Trader Joe’s seems to always be in the process of shuffling products around. Seasonal products come and go, while other products move in to take their place. Sometimes, products get reimagined and improved. Because of all this, the freezer aisle at TJ’s can be a veritable treasure trove of fresh discoveries.
Our latest TJ’s discovery is the Trader Joe’s Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. According to a user in this Reddit thread, the carrot cake was initially sold in the bakery section of the store, but it had a tendency to go bad too quickly. Thus it was pulled from store shelves, only to reemerge later as a frozen product. Obviously, it’s the frozen version of the dessert that we’re sampling today (though we do dabble in other sections of the TJ’s store occasionally).
Anyway, before serving this carrot cake, you’ll need to let it thaw. The package suggests two different options: overnight in the refrigerator, or about two hours at room temperature. We used the refrigerator method for ours (and we have suspicions that two hours on the countertop might still leave this a little frozen in the middle).
We really do think the refrigerator method works wonders here, as our carrot cake was a lovely cool temperature without any frozen bits in the middle. That’s perfection, as far as we’re concerned.
The very first thing you’ll notice when you bite into it is just how amazing the cream cheese frosting is. It’s super rich and has the perfect amount of sweetness. It is kind of sticky, though — we had once piece that fell onto the plate upside-down due to a serving snafu (a careless staffer with a fork was the culprit here), and it basically glued itself to the plate. That’s less of a complaint and more of a warning: Make sure you serve this frosting-side-up.
As far as the cake portion, it’s wonderful as well. It’s just a touch sweeter than we were expecting, which means that even when topped with such a sweet, delicious frosting, the sweetness of the cake itself doesn’t get lost in the mix. If you look super closely, you’ll see that there are pieces of carrot in the cake, but the don’t affect the flavor much. All they really do is offer a little bit of color and a nice texture. It’s a great use of Bugs Bunny’s favorite food!
Oh, and there are no raisons here. Raisins seem to be a controversial addition to carrot cake, and this version of it skips all the controversy to focus on what works. We love that.
According to the package, there are six servings here, meaning 1/6 of a package is a serving. We actually think that’s a pretty decent serving size, as we ended up cutting ours smaller than that (the piece shown above is about 1/8 of the package). If you stick with the recommendation, you’re at 290 calories and 300 mg of sodium, which really isn’t bad for a dessert this rich.
The Trader Joe’s Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is an excellent addition to the TJ’s frozen dessert selection. If this was indeed moved from the bakery (as was suggested on Reddit), then we support that decision 100%. We really enjoy this carrot cake, and we think you will too!
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen carrot cake, check out our package scan below.
12/31/21 No carrot cake the freezer aisle but, awesome4-pack carrot cupcakes!