When someone you love loves carrot cake; you are gonna pay attention when you come across a recipe (from Willow Bird Baking) on the interwebs for carrot cake waffles.
So…
I saved the recipe to my computer against the day I thought my husband would really enjoy a spicy, carrot-y batch o’ waffles.
This past Sunday was that day, so I gathered the waffle iron and got started.
Now, I should warn you… this is a fussy recipe: eggs need to be separated and the whites whipped into light peaks. and set aside for the last bit of mixing.
Carrots need to be grated – well, truly, you should expect that when you think about carrot cake anything.
And, you need buttermilk.
This is actually really simple to deal with; simply place two tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup, then add milk to measure two cups, stir to mix, and set aside for five minutes or so. Voilà! Buttermilk!
Still and all, all this stuff said, these waffles are wicked tasty; and you could do a fair amount of prep work the day before and 
have everything you need lined up and ready, which would certainly speed things (and later clean up) up.
INGREDIENTS
•2 cups purpose flour
•1/2 tsp salt
•2 tbsp sugar
•1-1/2 tsp baking soda
•1 tsp cinnamon
•1 tsp nutmeg
•1 tsp allspice
•1 tsp ground ginger
•1-3/4 cup buttermilk
•2 eggs, separated
•4 tbsp butter
•1/2 tsp vanilla
•1 cup raisins
•1 cup pecans, chopped
•1-1/2 cup finely grated carrots
•Cooking spray
Whisk the flour together with the salt, sugar, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
Lightly whip the egg yolks and stir into the flour mixture along with the buttermilk. Save the remaining 1/4 cup buttermilk for a marinade for pork or chicken.
Melt the butter in a skillet until it is melted and lightly browned. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger and cook for about 15 seconds, then remove from the heat and cool to room temperature for 30 minutes.
See? Kinda fussy; but, you could do this spiced butter bit the day before and just transfer it to a covered jar and let it rest on the counter until you are ready for it.
Add the cooled spiced butter to the batter with the buttermilk and egg yolks and stir until you have a thick batter.
Whip the egg whites in a bowl until light peaks form.
Add the grated carrots (I started with bagged, shredded carrots, then chopped ’em finely in a food processor), pecans, and 
raisins to the batter, then add the whipped egg whites and stir gently into the batter until nicely combined.
It’ll be a bit thick and lumpy.
Apply cooking spray to your waffle iron and heat to whatever temperature your iron suggests for waffles the way you like. I normally cook mine on heat setting three or four, giving me cake like waffles which hold well in a 200º oven while I finish making all the waffles, and can then go (as leftovers) from a freezer bag to a toaster with no loss in flavor or texture.
Ladle the batter onto your hot prepared waffle iron – I find that a crêpe rake works a treat to help spread thick batter over the entire waffle iron – then close the pan and cook for four to five minutes, until the waffle is done to your liking.
Transfer to a pan in your 200º oven and repeat with the remaining batter. I got about 20 waffles – if you discount my sometime ragged edges…
which didn’t really matter, because these are really good waffles.
We had ours with maple pecan cream cheese and maple roasted bacon.
Yum.