vegetables and sweets, you would consider them absolute opposites. One comes before the other ("You can't have any dessert until you eat your veggies!") and they rarely intertwine.

Enter: Carrot Cake.

Carrots are generally sweeter than other vegetables due to the fact that they have a good amount of fructose in them. Cooking the carrots brings out this sweetness, which contributes to the deliciousness of carrot cake. Simply add a bit of sugar to your carrots and you're golden. Or, orange, I suppose.

The actual cake portion of the carrot cake is a spice cake, generally comprised of cinnamon/clove/ginger spices. For this recipe, I decided to stick with cinnamon and a bit of carrot cake flavoring. The frosting that usually accompanies carrot cake is made up of cream cheese and can be topped with pecans. I took all of these components and made a fantastic, spiced, creamy doughnut that is perfect for a cozy fall day.

Note: I did make candied carrots to experiment with as a topping. I did not love the way they turned out, so I added it to the pecan mix. One of the things I would change about what I did: instead of putting the candied carrots with the pecans, I would keep them separate. This provides a "prettier" doughnut as well as a less sticky topping mixture (which in my opinion looked slightly like chopped ground beef, yuck.) I would recommend simply putting the pecan mix on top and then grating fresh carrots on top of that.

On to the recipe!


for the doughnut:

1 cup + 2 tbsp bread flour

1 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 egg, 2 egg yolks

1 packet yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1 cup milk, warmed

1/2 tsp carrot cake flavoring*

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsbp butter – room temp

6 cups of vegetable oil for frying

*you can substitute this for vanilla flavoring

Step 1: Combine bread flour and AP flour in a medium sized bowl, whisk until well mixed throughout.

Step 2: Warm cup of milk for 1 minute & 45 seconds on high. Add ½ of a yeast packet and mix until dissolved.

Carrot Cake Flavoring!
This can be bought
online and it's totally
worth it!

Step 3: Add 1 cup of the flour mixture to the milk and yeast, mix with a paddle attachment in a stand mixer until smooth. Let sit in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Step 4: After 30 minutes, add carrot cake flavoring, eggs and remaining yeast. Mix until smooth.

Step 5: Add 1 cup flour to the mixture. Mix in the sugar.

Step 6: Cut up the butter into about 4 pieces and add to the mixture, mix until well combined.

Step 7: Remove paddle attachment and attach dough hook, add remaining flour.

Step 8: Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes covered in plastic wrap in a warm place.

Step 9: After the dough is done resting, press down gently, wrap in plastic wrap then chill for 1 hour.

Step 10: After one hour, roll out dough and cut doughnuts. Place on a greased and floured pan to prevent sticking. Cover with a small towel or paper towel for 30 minutes, checking occasionally. Dough should double in size.

Step 11: After proofing, place doughnuts in a pot filled with vegetable oil, heated to about 365 degrees. Fry for about 2-3 minutes, flipping half way through. After removing the doughnuts from the oil, place on a cooling rack with a pan underneath to catch the oil.

for the icing:

1/2 pack cream cheese (4 oz) - room temp

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tbsp. milk

4 tbsp butter

1 tsp carrot cake flavoring* (substitute vanilla if unavailable)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine cream cheese and butter, whip in a stand mixer with the whip attachment until combined. Add the milk, carrot cake flavoring, cinnamon and sifted powdered sugar. Dip the top of the doughnuts into the icing.

for the cinnamon pecan topping:

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Chop the pecans in a food processor and add the cinnamon to lightly coat them.

for the carrot topping:

Fresh, thin grated carrot shavings (1 or 2 carrots)

While the icing is still slightly sticky, dip the doughnuts into the cinnamon pecan mixture. Using a grater, grate fresh carrots onto the top of the doughnut for garnish and extra flavor.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

There you have it! 'Til next time,