Carrot Cake Pancakes

Sometimes a special breakfast in bed or comfort after a hard night before feels a little better when it’s sweet carrot cake pancakes. Drawing from it’s inspiration in one of the best cakes ever, it’s morning indulgence at its best. 

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Sometimes (like this week) I really wish I had a head to bang my wall into.

I mean a wall to bang my head into.

Of course, I can’t do anything simple and this week is perfect example. I’ve cooked more food and manged more tasks than a person cares to do in a week’s time and last night I had 25+ family members over for a some awesome eating.

The only tragedy was that I didn’t have time to take any pictures of the food for you. And it means I have to make the Gruyere and caramelized onion dip again…and the hot ham and cheese sliders…and the pizza stuffed mushrooms. I’m so disappointed (can you hear the sarcasm?)

One thing that wasn’t on the  menu for that evening, came around the next morning. A little sleep gives me enough of a boost to make an awesome special breakfast and carrot cake pancakes are super special.

I ran across a whole bunch of traditional cake-turned-pancake recipes in a recent edition of the Southern Living Cookbook series and I couldn’t get it off my mind. So I ran a little poll over on my Facebook page and carrot cake pancakes were the winner. And man are they good. This recipe calls for Mascarpone cream–it’s a softer cousin to cream cheese and you should be able to find it at some of the larger grocery stores. But if you can’t, just use softened cream cheese. It works just as well.

Can you say perfect for a birthday breakfast, or the morning after you got dumped, or engaged, had a baby, had a tooth pulled…you get it. And you can do it.

Indulge yourself a little.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

Needing a special breakfast idea? Turn your favorite cake into these easy carrot cake pancakes complete with cream cheese frosting. They are sure to make you feel like you've died and gone to southern pancake heaven. 

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 6 people

Author Rachel Ballard

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Ingredients

  

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For the pancakes

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar packed
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups finely grated carrots *see notes
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans optional

For the cream cheese topping

• 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups whipped cream or cool whip

Instructions

 

To make the pancakes

• Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. 
• In a medium bowl mix the buttermilk, brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla. 
• Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir JUST until no pockets of raw flour remain. Don't overmix it or the pancakes will be tough. 
• Add the carrots and pecans if you're using them and gently fold them in to the batter. 
• Heat a griddle or skillet over medium high heat about 6 minutes. Add the batter, 1/4 cup at a time and cook until bubbles form and break on the top of the pancake and the edges look dry--about 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook another 2 minutes. Remove and keep warm. 

For the cream cheese topping

• Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer or whisk until blended. Gently fold in the whipped cream and pile high on your warm pancakes. 

Notes

For the best results, use a box grater's small holes to grate your carrots. Pre-grated ones will be too large and won't cook in the pancakes and using a food processor makes them too watery. 

Nutrition

Calories: 629kcal

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Course Breakfast

Cuisine American