Why Make Carrot Cake French Toast?

First things first: carrot cake french toast is delicious! Although it is a dense french toast, it stands up very well to coating with an egg batter and frying, and the end result has so much more flavor than a regular french toast. If you like carrot cake, you’ll love carrot cake french toast.

Leftover Carrot Cake?

Now, if you like carrot cake, the chances are slim that you’ll have any leftover, but if you do happen to have leftover carrot cake, turning it into french toast is a great way to use it up. However, carrot cake french toast is actually a really good reason to make some carrot cake. If you’re doing so and planning ahead, I suggest making a carrot cake loaf. That way, you start out with the carrot cake in a shape that makes it really easy to slice into evenly thick slices. French toast is always better with stale bread, so feel free to make the carrot cake loaf well in advance. The rest of the ingredients for this are things you probably already have on hand. The recipe calls for half-and-half, but feel free to use plain milk if that’s what you have. The extra fat in the half-and-half just helps it coat the carrot cake slices.

How Long to Soak French Toast

When making plain french toast, it’s important to soak the bread long enough for the bread to absorb some batter, but not so long that it falls apart. Generally, that’s about 20 – 30 seconds per side. Carrot cake is more sturdy than regular bread, so soak it for about a 30 – 60 seconds on each side. Stale carrot cake slices will soak up more of the batter than fresh carrot cake slices. 

How to Cook French Toast

You cook carrot cake french toast cooks just the same way that you’d cook basic french toast. Use medium heat and add some butter to the pre-heated skillet first. Then, cook the carrot cake for 1 – 3 minutes per side, or until it is nicely brown with crispy edges.  Feel free to go back and forth from side to side until you have it just right. Storing cooked pieces in a low (170˚F) oven is a good idea, or serve it right away. 

Maple Cream Cheese Topping 

For me, one of the best parts of this carrot cake french toast is the maple cream cheese dollop that goes on top. This sort of replicates the icing of carrot cake, but it doesn’t take the place of maple syrup. Dollop some maple cream cheese on top of the french toast slices, or let people serve themselves. Then dust with powdered sugar and drizzle some maple syrup on top. It’s a decadent breakfast, but oh-so-good!

Carrot Cake French Toast with Maple Cream Cheese