Carrot Coffee Cake

Carrot cake meets coffee cake, and together they are a beautifully tasty concoction you won?t be able to resist. A delicious carrot cake base, cream cheese center, and crumb topping.

I am a huge fan of coffee cake, even as a non-coffee drinker, I love the idea of a piece of cake with my morning beverage. Cake for breakfast. How fun. This particular coffee cake started with my favorite coffee cake recipe (Dream Coffee Cake), and I simply adjusted it to give it a fun spring makeover.

I make it in a spring form pan that I coat with shortening, but you could line a 9? round baking pan with parchment and cook it in that if you wish. If I am doubling the batch or making multiple kinds this is what I usually do, so I know it works.

One trick to make things easier is to not worry about hand grating the carrots, instead use a food processor. It will make your carrots into tiny pieces in about 30 seconds. Then mix everything up. And you are good to go.

After everything is mixed properly, put it in your pan. You just push the batter flat, and up the sides a bit, making a well for the cream cheese mixture. If you wanted to do something fun you could add some coconut flavoring or shredded coconut to the cream cheese filling for added flavor.

Then you top with the crumb topping. It is pretty dry, don?t worry about it. The key is to get it to be fine crumbs, not super mixed together. You can use a pastry cutter to cut the butter in, or two fork! Or pop it in the food processor for a few pulses.

And bake. When you are doing baking, just insert a toothpick or knife into the center to see if it comes out clean, if it doesn?t then you will need to cook longer. Every oven is a bit different, it usually takes between 45 minutes to an hour to bake properly. It will also vary on how wet your carrots are. So check the doneness. I cooked mine a little under done because I had to head out the door to get kiddos, but it was still seriously yummy, so don?t stress too much.

You will want to let the cake cool completely before serving. I prefer to put it in the fridge overnight so that the filling is chilled.

Then I just dig in! I mean seriously, so hard to resist this tastiness.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

And if you love all things carrot cake, don?t forget to check out this fun carrot cake bar with coconut cream cheese frosting recipe: