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!

Baked Carrot Cake Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

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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!

Author: Ashley

Serves: 14 donuts

Ingredients

Donuts:

• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
• ¼ cup oil
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large carrots, peeled and shredded (about 2 cups)
• 2⅔ cups all purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of nutmeg

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 4 ounces (1/2 package) cream cheese, room temperature
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

Donuts:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and spray donut pans with non-stick spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, stir together butter and oil. Whisk in sugar until combined.
3. Add milk, eggs, vanilla and whisk until combined. Stir in carrots.
4. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and nutmeg and stir until combined.
5. Spoon batter into prepared pans or use a large piping bag, filling about ¾ full.
6. 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:

1. 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.
2. Spread on cooled donuts and decorate as desired (I used toasted coconut!). Serve.
3. Leftovers may be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 3 months.

You might also like these Brown Sugar Glazed Apple Cinnamon Donuts

Or these Maple Glazed Apple Crisp Donuts