Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

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These Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts are a quick treat for anytime of the day. Light, moist doughnuts are loaded with flavor and have three different finishes or none to choose from. You can serve them as is, with a pecan topping, dipped in cinnamon sugar or fill the hole with cream cheese - your choice.

Four finishes on the Carrot Cake Dougnuts are plain, pecan topped, sugared and filled with cream cheese.

Top doughnuts: Plain and with pecan topping. Bottom: Dipped in cinnamon sugar and a plain doughnut filled with cream cheese.

Completely made in the processor, you don't even have to grate the carrots. Just whiz it all together, fill the pans, bake and you're ready to finish them as you choose or not.

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Here are a few other quick treats: Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts, Apple Fritters with Speculaas Spice, Apple Cake Doughnuts, A Perfectly Easy Basic Muffin Mix, Crumb Topped Orange Date Muffins, and the always popular, Easy PBJ Muffins.

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Two Types of Doughnuts
The doughnut pan or not
What makes these so appealing
Recipe Ingredients
Step by Step Instructions
Recipe FAQS
Other Quick Recipes for You
Carrot Cake Baked Doughnuts

Two Types of Doughnuts

There are basically two types of doughnuts although fritters are sometimes considered doughnuts.

Cake Doughnuts are just that. They are often miniature cakes made in doughnut pans as is this recipe. I simply cut down the carrot cake my bakery made and baked it in the doughnut pans. We used the same recipe to make adorable little carrot cake petit fours that people loved.

Yeast Doughnuts use yeast to rise and are generally fried quickly in oil but can also be baked. They are lighter in texture but take longer due to having to rise. There is an interesting article, Baked or Fried Doughnuts which is based on my Fresh as a Daisy Doughnuts.

The doughnut pan or not

There is a special pan for cake doughnuts made by Wilton. It has six doughnut cavities and comes 2 tins to a package. They are most reasonably priced on Amazon. However, if you don't have these or there is extra batter, I just put it in standard size muffin pans and it works fine. See the bottom photo.

The doughnut pan consists of 6 cavaties that makes cake doughnut with a hole in the middle.

What makes these so appealing

Easy is the word made for this recipe.
Flavor packed and fun to make.
Great for beginners to baking.
Fun for children to help with (they can grate the carrots)

Recipe Ingredients

Pecan Filling

The pecan topping for the carrot cake doughnuts is made of granulated sugar, pecans, flour, melted butter and vanilla.

FRONT ROW: Melted unsalted butter, vanilla

BACK ROW: Granulated sugar, pecans, all-purpose flour

Carrot Cake Doughnuts

The doughnuts consist of carrots, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, eggs, oil, buttermilk, honey and brown sugar.

FRONT ROW: Cinnamon, baking soda, honey, salt

MIDDLE ROW: Vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs

BACK ROW: Carrots, all-purpose flour, brown sugar

Cream Cheese Filling

FRONT ROW: Unsalted butter, vanilla

BACK ROW: Cream cheese, powdered sugar

Be sure to see the recipe card below for the exact ingredients & instructions.

Step by Step Instructions

Pecan Topping

The first collage shows the pecans, flour, and sugar in the processor bowl, processed, the melted butter added and the topping made.

Step 1. Place the pecans, sugar and flour in the bowl of a processor. Step 2. Process until very fine. Step 3. Transfer to a bowl and add the melted butter. Step 4. Toss the butter and pecan mixture together to make small crumbs. Refrigerate while preparing the remainder of the recipe.

This collages shows the carrots in the ofod processor, processed, the dry ingredients for the doughnuts in the food processor and processed.

Step 5. Place the cut carrots in the food processor. Step 6. Process until finely cut. Step 7. Without cleaning the processor bowl, add the dry ingredients. Step 8. Process until completely mixed.

The eggs, oil, buttermilk, honey, brown sugar, and flour are added and processed to a smooth batter, the mixture is spooned into the pans and baked.

Step 9. The eggs, oil, buttermilk, and honey are added to the bowl. Step 10. Process to form the batter. Remove to a bowl and stir in the carrots. Step 11. Spoon the batter into the cups filling almost to the top. If you aren't using the pans, these can be made in standard muffin cups. They just won't have the doughnut shape. Step 12. Bake until set. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes and turn out of the pans.

The last collage shows the cream cheese frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl, beaten, pipied into the well of a doughnut and a doughnut finished with cinnamon sugar.

Step 13. Combine the ingredients for the cream cheese filling in a mixing bowl. Step 14. Beat until light and completely combined. Step 15. Fit a bag with a # 3 or 4 star tip and pipe the filling into the hole of a plain doughnut. Step 16. Or roll the outside of the doughnut in cinnamon sugar.

Recipe FAQS

Why are they called cake doughnuts?

They are often small version of cakes or have a cake like texture when baked.

Are cake doughnuts or yeast doughnuts easier to make?

Cake doughnuts are generally easier and faster to make and go from mixer to pan to oven very fast. Yeast doughnuts require rising, rolling out and cutting before frying.

Is a cake doughnut better for you than a yeast doughnut?

It depends upon the batter for the cake doughnut and how it is finished. While the yeast doughnut is usually lighter in texture, it is fried which adds a lot of calories. It can also be finished and filled added more calories.