Easy Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
These easy carrot cake cookies are soft and delicious and have a tasty cream cheese frosting. They're made from carrot cake mix, so they're a a pinch to make with minimal effort!
Servings: 12 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 ounce) box carrot cake mix
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil e.g. canola
- 2 eggs
Frosting:
- 3 ounces cream cheese (1/2 block Philadelphia) softened
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Make sure your butter and cream cheese have some time to come to room temperature before you start this recipe.
- Add the carrot cake mix, vegetable oil, and eggs to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, mix until smooth.
- Chill dough for 30 minutes in the fridge (or 15-20 in the freezer). I recommend this step since the dough is sticky and you will also get slightly puffier cookies with chilling.
- Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat non-stick mat.
- Make 2" balls and place them on the baking sheet at least 2" apart, if not more since they do spread. Bake for 11-13 minutes until they're set.
- Meanwhile, make the frosting. Add the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract to a medium mixing bowl. Mix using an electric mixer, and gradually add the sugar (about 1/2 cup or so at a time) until the frosting is smooth.
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack. Give it at least 10 minutes or until they're cool to the touch before you frost them. I sprinkled on some cinnamon sugar for the photos. This step is optional.
- Store cookies in an airtight container.
Notes
- My cookies were quite big (I rolled the dough into 2" balls), so if you make them smaller, you can definitely make more than 12.
- You can use the larger-sized boxes of cake mix (18.25 ounces) as well for this recipe - it'll make about 16 2" cookies (keep everything else in the recipe the same). The batter will be less sticky and the cookies will be more puffy - especially if you chill the dough first.
