Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes -
110g butter/baking spread
110g golden caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or essence
2 medium sized carrots, grated (roughly 150g)
40g crushed walnuts
0.5 tsp orange essence
2 medium sized eggs
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp bicarbonate soda
110g Cotswold self-raising flour
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp nutmeg
Sprinkling of demerara sugar
For the topping
200ml double cream
150g cream cheese
25g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or essence
0.5 tsp orange essence or zest
Optional decorative extras
100g white chocolate
Orange & green gel food colouring
10g crushed walnuts for decoration
Makes: 8 generous sized cupcakes or 10-12 smaller cupcakes.
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Bake time: 15-20 minutes
Flours used: Cotswold Self-raising
Method:
- Pre-heat your oven to 180° C and line a cupcake/muffin tray with 8 – 12 cases. Grab a mixing bowl and cream together butter and golden caster sugar until you have a well combined, light paste.
- In a separate bowl whisk together two medium sized eggs and add 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste or essence to the mixture. Give it a little whisk and add to the creamed butter and sugar.
- Beat the ingredients by hand using a whisk or spatula. You can also use a stand mixer if you wish.
- Grate two medium sized carrots and add them to the cupcake batter, stir in to make sure all the carrot is incorporated.
- Add the ground cinnamon, nutmeg and orange essence and give it a quick mix. You can add more or less of each of these additions, I like my cupcakes to be gently flavoured and aromatic.
- Sift in your self-raising flour along with the baking powder and bicarbonate soda.
- Before you start mixing everything together add your crushed walnuts then gently fold all the ingredients together until well combined.
- If you find your cupcake batter is too thick you can add a splash of any milk you like to loosen up the mixture.
- Spoon the batter evenly into eight cupcake cases, this will give you very generous sized cupcakes! If you prefer smaller cupcakes, you can fill 10-12 cases.
- Sprinkle demerara sugar onto each cupcake for a golden, sugary crunch once baked.
- Place the cupcakes in the pre-heated oven, middle shelf and allow to bake for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes test a cupcake with a skewer, if the skewer comes out clean the cupcakes are ready to come out.
- If the cupcakes are still wet, pop them back in the oven and cover with foil for an additional five minutes.
- Once baked allow to cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully.
- Whilst the cupcakes are cooling you can whip up the super simple cream cheese topping.
- Using an electric whisk, whip up the double cream, vanilla and sieved icing sugar until thickened but be careful not to overwhip the cream.
- Add in the cream cheese and orange essence or zest (which ever you have or prefer) then whisk again briefly to combine the cream cheese fully. Cover the mixture and place in the fridge until needed.
- If you wish to make some white chocolate carrot decorations, all you need to do is melt 100g of white chocolate. Once melted separate into two small bowls and add orange gel food colouring to one and green to another until your desired shades are achieved.
- Lay baking parchment flat on a kitchen surface then fill two piping bags with the coloured chocolate milk.
- Pipe out the orange first into carrot shapes and then use the green to create carrot tops. For quick results, pop them in the freezer to set until needed.
- Now your cupcakes are cooled you can decorate with your whipped cream cheese topping - I piped mine, but you can add yours however you like!
- Finish with a sprinkling of crushed walnut and a white chocolate carrot!
Thank you so much to @themindfulnessbaker for providing this recipe. If you’d like to see more, please visit their Instagram page.
← Older Post Newer Post →
