I think this is the earliest Easter I can remember and if you’re scrambling a bit like I am, I’ve got you covered with tons of delicious Easter recipes here. Before we head into the weekend I wanted to share one more easy, festive carrot cake-flavored recipe that’s perfect for your brunch table.
I dreamed up these carrot cake pancakes a few years back and come back to them all the time because they’re SO fluffy and seriously taste like a slice of carrot cake. These pancakes were a result of me finding carrots in my fridge and oats in the pantry — and admittedly inspired by my obsession with all things carrot cake. In case you missed it, I have 7 carrot cake-inspired recipes here!
Anyways, these beautiful springy pancakes are gluten free, come together right in your blender, and have all of those yummy carrot cake mix-ins. Kiddos will love these!
Pancake batter made right in the blender
What I love about these carrot cake pancakes is how simple they are to whip up. You just need a blender, a few pantry staples and a nonstick pan. Add all the ingredients minus the mix-ins to a blender and you’ve got yourself an easy carrot cake pancake batter that’s made without any flour — just oats! Yum.
Feel free to try some of my other reader-favorite blender pancake recipes that use minimal pantry staples:
Everything you need to make carrot cake pancakes
These healthy carrot cake pancakes are made with super simple ingredients that keep them gluten free, dairy free and packed with both fruits & veggies—making them perfect for kids! Here are the ingredients you need:
- Unsweetened applesauce: applesauce keeps these pancakes super moist and flavorful, and adds a touch of natural sweetness from fruit.
- Eggs: these will help your carrot cake pancakes stay together nicely. I haven’t tested with a flax egg but let me know if you give it a try!
- Unsweetened almond milk: for additional moisture. Please note that you can use any milk you want in this recipe!
- Maple syrup: to add a natural sweetness. Feel free to use coconut sugar or honey as well.
- Rolled oats: old fashioned rolled oats make the pancakes nice and hearty! Feel free to use gluten free rolled oats, but do not use steel cut oats.
- Baking powder: to make the pancakes super fluffy.
- Spices: I used cinnamon & nutmeg in this recipe for a cozy carrot cake flavaaaa.
- Salt: just a pinch to bring the flavors together.
- Mix-ins: you’ll stir in shredded carrots (because they’re carrot cake pancakes, of course), and then I like to add chopped walnuts or pecans for crunch & omega-3s, and raisins. Nuts and raisins are totally optional but extra delicious!
Simple ingredient swaps
I love that these carrot cake pancakes are packed with fridge and pantry staples, but if you’re out of anything here’s what I can suggest for swaps:
- Out of applesauce? Feel free to sub in a mashed ripe banana.
- Swap your sweetener. Instead of maple syrup, you can also use coconut sugar or honey.
- Choose your milk. I like to keep these pancakes dairy free by using unsweetened almond milk, but feel free to use any milk you’d like.
- Go nut free. The walnuts and/or pecans add a delicious crunch, but you can easily omit them!
Can I make them vegan?
I haven’t tested these carrot cake pancakes with flax eggs, but let me know in the comments if you do!
How to make carrot cake pancakes in the blender
The best part about this carrot cake pancakes is how easy they are to make right in your blender! Be sure to check out my best tips & tricks for making pancakes, too.
- Blend the base. Place all of your ingredients besides the mix-ins into a blender and blend until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Add the mix-ins. Stir in your shredded carrots, walnuts and raisins.
- Cook one side. Add olive oil, coconut oil or vegan butter to a griddle or large nonstick pan and place over medium heat. Add carrot cake pancake batter 1/3 cup at a time and use a spoon to spread it out a bit into circles. Cook for about 2-4 minutes or until golden brown and tiny bubbles appear around the edges.
- Flip those babies & repeat. Flip pancakes and cook until golden brown on underside. If you find that pancakes are browning too quickly, then you need to lower the heat. I normally start on medium heat, then reduce to medium low later so that my pancakes don’t burn. If at any point your griddle starts smoking, it means your pan is too hot. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more oil and remaining batter.
- Serve & enjoy! Serve pancakes with almond butter, cream cheese or yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup!
Make ahead & keep pancakes warm
You can also make these gluten free carrot cake pancakes ahead of time and keep them warm in the oven. Simply place oven at 200 degrees F, then add pancakes to a baking sheet or oven-safe plate and place in the oven until ready to serve.
How to freeze pancakes
If you want to make your carrot cake pancakes ahead of time and serve them at a later date, you can place the pancakes on a baking sheet so they aren’t touching and place in the freezer for 30 minutes, then place them in freezer safe containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Once ready to reheat, simply add pancakes to a plate and microwave for 30-60 seconds or until warm.
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More carrot cake recipes to try
- Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal Cups
- Healthier Carrot Cake Banana Bread with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Carrot Cake Smoothie
- Healthy Carrot Cake Cookies (made with coconut oil + dairy free!)
- Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze
Looking for more carrot cake recipes? Get all of ours here!
I know you’re going to love these healthy carrot cake pancakes! Please let me know if you make it by leaving a comment and rating the recipe below. I’d love to hear from you and it helps encourage others to make the recipe too! Enjoy xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Healthy Carrot Cake Pancakes
Ingredients
- ½ cup (125g) unsweetened applesauce
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup (80g) unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (or sub coconut sugar or honey)
- 1 ½ cups (143g) old fashioned rolled oats, gluten free if desired
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Mix-ins:
- 1 cup (100g) shredded carrots (shred with a cheese grater)
- ¼ cup (28g) chopped walnuts or pecans
- 3 tablespoons (30g) raisins
- For cooking:
- Olive oil or coconut oil, for cooking
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients (besides the carrots, walnuts and raisins) to a blender and blend on high until completely smooth, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in the carrots, chopped walnuts and raisins (DO NOT BLEND).
- Lightly coat a griddle with coconut oil or olive oil and place over a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add about 1/3 cup of the batter to the griddle for each pancake and use a spoon to spread them out a bit into circles; cook for 2-4 minutes until pancakes slightly puff up and you see a few bubbles along the edges.
- Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside. If you find that pancakes are browning too quickly, then you need to lower the heat. I normally start on medium heat, then reduce to medium low later so that my pancakes don't burn. If at any point your griddle starts smoking, it means your pan is too hot.
- Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more oil and remaining batter. Makes 6 pancakes total. Serves 3, 2 pancakes each.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
Recipe originally published March 30th, 2020, republished March 23rd, 2021, republished again April 9th, 2022, and republished March 28th, 2024.
Super easy and flavorful without making us feel yucky after breakfast. I reduced oats the second time I made them since my first batch was too thick. I also subbed a small apple for applesauce since that’s what I had. Thanks for an amazing recipe.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
These pancakes are perfect!! Easy on my stomach and my kids absolutely scarf them down! I’ve made them so many times and really the only thing I do differently from the recipe is add more cinnamon (bc I love cinnamon obviously:) and I sautee the carrots before adding just enough to soften them bc my kids are super picky and they like the texture better. Honestly every recipe I’ve made from AK has been amazing. Thank you SOOO much for not only sharing the recipe but giving it in weights so I don’t have to dirty my measuring cups AND you list the nutrition facts. Love it! Thanks again!! 🥳
The best breakfast! So glad these are a favorite!
Well, the pancakes aren’t fluffy at all. Followed the recipe to the Z. Might give it a try again.
Absolutely the best pancake recipe ever !! They turned out so fluffy, delicious and heartwarming. I subbed the applesauce for bananas, the flavour was still top notch. Thanks a lot for the lovely recipe <3
So happy to hear that!
What a treat! It tasted fancy and special, but made me feel healthy having carrots and oats for breakfast! I had it with chopped fresh pineapple and toasted coconut flakes, making it feel gourmet, but it all came together so easy with the blender method. Will definitely make again, thank you.
The perfect breakfast! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
I substituted a half a cup of almond flour and one cup rolled oats. Was super easy and really delicious. Be sure to blend the oats really well. Carrots and raisins were such a nice touch.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
These pancakes are delicious. I followed the recipe except I added coconut flakes instead of raisins and I also added chia seeds. The textures with the walnuts and oats were so good. We served them with preserves. Thank you.
Love that! Such a great breakfast 🙂
This was so delicious! I made a cream cheese glaze to pour on top – cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and maple syrup. YUM.
So good!!
I’m planning to try these tomorrow but don’t have any applesauce on hand, anything I can replace it with?
I’ve seen people in the comments successfully use mashed banana or Greek yogurt!
Easy, love a blender recipe! I cut this in half and was a perfect amount for two people.
Love that! Perfect breakfast 🙂
I love these carrot cake pancakes so much! Perfect flavor and fluffy texture. To make things easy I used 1.5 cups (same weight) of oat flour instead of the rolled oats, and whisked everything together in a bowl instead of blending. Also used 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt instead of the applesauce for more protein. The pancakes rise perfectly and have such a great carrot cake flavor when topped with yogurt and chopped walnuts and maple syrup 🙂 thanks for another winner Monique and team!
Perfect! So glad you love these ones!!
I’ve woken up early to try to make these pancakes several times now but can’t seem to get it right. They burn on the outside before cooking through on the inside. I’ve tried cooking them on medium and I’ve tried cooking them on low. On low, I stood there for over 40 minutes waiting for them to cook and they still turned too brown in the outside before cooking on the inside. I’ve tried with and without a lid, and always in a non-stick pan. What am I doing wrong?
Do you think you could add ground flax seeds to this without changing the flavor?
I think so! You may just want to reduce the rolled oats by a little bit because the flaxseeds will act as another dry ingredient.
Made this recipe for Easter brunch and it was 10/10! Followed the recipe exactly but made waffles instead. Perfection! Everyone agreed this was delicious and we will make again for sure. Thank you for sharing!
Love it!! Perfect brunch 🙂
Looks delicious. Can you sub banana for the apple sauce or would that impact the flavor too much?
Yes that will work! I include that in the blog post for recipe substitutions 🙂
I was a little leery about this recipe but it was delicious. I had oats that were already whizzed in the food processor so I didn’t use the blender. Added 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut, ( instead of nuts) 1 T grapeseed oil & squeezed the liquid from the carrots. Had to add another splash of almond milk. Really good recipe.
Perfect! Such a great breakfast!
These taste just like a slice of carrot cake and they are so fluffy. I also love the fact that they are make with oat flour.
So good!!
Can we make these with flour instead of oats?
You could use oat flour, I would probably recommend 1 1/4 cup to start, but you could add more if it’s not consistent with pancake batter. Enjoy!
these are great but your serving sizes are way off. This made 20 medium size pancakes using the exact ingredients. I can get 4/5 total servings which gives each person 4 to 5 pancakes per serving. About 200 calories for each serving.
The texture was really dense/oaty-i just made your pumpkin pancakes recipe yesterday which were amazing. Yesterday I blended the oats into flour before adding them into the recipe -in this recipe blending everything didn’t make it as fluffy. Will try again making the oat ls into flour first
Some of the BEST pancakes I’ve ever tasted. An absolute must! Whole family loved these.
These were delicious and super quick and easy to make. I subbed cranberries for the raisins and mixed plain greek yogurt with a little maple syrup as a topping and extra protein boost. Will definitely make again!
Can I use quick oats?? Thanks
Yes I think they should be fine! I usually use rolled oats in this recipe but quick should work well 🙂
Really disgusting, and I’m a health nut. Carrots make for a really gross texture.
Hi, Todd. Did you try this recipe? I recommend grating them using a fine grate (the side of a box grater with smaller holes) so that they cook more easily and don’t taste chunky.
Super quick, easy, and delicious! Highly recommend with a little cream cheese and maple syrup!
Hi, can you tell me what I can sub for the oats?
Sorry, I can’t recommend a sub for them!
These pancakes were so delicious! I will definitely be making them again.
Another amazing recipe! Delicious, heathy and two young kiddos loved it too!
Would the batter keep overnight if I left the mix-ins out? Or would I need to leave the baking powder out as well? I’m traveling and would like to bring this as a surprise breakfast treat without needing prep time the morning-of. Thanks!
Hi, there! Sorry if this response is late. I’d definitely leave the baking powder out, since it’ll lose its power overnight.
Delicious pancakes! I recommend cooking these lower and slower to ensure the middle is properly done. Medium heat worked well for me =)
Great tip! So happy to hear you enjoyed them 🙂
So good! I make these when I have matchstick carrots on hand. I’ll toss them in the blender for a quick pulse once everything else has been fully blended. And always add raisins. Yougurt and syrup on top – yum!
Love it! So delicious 🙂
I loved these pancakes & will definitely be making them again. So simple, healthy &good. I made them on Easter Sunday–yummy. The only thing I’d change next time is to add a tiny bit more almond milk. Mine were delicious, but a bit dry.
So glad they were a hit! Yes, feel free to add a little more liquid next time as-needed 🙂
these pancakes are SO good – my husband loves them! so, now they will be our Easter breakfast along with some cream cheese syrup! YUM!
I’m so glad! Perfect breakfast 🙂