Carrot Cake Pancakes

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If you love carrot cake, you’ll be obsessed with these decadent, yet healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes! They have fresh carrots, spices, and are topped with cream cheese to make the perfect spring breakfast.

Carrot cake pancakes stacked on a plate.

These healthy carrot cake pancakes are made with simple ingredients like carrots, gluten-free oat flour, Greek yogurt, and coconut. They taste just like carrot cake, but in the form of a pancake! These are ideal for an Easter brunch or breakfast because of the carrots, but you could eat them all year round! Top them with cream cheese or maple syrup, or both!

If you like healthy carrot cake recipes, you will love my Carrot Cake Bites and Carrot Cake Protein Smoothie!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Carrot Cake in Breakfast Form: Who hasn’t wanted to eat cake for breakfast? These carrot pancakes are the best way to have your carrot cake and breakfast, too. They are nutritious, decadent, and delicious.
Low Sugar Recipe: Unlike pancake mixes and other recipes, these carrot pancakes are sweetened with maple syrup and spices. There’s no added sugar, but there is a little more protein and fiber.
Perfect for Spring and Easter: You can’t top a fun carrot recipe for Easter or spring in general. Carrot pancakes would make the perfect brunch or breakfast dish that the whole family would love.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Variations & Dietary Modifications
How to Make Carrot Cake Pancakes
Expert Tips
Storage Directions
Serving Suggestions
Carrot Cake Pancakes Recipe FAQs
More Delicious Healthy Pancake Recipes
Carrot Cake Pancakes Recipe

Ingredients

Carrots: You can’t have carrot cake without some freshly grated carrots. You can grate them by hand or use a food processor.
Oat Flour: Use a gluten-free oat flour, or regular oat flour if you don’t need these to be gluten-free. Oat flour is higher in protein and fiber than other flours, so it helps balance the nutrition in this pancake recipe.
Greek Yogurt: Using nonfat Greek yogurt adds more protein to the pancakes and makes them fluffy without adding extra fat.
Almond Milk: This recipe calls for unsweetened almond milk, or your favorite unsweetened plant-based milk or regular milk if you aren’t dairy-free.
Maple Syrup: Sweeten the pancake batter with maple syrup or another natural sweetener like honey.
Spices: Capture those spiced flavors of carrot cake with cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter.
Coconut Flakes and Raisins: Add more texture and flavor to the batter using unsweetened coconut flakes and sweet raisins.

See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.

Variations & Dietary Modifications

Use a Different Flour: If you aren’t a fan of oat flour or can’t eat it, you can make these pancakes with a basic 1-to-1 gluten-free flour or a whole wheat flour instead.
Make Them Dairy-Free: Make your carrot pancakes dairy-free by using plant-based milk, plant-based yogurt, and dairy-free cream cheese for your topping.
Try with Other Veggies: You can make these pancakes with other veggies, like zucchini, as well. I also have a separate recipe for zucchini chocolate pancakes.
Add More Spices: Everyone’s family recipe for carrot cake is different. If yours calls for additional spices, such as ginger, cloves, or allspice, you can also stir them into the batter.

How to Make Carrot Cake Pancakes

This carrot cake pancake recipe captures all of the flavors of a traditional carrot cake, but in pancake form. I love making pancakes on an electric griddle because I can set the temperature, but you can also use a skillet on the stove.

Baking soda, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins and unsweetened coconut flakes in a bowl.

Step 1: Combine the Ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients, Greek yogurt, milk, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla. Then add the dry ingredients, baking soda, oat flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg, directly into the mixing bowl along with the raisins and coconut flakes. Fold them together until they are all just combined.

Carrot pancakes cooked and being flipped.

Step 2: Scoop Batter onto the Skillet. Use a ¼-cup measuring cup to scoop the batter into equal servings onto your preheated griddle or skillet. Use a spatula to spread and flatten the batter. Let them cook for 3-5 minutes until the edges turn golden brown, then flip them over and cook them for another 3-5 minutes.

Carrot cake pancakes on a cooling wrack.

Step 3: Top with Cream Cheese Glaze. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool. Combine cream cheese and milk in a small bowl, then add the thinned topping to a small plastic sandwich bag. Cut a small corner off the bag and squeeze the topping over the pancakes.

Expert Tips

Finely Shred the Carrots: Since these pancakes don’t cook as long as a carrot cake, there is less time for the carrots to cook. Shred them very finely so the pancakes aren’t full of bites of raw carrot.
Preheat Your Griddle or Skillet: Don’t pour your pancake batter onto a cold griddle or skillet. Be sure to preheat it so it’s hot, and the batter starts cooking as soon as it touches the skillet.
Keep Them Warm: If you’re making a lot of pancakes and worry about them getting cold, you can store them in a baking dish in a 200°F oven until the rest of breakfast is ready.

A stack of carrot cake pancakes with slice removed on a fork.

Storage Directions

Storing: Keep leftover pancakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can also individually wrap each pancake and freeze it for up to 6 months.
Reheating: Reheat the carrot pancakes in the microwave for about 30 seconds until they are warmed through. You can also reheat multiple pancakes in the oven at 350°F for 5-10 minutes. Be sure to thaw frozen pancakes in the refrigerator for 24 hours before reheating them.

Serving Suggestions

These healthy carrot pancakes are the perfect breakfast for Easter with the family or for any spring brunch. They have all of the flavor of a traditional carrot cake, but in pancake form. Top them with a drizzle of cream cheese because carrot cake isn’t complete without cream cheese frosting. Eat them on their own or as part of a large brunch spread.

These pancakes taste amazing with a egg bake with hash browns, a great brunch recipe that bakes while you make the pancakes.
Keep breakfast simple by making carrot pancakes with my Greek yogurt scrambled eggs.
Pair them with a cup of coffee, your favorite latte, or a mocha coffee protein shake.

Carrot Cake Pancakes Recipe FAQs

Why are my carrot pancakes still raw in the middle?

If your pancakes are cooked on the outside, but still raw in the middle, then your griddle may be too hot. Turn the heat down so your pancakes cook more slowly and have time to cook through and still turn golden brown on the outside.

Why are my carrot pancakes so dense?

One of the biggest reasons for dense pancakes is if you pack in the flour. You should always measure flour by spooning the flour into a measuring cup and leveling it off, rather than packing it into the cup. Here are more tips for properly measuring flours when cooking with gluten-free flour.

Why are my carrot pancakes crunchy?

Since the pancakes don’t cook for nearly as long as cake would, the carrots don’t have a lot of time to soften. If your pancakes are still kind of crunchy, you should try shredding the carrots more finely.