Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Mildly carrot, mostly cinnamon and nutty flavors shine through. The cream cheese frosting is wonderfully tangy.
Texture: The cakes are moist, soft, with some crunch from the walnuts.
Ease: These drop scones are much quicker to get in the oven than traditional roll-and-cut scones.
Appearance: I love how the two fluffy cakes squeeze the cream cheese frosting out the sides slightly. Just makes you want a bite!
Pros: Perfect for a party or picnic.
Cons: None, except maybe for the Paula Deen-esque amount of butter.
Would I make this again? Yes, but with shredded zucchini next time!
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Despite it still being mid-March, summer mode has already set in here in Phoenix. Near 90 degree F weather = flip flops, air conditioning, and swimming. Some days it’s still nice outside, especially in the mornings and evenings. Other days it’s scorching. When I saw these summery cake sandwiches in this month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living they just looked perfect. The original recipe is for zucchini cake sandwiches but the local store was out of zucchini, so I decided to use carrot. But in all seriousness, there isn’t much better in this world than tangy cream cheese frosting. Especially when it is accompanied by slight spicy warmth of the carrot cake.
Carrot Cake Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Coarse salt
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup finely grated carrot
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts (see how to toast walnuts here)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flours, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Beat 1 stick butter and the sugars until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Mix in carrot, oats, and walnuts. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
- Using a 1 1/2-inch spring-loaded cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden, about 17 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
- Beat together remaining 1/2 stick butter, the cream cheese, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Spread 1 heaping tablespoon filling onto the flat side of 1 cookie, and sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining filling and cookies. Unfilled cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
made these a few days ago and they are absolutely AMAZING! I made the cookies a bit too big so they didn’t become sandwiches, just a wonderful iced carrot cake cookie. This recipe should defs be updated and posted on instagram. It was a hit in my household.
I didn’t even toast the walnuts and the walnuts add such an awesome crunch.
Also added about 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.
YUM! I love all your recipes.
Can I substitute the wheat flour for all purpose flour ?
Yes you can
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