Carrot Cake Pancakes

Carrot Cake isn’t my favorite cake flavor, but I thought it might make a pretty good pancake. I haven’t really come across a flavor pancake that I haven’t liked thus far.

ingredients.

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
2 T. chopped walnuts (optional)
2 T golden raisins (optional)
1 large egg
2 T. packed brown sugar
1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 c. finely grated carrots (from about a 3/4 pound bundle whole carrots)
3 tablespoons butter, for griddle

cream cheese topping ingredients.

4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 c. powdered sugar
2 to 3 T. milk
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
dash of ground cinnamon

directions.

Place a rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat to 200°F. This will keep the pancakes warmed as they’re fried in batches.
To make the pancakes: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and, if using, nuts and raisins. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in carrots. Stir carrot mixture into dry ingredients, stirring until just incorporated. Let rest while you make the cream cheese topping.
To make the cream cheese topping: In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy and lump-free. Whisk in powdered sugar, two tablespoons milk, vanilla and cinnamon. If you’d like the mixture thinner, add the remaining tablespoon of milk.
Over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a cast-iron skillet or griddle pan. Spoon 2 tablespoons batter into the hot pan per pancake, flipping once, until pancakes are golden on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer finished pancakes to a serving dish or tray in the oven, to keep warm while you repeat the process with the remaining batter, adding more butter as needed.
Serve warm with cream cheese topping.

These pancakes were hard for me to rate because I didn’t at all care for the raisins in them. (I actually don’t like raisins in most instances so I’m not sure why I included them – I wouldn’t even put them in Carrot Cake!) With raisins I would give these pancakes a three-apple rating.

I didn’t have any ginger and didn’t feel like paying $6 for a bottle of something I need in such a small quantity so that was omitted. Also, I don’t enjoy cream cheese frosting all that much, so I opted to top them with Warm Vanilla Sauce. That being said, I think I would have liked these pancakes considerably more without the raisins (which would bump them up to a four-apple rating.)

Recipe rating: 