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Let’s face it, the holidays are filled with yummy desserts like apple pie, all things pumpkin, pecan pie and of course all the chocolate. But one that doesn’t get nearly enough credit is carrot cake. This is just about the only dessert that the hubs and I can share. See, he’s not a fan of chocolate. I’m not sure how we are even married. It’s probably our mutual love for food in general, like carrot cake. In my quest to find the most decadent, deliciously flavored coffee drink recipe, in walks Carrot Cake Latté. After making this, you’ll want to add it to your holiday line up!
Side note: I’m not sure why every flavored drink has to be a latté; it must just be the fancy ring to it or something. Carrot Cake Cappuccino just doesn’t quite have the same swagger. But of course any swanky coffee drink can be modified to fit your favorite drink. On second thought, Carrot Cake Cappuccino sounds actually pretty fancy. Hmmmmmm.
What You’ll Need to Make a Carrot Cake Latté
This may sound weird, but in order to get the full flavor of an actual carrot cake (isn’t that what we are after here?) you’ll need some not so ordinary coffee drink ingredients. Ingredients like cream cheese, crème fraîche and hold on …. carrot juice. When I shared with my daughter my thoughts on this recipe her exact words were “uhhhh…” No joke. Yes, you’ll need some carrot juice. Stay with me here. We are attempting to get the same flavor profiles that are in a carrot cake into our cup! I mean a carrot cake without carrot is just a cake, right? Okay, that’s delish too, but that’s definitely not as unique as this.
This drink is full of spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. If you can get your hands on whole nutmeg and then grate it through a micro-plane, that’s best. Chances are you don’t have crème fraîche in your fridge, so you can grab just one nut of nutmeg. You should be able to find that in the bulk spice section of your local grocery store or if you’re like me you can just order it here aka Amazon.
If you’ve followed some of my other coffee recipes, you know that I love to use Califia Farms nut milks. They are creamy and have a velvety texture. Want to know a secret? A lot of small local coffee shops, like Bad Owl, use this in their drinks. Why? Because it’s thick enough and the consistency is best for fancy latté art! You know, the hearts, leaves, swans and such your favorite barista leaves on the top of your coffee. Anyhow, back to Califia. Use it. It’s a bit more expensive but worth every penny. And hey, you’re not buying your coffee drinks daily so you can afford to splurge a bit! The rest, I’m confident you’ll have.
The Base
If you want your Carrot Cake Latté to be a bit more cake-y, I suggest using Java Momma Birthday Cake flavored coffee. It’s a medium roast that you can brew strong and concentrated. It also will carry more vanilla flavor to add to your drink. But any strong brewed coffee will do. You’ll pretty much whisk and heat up everything but the coffee in a pan on the stove, or you can use the microwave. Just head the mixture just until the top bubbles as you don’t want your milk to scorch. If you have a milk steamer, even better. If not, you’ll get some foam that is created from the stove top method. Once done, remove from heat and now you’re ready for the topping.
The Sweet Cream Finish
This is probably the best part, I mean isn’t the frosting always the best part? Again, you’re going to combine all of the ingredients in the sweet cream together and mix with a hand mixer or if you want a little bit to dip cookies in, go ahead and bring out the Kitchenaid and make a little extra! Your sweet cream should be light and airy. Grab a mug; pour your strong brewed coffee in, add the base and plop a dollup of this delicious sweet cream right on top. You can also add just a dusting of nutmeg or toasted chopped walnuts to the top!
Did you make it? Leave a comment and tell us what you thought of it! If you made modifications, feel free and share that too! Tag us on Instagram with photos from your creation!
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