Whether you like it or not, carrot cake is a classic bake. Today I’m showing you how to make my take on carrot cupcakes with an orange cream cheese icing – sound good?
I know that carrot cake is in the classic cakes, like a coffee and walnut cake (or coffee and walnut cupcakes, if you fancy) but it’s not for everybody – which is perfectly understandable. That’s why I’m sharing my carrot cupcakes, smaller, easier to share and perfect if you only want a small amount of cake instead of a slice (or 2, I’m not judging).
For me, carrot cake has that spring or easter vibe to it and I can’t quite explain why. It’s different to most other cakes, especially considering it has grated carrot in. This helps add flavour, texture and moisture to the cake – which is important. Remember that carrot cake should be moist, not dry – so many shop bought or other recipes end up being dry and unpleasant but not this recipe.
Once you give this recipe a try, you won’t look back. To make this cake even better, I used a classic cream cheese icing but made it better by adding in orange zest – trust me, this simple little addition elevates this cake to the next level – so, what’s stopping you making these soon?
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
150g butter.
150g light brown sugar.
3 eggs.
150g plain flour.
1 tsp baking powder.
dash of cinnamon.
85g walnuts (optional).
100g raisins.
150g grated carrot
icing:
300g icing sugar.
50g butter.
125g cream cheese.
Method:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll eat to do some prep work. I recommend starting b weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line a muffin tray with cupcake cases and get any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula ready.
To start on the cupcakes, take your mixing bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar. Beat the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.
Give the bowl a quick scraping down, just to work in any bits that may to have been fully worked in.
Then add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in-between each addition, ensuring each egg is fully incorporated before adding in another egg. the consistency of the batter will become more liquid like, which is normal.
Give the bowl another quick scraping down, just to incorporate any of the bits that may not have been fully incorporated.
After you have done this, you can then go ahead and add in all of the grated carrot along with the raisins/walnuts – then mix this in until its fully worked in.
Directly into the bowl, sift in the plain flour and baking powder – you can also add in the ground cinnamon.
You can then go ahead and mix all the ingredients together until a batter forms – it won’t be completely smooth seeing as there is carrot in the mic but you shouldn’t be able to see a trace of a single ingredient.
Divide the cake batter between your cupcake case and bake for 20-22 minutes in your preheated oven (the cupcakes should be risen and when a tester is inserted into the centre, comes out clean).
While your cupcakes are baking, you can make the cream cheese icing.
The icing is really easy to make. start by grabbing a large mixing bowl and placing in the icing sugar, butter and orange zest – then mix these together until they are combined, they won’t come together fully as the mixture is too dry at this point. By now, the mixture should be clumping together.
Add in the cream cheese and mix on a medium-high speed. At the start, the mixture may look very liquid – don’t worry, as you whisk it together, it thickens and becomes a much more stable icing to work with.
You’re looking for the perfect spreadable/pipable consistency, it should hold its shape but still be pliable enough to work with. Once you achieve this, you can transfer the icing into a piping bag fitted with your choice of nozzle and set aside until needed later on.
As an optional spring/easter themed topped, you could make a couple little sugar paste carrots to sit on top.
Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled and the icing has been made, you can go ahead and finish the cupcakes off. Start by taking the icing and piping however you like on top of the cupcakes, I used a 1M Wilton tip but you can use whichever nozzle you like.
If you’re using any sort of topper, you can place them on now and serve the cupcakes – it’s that easy.
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
Leave a Reply