Today’s smoothie is all about my love for carrot cake, because if there’s one cake that I could eat over and over again, it would be carrot cake. And hint, hint: if you haven’t made my layered grain free, gluten free carrot cake yet, you absolutely need to put it on your must bake list ASAP!
However, if you happen to be in the mood for something a little lighter and more nutritious, I highly suggest this delicious creamy carrot cake smoothie that tastes like a slice of cake.
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Carrot cake smoothie ingredients
This carrot cake smoothie has all of the delicious flavors of carrot cake, including the cozy spices like cinnamon, natural sweeteners from fruit and carrots and other simple ingredients packed with nutrients. There’s 10g of protein, almost 8g of fiber, and heart-healthy fats making it a perfect breakfast or post-workout smoothie. Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- Raw carrot: this recipe calls for a large carrot, which will add vitamin A and that delicious, carrot cake flavor. If you don’t have a high powered blender, it might be hard to completely blend the raw carrot.
- Frozen banana: using frozen fruit is best in smoothies and banana helps to sweeten this one!
- Frozen pineapple: if you’ve ever had a carrot cake with pineapple in it, you’ll LOVE this addition. It adds a unique sweetness that brings out the carrot cake flavor.
- Coconut milk (or any milk): I love using coconut milk in this recipe to add a tropical, creamy flavor, but feel free to use any milk you’d like (dairy free or regular).
- Greek yogurt: for a boost of protein and to keep the recipe smooth and creamy, I love using greek yogurt. I typically use plain greek yogurt in my smoothie recipes, but you can use vanilla if you prefer a sweeter smoothie, or feel free to use a dairy free yogurt.
- Oats: this adds a little heartiness to your carrot cake smoothie and will help thicken it, feel free to add in 1/4 cup rolled oats. Do not use steel cut oats as they will not blend well.
- Nut butter: either pecan butter or almond butter will work well in this recipe to create that nice, toasty flavor that’s often found in carrot cake.
- Vanilla: gotta have that boost of vanilla flavor.
- Spices: don’t forget the cinnamon and nutmeg to help bring out that spiced carrot cake flavor!
Add extra nutrition to this carrot cake smoothie
Looking to add a nutrition boost to this smoothie? Here are some great smoothie mix-ins I recommend:
- Flaxseed meal: this is one of my favorite ingredients to add to smoothies for a little boost of fiber and minerals, and is especially great for nursing mamas as flaxseed can help increase milk supply. Usually, a tablespoon is plenty! Here’s a brand I love.
- Chia seeds: feel free to add in a tablespoon of chia seeds to your smoothie for a boost of healthy fats and fiber.
- Hemp seeds: if you’ve been wondering what to do with those hemp seeds lurking in your cupboard, feel free to throw in a tablespoon into your smoothie for a boost of healthy fats, omegas and minerals.
- Spinach: if you’re looking to get more greens in your smoothie, try adding a cup or two of raw or cooked spinach. You’ll never be able to taste it, but just know that it may change the color of your smoothie to brown depending on what other fruit you use.
- Protein: Easily add more protein to a smoothie by adding 1/2 cup greek yogurt or 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder. I recommend Vital Protein collagen peptides or Bob’s Red Mill Plant Based Vanilla Protein Powder.
- Frozen cauliflower: feel free to throw in a cup of frozen cauliflower to thicken your smoothie even more and get extra veggies in. You won’t even be able to taste it!
What does this healthy carrot cake smoothie taste like?
Adding carrot to a smoothie might sound strange, but trust me, it’s delicious! If you’ve ever made my Healthier Carrot Cake Banana Bread, you’ll love the flavors in this toasty, perfectly sweet smoothie. Add a few chopped pecans on top, a sprinkle of cinnamon, or even some coconut flakes for a yummy breakfast that tastes like a treat.
The best way to prep your carrots
If you have a high-powered blender like a Vitamix, feel free to just chop your carrot and add it into your blender for the smoothie. If your blender isn’t as heavy duty, I’d recommend shredding your carrot first with a hand grater or box grater so that it blends up well with the other ingredients. Use shredded carrots in these amazing recipes, too:
- Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze
- Carrot Cake Pancakes (gluten free + dairy free!)
- Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal Cups
- Healthier Carrot Cake Banana Bread with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- The Best Healthy Carrot Cake You’ll Ever Eat (gluten free & paleo-friendly!)
How to make a creamy carrot cake smoothie
This delicious, creamy carrot cake smoothie is so easy to make! simply add all of our ingredients to a high powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Top with anything you’d like — I love adding my homemade granola, extra shredded carrots, coconut flakes or pecans.
Tips for making smoothies
Here are a few of my favorite tips I like to share in regards to making the best creamy, healthy smoothies:
- Use frozen fruit. Using frozen fruit is best as it helps keeps the smoothie cold and thick. Sometimes ice doesn’t blend as well, so it’s best to skip it unless absolutely necessary.
- Add more liquid. Don’t be afraid to add more liquid if your smoothie is too thick or won’t fully blend. High powered blenders tend to blend frozen fruit much better, so if you have a regular or personal size blender, you may need to add more milk.
- Start on low speed. Start the blender on low speed, then gradually increase to high to help blend all ingredients. Finally, end with the blender on low speed.
- Sweeten it up. If a smoothie doesn’t taste sweet enough for your liking, you can add a 1/2 tablespoon of honey, pure maple syrup or 1 pitted Medjool date.
- Use your fav milk. Feel free to use any milk you’d like in smoothie recipes according to your preferences. Almond milk tends to have a neutral taste in smoothies, coconut milk will add a more tropical and creamy flavor, and regular milk will add a boost of protein.
Meal prep this carrot cake smoothie
Yes, you can make this creamy carrot cake smoothie ahead of time! I have three amazing ways to prep & store smoothies right in your freezer. Learn the ice cube tray, mason jar and freezer pack methods.
More smoothie recipes to try
- Almond Cherry Smoothie (my favorite smoothie ever!)
- Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Smoothie (with sneaky veggies)
- Get Your Greens in Smoothie (the best green smoothie!)
- Vitamin C Packed Strawberry Orange Banana Smoothie
- 3-Ingredient Pineapple Mango Smoothie (with a fun boozy option!)
I can’t wait to hear how you like this carrot cake smoothie! Be sure to leave a comment & a rating so I know how you liked it. And don’t forget to check out our guide on how to prep smoothies ahead of time. xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Carrot Cake Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 large raw carrot, sliced (or shred if you don’t have a high-powered blender such as a Vitamix)
- 1 frozen medium ripe banana
- ½ cup frozen pineapple chunks
- ¾ cup light coconut milk, plus more if necessary (use any milk you'd like)
- ¼ cup plain greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup gluten free oats
- 1 tablespoon pecan butter or almond butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
Instructions
- In a large high-powered blender, add in all ingredients and blend on high for 1-2 minutes or until all ingredients are well combined. If necessary, add in more almond milk to thin the smoothie. Makes 1 smoothie for a full meal. If you'd like this as a snack, this recipe will serve 2.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on July 13th, 2019, republished on March 4th, 2021, and republished on April 6th, 2022.
My favorite cake in smoothie form!!!!
Same girl! SO good.
This is suuuuuuch a good recipe. Not only does it taste delish but it’s packed with healthy goodies. Thank you so much for this amazing smoothie option!
Absolutely! So glad you enjoyed 🙂
So yummy!
One of my favs!
I made this today after a friend shared it with me. It was so easy and SO good! I used a little more greek yogurt and then substituted the cinnamon and nutmeg for pumpkin pie spice since I didnt have just nutmeg. The pineapple is really what makes this, but the nut butter also adds a nice surprise as well. I think next time I will try adding some toasted coconut!
This is HANDS DOWN mx fave smoothie at the moment 😍✔️
So happy to hear that!
Love carrot cake and this is exactly like it in a smoothie! So helpful to use some of my extra carrots, too 👍🏼
Yummy! At first I was a bit skeptical, a smoothie which claims to taste like carrot cake. Hmm… But I gave it a go and yes! It actually taste just like a carrot cake. I added 2 tsp Chia seeds
So happy you gave it a try! One of my favorites 🙂
This smoothie was delicious! I used cashew milk because that’s what I had on hand and opted for adding frozen cauliflower rice to chill and thicken it rather than including the oats. I recently had oral surgery and I have been making my way through your smoothies. In addition to this one, I love the pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and coffee lover smoothies. Thank you for the recipes!
Amazing smoothie as always!! The flavor profile and ratios are amazing. So creamy, full of spice and delicious.
One of my favs! Glad you love it!
Wow this was such a fresh smoothie, the carrot + pineapple was surprisingly good together I didn’t even taste the banana too much which is good because sometimes it takes over the other flavors. I didn’t have any milk and just used yogurt, still very good
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed!
Really Delicious smoothie!! It changed up my smoothie game a bit and is so so good!! I also added some cauliflower and you truly don’t taste it.
So happy to hear that! Perfect breakfast or snack 🙂
Another option is to use plain cooked carrots. I did that last year and it worked perfectly.
Perfect! Love it.
I would love to make this recipe but I am allergic to pineapple… I dont have mango either which is what I was thinking could be my alternative. any ideas?
You could just leave it out, or add more banana if you’d like!
I am on the Plant Paradox diet, and I can use a lot of your recipes!
So happy to hear that!
I am currently trying to est healthy and love carrot cake and this recipe sounds beyond delicious but due to a medical issue I can not eat yogurt. Any suggestions to add something else instead of yogurt?
Thank you😊😊
Feel free to just add extra milk!
Delishious! I did steam my carrot the night before, then refrigerated so it would be cold in the am. Carrot cake in a glass!!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
So good!! I never would have thought to put all of these things together in a smoothie, but it works really well and does have the flavor of carrot cake!
Right?? The best flavor!
I LOVED this smoothie. I added frozen riced cauliflower and vanilla protein powder, and skipped the oats. The flavors were absolutely delicious I loved how many veggies I was able to pack into my first meal of the day.
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed!
This is my new go to smoothie. It is DELISH!!
This smoothie has become a staple! My boyfriend and I have it multiple times a week. We sub peanut butter for the almond butter and it tastes GREAT. Love that there are no added sugars in this (maple syrup, dates etc) and it’s just fruits and veggies.
So happy to hear that! Such a great breakfast or snack 🙂
This one came out delicious. The frozen fruits are key to a nice cold smoothie. I don’t do dairy if I can help it so I used coconut almond milk and almond milk yogurt. It’s a winner!
So happy to hear that! I’m glad the dairy free yogurt worked out well, too 🙂
Oh my!! I’ve been thinking of making this forever .. but it was weird-ing me out a bit. But made it this morning and it really is next level delicious .. and legit takes like carrot cake. I LOVE carrot cake! YUM!! (It was the PERFECT consistency .. I grated the carrot and just had everything sitting in the nutribullet cup in the fridge over night .. and just whizzed it this morn. YUM!!) Thanks Monique!!
I’m so glad you gave it a try!! Perfect breakfast 🙂
Yummy even without the pineapple. I added flax, spinach and hemp, used vanilla soy yogurt. Love the flexibility of this recipe.
Thanks!
This one’s great for customizing! Glad you love it 🙂
Sounds Great
One of my favs!
I had some pineapple in the freezer so I got to finally make this (it has been on my must-try list for a while). YUM! My terrible blender left the shredded carrots chunky but it actually worked with this being a carrot cake smoothie.
So glad you liked it! A more authentic carrot cake smoothie 🙂
Much sweeter and yummier than I was expecting from a carrot smoothie! 🙂
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
I used 5shredded baby carrots (because I didn’t have any regular), frozen pineapple chunks, frozen banana slices, coconut milk from the can, dairy free plain yogurt and gluten free oatmeal and the rest as written. I only waited a couple hours to freeze the pineapple and banana because I was so excited to try this (something far removed from my typical smoothie),but it was so delicious! I am certainly going to make this again,but be more patient for the pineapple and banana to get honestly frozen. Thank you so much for this recipe!!
I’m so happy you loved this one, Jen! Can’t wait for you to make it again 🙂
Love this recipe…so fresh and delicious!
I’m so glad to hear that! Thanks for the review 🙂
Hi, this smoothie recipe and many of the others on this site look very yummy, but I’m allergic to bananas. Is there something else you would recommend substituting in its place?
Sorry to hear that! I haven’t personally tried it but I think you could try adding more yogurt + a date or two (or bit of maple syrup) to sweeten it. Let me know how it goes!
This is wonderful! I didn’t have any pineapple but did add both the flaxseed and the frozen cauliflower rice that were suggested, and I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Incredibly delicious, very healthy and I’m making one again tomorrow to enjoy as my lunch! Thanks for this amazing recipe.
I’m so happy you tried and loved it! Thanks, Michelle 🥰
wow, this looks so delicious and yummy. i just love this carrot cake smoothie. thanks for sharing this wonderful article and recipe of carrot cake smoothie.
nice set of ingredients, creative too to make them taste like carrot cake, I like the coconut milk too, thank you
Wow! It looks so good. I’m sure this is gonna be very refreshing. Just learnt your whole recipe and I’m so excited to share this with my kids. They would love it. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds delish. Hope this isn’t a stupid question, is this really almost 500 cals for one smoothie?
Thanks!
Haha that’s ok! The coconut milk is what adds up here, but feel free to replace with another milk like almond milk 🙂
Yum! I add spinach to all of my smoothies. Will have to give this one a try!
I loved this smoothie! I wasn’t too sure about the pineapple, but it definitely elevates the flavor of the carrots. This smoothie kept me full too!
So glad you ended up loving it, Ella! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review 🙂
So delicious! Myself and my three young boys all loved!
I’m so glad!! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review 🙂
I was looking for new smoothie recipe and this one was awesome. Great flavour combination! I used what I had on hand – unsweetened vanilla almond milk and vanilla Greek yogurt, so I did. Or add the vanilla of course, and I added a punch of salt. I loved that it was sweet enough without having to add any sweetener, but I’m sure you could blend a date of you wanted. Love this recipe!
Delicious! So glad you are enjoying this smoothie and it turned out great with your subs, thank you for sharing!
This recipe sounds so good! Do you have any ideas on what I could switch the pineapple out for? I’m just not a Pineapple fan. Thank you! 🙂
Hi! Frozen mango would be fantastic!
I love your approach to smoothies and your flexible suggestions! Cauliflower -wow.
I used sweet potato/carrot purée (yes I did make that for a furry friend)
5g of coconut is plenty for a flavor boost since I use almond milk. Your style makes it easy for me to predict success in leaving out the higher calorie/trigger ingredients as desired.
I include allspice and will def throw in some chunks of frozen pineapple when I make this again- tomorrow!
Thanks for your cool site. It’s a help on my health journey.
Hi Mary! I am SO glad you found this recipe and you’re loving it. Thank you for sharing your comment, I really appreciate it!
Can you use cooked carrots?
Sure! I’d recommend freezing them first so that the smoothie doesn’t turn out too “mushy.”
I’m in the minority here, but I couldn’t even finish it. I wanted to like it, but I’m not a fan of the taste of the texture. I didn’t think it tasted like carrot cake. Maybe it would be better if the carrot was cooked? I don’t think I’m willing to give it another chance though since I ended up having to dump it.
Sorry to hear that! I’m not sure where this could’ve gone wrong texture and flavor-wise – was everything smooth?
Loved this recipe! I subbed Orgain plant-based vanilla protein powder for the oats and silk vanilla yogurt for the Greek yogurt. Delicious!
Perfect! Such a great breakfast or snack.
Tastes like candy! I was not expecting that!
So good!!
I just made the carrot cake smoothie, it was so good.
Happy to hear you loved it, Joseph!
I got this in my email at 10 this morning and whipped it up at 11:30. It’s just what I needed after a week of salty and heavy foods.
I think this is a great recipe and it will be in my smoothie rotation, for sure!
Love that! Such a great breakfast or snack 🙂
This is one of my favorite smoothie recipes! Such a good spring snack. I used lemon juice instead of pineapple chunks for the tanginess.
So happy to hear that! Perfect for spring 🙂