⏲️ 55

We love easy cookie recipes like these Carrot Cake Mix Cookies! I mean, what’s not to love?! There is even delicious cream cheese frosting on these babies.

Also, these are fluffy cookies, like cake. I love this because cake is one of my favorite things! And, we add extra shredded carrots to make them extra moist and yummy!

I like to take a little help from the grocery store occasionally to make baking easier. So using a cake mix seemed like the best option for this.

Close up view of frosted Carrot Cake Cookies on a light blue cookie sheet.

Very close up view of a carrot cake mix cookie ona light blue cookie sheet

Overhead view of carrot cake cookies on a light blue cookie sheet.

Ingredients Needed to Make One Batch of Cookies

Here is what you need to make these easy cake mix cookies:

Boxed Cake Mix – these are the only dry ingredients you need!

Eggs – we use large eggs.

Applesauce – I buy unsweetened applesauce in individual servings so I always have some on hand. The shelf life of the single serving container is longer than the large jar.

Grated Carrot – we shred our own carrots, but you could buy them already shredded if you like.

Walnuts – we buy them already chopped and cut any large pieces in half.

Butter – I like unsalted butter. It needs to be room temperature, that is very important!

Cream Cheese – you can use regular or low fat. It needs to be room temperature, very important here, too!

Powdered Sugar – sifted works best so there are no lumps in the frosting.

Vanilla Extract – use your favorite brand.

Ingredients need to make Carrot Cake Mix Cookies (easy recipe) such as cake mix, eggs, carrots.

How To Make

Mix: Combine the dry cake mix, eggs applesauce, shredded carrots, and walnuts in a large bowl.
Refrigerate: For best results refrigerate cookie dough for 30 minutes.
Scoop: Drop by rounded tablespoons of dough, or use a cookie scoop, onto prepared baking sheets at least 2″ – 3″ apart.
Bake Cookies: Bake 8 – 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven until cookies begin to set and brown around the edges.
Cool: Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes then move to a wire rack to cool completely while you make the frosting.
Make the frosting: Combine butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl, mix with an electric hand mixer until creamy and smooth.
Frost Cookies: I like to put my frosting in a zip top bag, snip the corner off and pipe the frosting onto the top of the cookies. You can also just use a butter knife to spread it on.

cake mix, eggs, carrots, applesauce and nuts in a bowl.

Close up view of mixed carrot cake cookie dough

Substitutions

You can use a spice cake mix if you can’t find a box of carrot cake mix. Our store only had one brand of carrot cake mix.

Instead of applesauce you could use canola oil, vegetable oil, or melted butter.

You could use chopped pecans instead of walnuts. If you don’t like nuts, or have an allergy, you could use chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or raisins.

A great tangy sour cream frosting or butter cream frosting could replace the cream cheese frosting. Heck, these cookies are so yummy you could even leave the frosting off.

You could also swap out the homemade cream cheese frosting for store bought to make these even easier to make.

Close up overhead view of cookie dough scoops on a cookie sheet.

Close up view of unfrosted carrot cakemix cookies on a blcck wire coolingrack.

Recipe Tips

Prepare the cookie sheet by using a silicone mat, spray with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. I like parchment paper the best for easy clean up.

I use a #60 cookie scoop, which is small. It holds one tablespoon of cookie dough. We try to make our cookie balls about the same size but don’t fuss over it too much.

Place the cookie dough balls about 2-3 inches apart so they have plenty of room to spread. I hate it when they run together. They taste the same but don’t look as pretty.

Keep cookies in an airtight container.