Carrot Cake Energy Balls

Carrot cake… Only healthy.

Are you tired of carrot cake yet?

There’s only about 1.4 million carrot cake recipes floating around on the Interweb. That’s a lot of carrot cake.

Lucky for you, I was too lazy to make an entire cake. Don’t get me wrong, I love baking and assembling cakes, but it’s a task that I have to be in the mood to do. Otherwise, I’ll end up with a half-fast cake that leans to the right.

After seeing all of the gorgeous carrot cake recipes on Pinterest, my tastebuds got a hankering for carrot cake. Go figure!

Those damn tastebuds ruin everything. As a food blogger, I should be all sorts of trendy. I should start making flag cakes in May and peppermint bark in July. Here’s the problem… I’m not trendy. I’ll never be that organized food blogger that celebrates Christmas in July.

What I really wanted to do was breeze by Easter without thinking about carrots inside of cakes, but my tastebuds had other plans.

Demanding little buggers!

Because I still consider myself a rebel, I decided to go the unconventional route and roll some carrots with a bunch of crap that tastes like a carrot cake and call it a day.

Everybody’s happy. Hold on, you are happy, right?

There’s more good news. The above mentioned crap is all good for you. These carrot cake energy balls are full of things like flaxseed meal, oats, dates, carrots (of course), dried pineapple, and toasted pecans.

These bad boys are naturally sweetened. What does this mean for you? I’ll tell ya what it means…

More food in your face. Less junk in the trunk.

In other words, your thighs will love you.

Heck, they may even be better than cake.

Too far? Yeah, I thought so.

I can promise you this… These sweet, moist balls taste like pop-able versions of the real deal. Cross my heart.

After rolling the balls, place them in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to mingle. I recommend refrigerating them for at least an hour before serving. The longer the flavors mingle, the better they taste.

Print Recipe

Carrot Cake Energy Balls

Sweet, pop-able energy balls that taste just like you’re biting into a piece of carrot cake.

Yield: 10 energy balls

Total Time: 1 hour

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

2/3 cup grated carrot (1 large carrot)

1/3 cup coconut flakes, sweetened or unsweetened

2 tablespoons flaxseed meal

1/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

4 large dates

heaping 1/4 cup dried pineapple

heaping 1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup coconut flakes for rolling (optional)

Directions:

In the bowl of your food processor (or blender), add grated carrot, coconut flakes, flaxseed meal, oats, cinnamon, and ginger. Pulse to combine.

Add dates, dried pineapple, pecans, and vanilla extract. Pulse until the mixture comes together. You’ll know the mixture is ready when it forms a slight dough ball in the bowl of your food processor.

Shape the mixture in to tablespoon-size balls. Roll the balls in coconut flakes. Store in an airtight container, separating the layers with parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

All images and text ©One Sweet Mess.

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