Combine dry ingredients: in a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.

Wet ingredients: With a mixer on high speed, cream butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. On medium speed, mix in the eggs, one at a time. Add in the vanilla extract and a few more times.

Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined on low speed. Do not overmix. Stir in the grated carrots and nuts, and mix a few more times until just combined. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, making sure that the plastic is touching the dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F while the dough is refrigerating. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

Scoop dough, about 1.5 tablespoons per cookie, onto the lined sheet pans. The dough is sticky, so use a cookie scoop if possible. Space them out about 3 inches apart. If you run out of space, bake them in batches.

Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. It may look a little bit undercooked, that’s fine. Let cool completely (I transfer them to a cooling rack 10 minutes after they are out of the oven).

After the cookies have cooled completely, make the cream cheese frosting: Beat the unsalted butter with cream cheese until combined. Add the confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix on low for a few seconds and then high for about 2-3 minutes until combined and smooth.

Pipe some frosting on one cookie and cover with another to make sandwich cookies. Or, you can just frost the top of each cookie to make it simpler. Enjoy!