Carrot Cake Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting

About an hour and a half before I was due at my dad’s for a Superbowl Party, I remembered that I had promised to bring something for us all to share. Dad had appetizers and the main course covered, which (obviously) left me with dessert.

Oddly enough, I had absolutely no inspiration or craving for anything in particular; even looking through my food porn board on Pinterest couldn’t get my gears turning. Even NICK didn’t have a dessert suggestion (the horror!)

So as I was doing my grocery shopping, I stood in the baking aisle and went with whatever looked good.

And what looked good was carrot cake.

I originally intended to make a legit carrot cake (albeit from a boxed mix. Did I mention this was an hour and a half before the party? I was not about to get into the kitchen and start grating carrots at this point).

Then, out of nowhere, I decided I was going to try to turn the carrot cake mix into a cookie mix.

And I still wanted to frost my cookies with cream cheese frosting (because, let’s be real, the cream cheese frosting is the best part about carrot cake)—but canned frosting is so sweet that it’s even too much for me.

So I decided on an easy compromise: shortcut cookies and homemade frosting.

Carrot Cake Cookies

Ingredients:

• One box carrot cake mix (I used Pillsbury)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix cake mix, eggs, and oil in large bowl until well combined. (I needed to add a bit of water to bring all of the ingredients together—maybe <1/4 cup?)
• Stir in raisins.
• Scoop cookies out by the tablespoonful onto a baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 4 oz. Neufchatel cheese (or light cream cheese)
• 2.5 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 – 1 C powdered sugar (to taste)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Beat cheese and butter with electric stand mixer until well combined. Add vanilla.
• Slowly beat in sugar and add more to taste (I like to keep it on the less-sweet end!)

Oh, compromise. You’ve never tasted so good.