Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and fluffy.

Line a small baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat. Scoop 18 (approximately 2-2½ teaspoon sized) dollops and place them onto the prepared baking sheet. A slightly underfilled one-tablespoon sized cookie scoop works great for this.

Place the sheet of cream cheese dollops into the freezer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until fully frozen. The more solid the cream cheese dollops are, the easier they are to stuff inside the cookie dough.

Divide the remaining cream cheese into two separate bowls. Add about ¾ of the remaining cream cheese mixture into a small bowl and stir in 1-2 drops of orange gel food coloring until well blended.

Stir in 1 drop of the green gel food coloring into the remaining fourth of the leftover cream cheese filling.

Transfer the orange cream cheese to a small piping bag and the green cream cheese mixture into a second small piping bag. Do not cut off the tips until ready to decorate. If freezing your cream cheese dollops overnight, place the piping bags into the refrigerator for storage. Allow the cream cheese piping bags to come to room temperature before decorating the baked and cooled cookies.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and stir to combine. Add the shredded carrots, quick-cook oats, and chopped pecans to the bowl and stir together until evenly distributed into the cookie dough.

Chill the cookie dough for 20-30 minutes. While the cookie dough chills, preheat the oven to 350°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Use a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out a level dough ball. Place the dough ball into the palm of your hand and gently flatten into a disc.

Place one frozen cream cheese dollop into the center of the dough and wrap the edges up around the cream cheese forming a ball. Place the carrot cake stuffed cookie dough ball onto a prepared baking sheet and gently press into a slight disc with the palm of your hand. This will help to ensure the cookies bake evenly. Repeat until all the dough balls are formed and placed onto the cookie sheets. Each baking sheet should hold 9 cookies placed at least 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies for 14-16 minutes or just until lightly golden around the edges and the center is set.

Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before adding carrot decoration.

Once cooled completely, snip the end of the piping bags with the orange and green cream cheese mixture. You want the opening of the green piping bag to be slightly smaller than the orange one to get a finer line when piping the leaf onto the top of the carrots.

Gently squeeze the orange piping bag to create an upside down triangle, or carrot shape, onto the center of a cookie. Use the green piping bag to pipe three lines for the leaves on top of the carrot. Repeat until all the cookies have been decorated.