I love decorating sugar cookies for ALL the Holidays, but a plain vanilla sugar cookie just didn’t seem festive enough for this Easter. So I’m bringing you a twist on one of Easter’s most classic desserts: Carrot Cake! These carrot cake sugar cookies are complete with warm spices like cloves and cinnamon, real shredded carrots, and cream cheese icing.
I decided to include two frosting recipes with these cookies so you can choose which way you’d like to ice them based on the sweetness level you’re going for, your decorating style, and how you want to store them. You can top them with a deliciously smooth cream cheese buttercream OR some fancy-schmancy cream cheese royal icing.
Buttercream Frosting:
Sweetness level: Less sweet with more tang than royal icing
- The fats from the butter, shortening, and real cream cheese help balance out the sweetness from the powdered sugar.
- Royal icing doesn’t have any fat to help balance the sweetness.
Decorating Style: Thick waves/sweeping spread
- Buttercream has a bit of body to it that helps it hold it’s shape out of the piping bag or off of your knife. It’ll hold its shape without melting together.
- You don’t need any fancy materials, we piped our buttercream frosted cookies with ziplock bags that had holes cut in the corners!
- It may loose it’s ability to keep its shape if you have it in a piping bag and are holding it in your warm hands for too long. If this happens, toss the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes to let it cool down and then start again.
Storage: Must be refrigerated for stacking
- If left at room temperature, the buttercream will form a light crust, however the frosting will still be too soft and delicate to stack.
To stack:
- Refrigerate the frosted cookies in a single layer on a cookie sheet for an hour or more. A thicker crust will form on the icing and the buttercream will become sturdier.
- Test the cookies by lightly tapping the frosting with your finger, if there are any indents or cracking, your cookies will need to cool for a bit longer.
- Once you can lightly tap your cookies without risk of indentation, you may carefully stack them, wrap them in plastic wrap, or put them in another airtight container and KEEP THEM in the fridge.
- When you’re ready to serve them, put them on a platter in a single layer and allow them to come to room temperature. If you don’t unstack them you’ll have frosting stuck to the bottoms of all your cookies!
Royal Icing:
Sweetness Level: One of the sweetest icings there is
- It’s basically just sugar and water. There aren’t any ingredients that detract from the sweetness of the sugar.
Decorating Style: Smooth, hard finish
- Since Royal Icing is liquid, it’ll melt together and leave you with an incredibly smooth surface. If you haven’t worked with Royal Icing before, I recommend watching some youtube videos for some basic pointers.
- You will need some “special materials”
- piping bags (12-14″ are sufficient)
- merengue powder — alternatively you can use egg whites and cream of tartar. I recommend this recipe by Lisa at “The Barefoot Baker”: https://thebearfootbaker.com/2015/04/egg-white-royal-icing-recipe/
- cream cheese emulsion — Using an emulsion is just like using an extract, like vanilla or almond extract, but it’s water based instead of alcohol based. I haven’t been able to find any cream cheese emulsion in stores, so I order it off of Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/LorAnn-Oils-Emulsion-Cream-Cheese/dp/B009G74E1O/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=cream+cheese+emulsion&qid=1555184065&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=A3V6OY3R56WMSH
- Consistency tip: Use the figure 8 rule – drizzle some icing around in your mixing bowl in a figure 8 pattern, it should take about 7-8 seconds to completely melt back in to the rest of the icing.
Storage: stackable at room temperature
- Let the cookies dry for at least 12 hours before stacking them and wrapping them or putting them in an air tight container. No need to refrigerate.
Tips for thick, chewy, no spread cookies:
I got this cookie recipe from 6 cakes and more.
HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE COOKIE RECIPE
But before you go on to the recipe – I’ve got a few pointers I would like to add to 6 Cakes and More’s post.
- This recipe will make about 11 large thick cookies, or about 24-27 small/medium cookies.
- You can use 1 large carrot OR 10-12 baby carrots
- I found that pressing the carrots between paper towels got the most moisture out vs. just pressing them into the measuring cup and draining them that way.
- The original recipe said to make sure all of the ingredients are “cool” in order to make them no chill no spread, but I used all room temp ingredients and my cookies didn’t spread at all!
- If your cookies do spread it’s probably one of two culprits:
- You didn’t squeeze enough juice out of your carrots or
- There is too much air worked into your dough. You should be beating all of your ingredients together on a low setting and until just combined. Over-mixing the dough can also incorporate unneeded air bubbles.
- If your cookies have a “floury” aftertaste it means you probably under-baked them. Smaller thinner cookies should bake for about 12-14 minutes while large thick cookies should be baked for at least 16 minutes.
They have a ton of other sugar cookie flavors that I’m dying to try out, so head over there for some inspiration if you’re wanting to break out of your normal vanilla sugar cookie routine. Thanks 6 Cakes and More for the awesome recipe!
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 32 minutes |
| Servings |
large thick cookies
|
- 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature $1.22
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature $0.75
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening $0.21
- 1 tsp vanilla extract $0.03
- 4 cups powdered sugar $0.55
- 4 cups powdered sugar $0.55
- 3 tbsp meringue powder $1.99
- 1 tsp vanilla extract $0.03
- 1 tsp cream cheese emulsion $0.28
- 8-10 tbsp water free(ish)
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Buttercream
Cream Cheese Royal Icing
|
|
- Cream together your room temperature cream cheese, butter, and shortening on a low setting. Then add in the vanilla and continue creaming. If you want fluffy frosting, feel free to turn the speed on your mixer up, however, be aware that fluffy frosting is not as appealing for decorating due to all of the visible air bubbles, but you do you.
- Add in the powdered sugar slowly while your mixer is on a low setting to avoid being in a sweet but suffocating cloud. If you want your frosting to be thicker, add more sugar, if you want it to be thinner, add a tablespoon or two of milk.
- Add all of the ingredients together and mix on a low speed using a whisk attachment until the icing is fully incorporated.
- The consistency of the icing should follow the "figure 8 rule": Use your whisk attachment to drizzle a figure 8 pattern in the icing and start counting. It should take 7-8 seconds for the icing to melt back together completely. If it takes longer than that, add about a tsp of water at a time until you reach the right consistency. If it takes less time to melt together, add powdered sugar a couple tablespoons at time until you reach the right consistency.
Price for plain cookies: $2.42
Price per large plain cookie: $0.24
Price for cream cheese buttercream: $2.76
Price for royal icing: $2.85
Nutrition for plain cookie:
Serving size: 1 cookie
Servings: 11 large thick cookies
Calories: 365
Carbs: 46.4 g
Protein: 4.6 g
Fats: 17.9 g
Sodium: 21.1 mg
Fiber: 1.6 g
Sugar: 17.9 g
Nutrition for Cream Cheese Butter Cream:
Serving size: 2 tbsp
Servings: 32 (about 4 cups)
Nutrition per serving:
Calories: 122
Carbs: 15.2 g
Protein: .5 g
Fats: 6.8 g
Sodium: 26.6 g
Fiber: 0 g
Sugar: 14.9 g
Nutrition for Royal Icing:
Serving size: 2 tbsp
Servings: 12 (about 1.5 cups)
Calories: 166
Carbs: 41.6 g
Protein: .8 g
Fats: 0 g
Sodium: 10.2 mg
Fiber: 0 g
Sugar: 39.2 g
