If you didn’t know, we recently celebrated the first-ever “Local News Day” on April 9.
The effort to observe local journalists around the country came from a push in Montana. In Newton, we had a small, but mighty, group of community members who stood outside our office with signs, touting the importance of having a local newspaper. It was really neat.
What the newsroom also really appreciated was the group very kindly dropped a bunch of delicious goodies at the office, as well.
My favorite? Some carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
I absolutely adore carrot cake.
Ironically, that particular cake is the inspiration for the recipe I’m sharing with you this week for a really easy cobbler. It takes all the flavors of carrot cake and combines them with a pecan pie for an excellent dessert that must absolutely be enjoyed with a big scoop of ice cream.
This comes from the blog “The Salty Cooker.” You can find the original post at https://thesaltycooker.com/carrot-cake-cobbler-with-caramel-pecan-filling/. I added extra spices in my version.
Carrot Cake Cobbler
Ingredients
Filling Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups dark corn syrup
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups pecans chopped
Cobbler Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter cold
- 3/4 cup buttermilk I used milk with a touch of vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups carrots shredded
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a seven-by-10-inch baking dish, and set it aside.
- For the filling, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice and salt until it’s well-combined. Stir in the pecans, and pour the mixture into the baking dish.
- In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt and stir to combine.
- Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it’s well incorporated. Stir in the buttermilk, vanilla and carrots, just until it’s combined.
- Drop scoops of the cobbler mixture evenly over the top of the filling (there will be some gaps).
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the filling bubbles around the edges.
- Rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.
- Serve warm or room temperature, along with some vanilla ice cream.
We had this for our family Easter celebration. It was really, really good. The warm spices, along with the texture of the filling and the cobbler topping, just took it over the top.
And it was a lot less work than creating a whole cake or a batch of carrot cake muffins, which were—by the way—a great addition to the newsroom, not only because the reporters all love snacks but also because I didn’t share a single bit of this cobbler with any of them.
This piece first appeared in print April 16, 2026.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
