Carrot Cake Cupcakes

These are the moistest, most delicious Carrot Cake Cupcakes that I have ever had! They have a little crunch from toasted walnuts and the perfect hint of cinnamon! Topped with an impossibly creamy cream cheese frosting they are irresistible! 

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This is the most tender, moist carrot cake you’ve ever had with a little crunch from the toasted walnuts and a prominent carrot cinnamon flavor.

The cake is the same as The Best Carrot Cake Recipe but transformed into cupcakes! I topped them with a traditional cream cheese frosting but you could also use this bourbon cream cheese buttercream from the best red velvet cake.

And adorned with a little marzipan carrot. As can be seen, they are adorable. Plus who doesn’t love marzipan?

So truth be told, this isn’t my first time around the carrot cake block…

This carrot cake recipe is actually shockingly similar in texture and taste to one I made last year from one of my vintage cookbooks. It tasted divine and the frosting was to.die.for. Why didn’t I post it?

Because as I cut into my magnificent 3-tiered cake, I realized my carrots had turned green.

GREEN!!!!

Apparently if carrots come in contact with baking soda, they will transform like a Teenage Mutant Nina Turtle into a horrible, sickening shade of green.

In essence, think shamrock.

If you’re really nice to me, I may just post a picture of the green cake in all its glory. Maybe.

In culinary school we weigh all our ingredients, because it is 1000x more accurate and at least 234x easier. I converted this recipe to volumetric measurements because I love you, but I suggest you dust off that scale in the back of your cupboard and weigh your ingredients.

When someone gives you weighted measurements it’s like a gift from the Goddess of Precision herself, and you don’t turn down gifts. Or at least I don’t! 😉

If you aren’t into kneading gel coloring into marzipan and meticulously shaping carrots (even though it is so easy!), you can do like my friend David and pipe adorable little carrots on top with frosting.

5 from 1 ratings

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

by Chef Lindsey

These are the moistest, most delicious Carrot Cake Cupcakes that I have ever had! They have a little crunch from toasted walnuts and the perfect hint of cinnamon! Topped with an impossibly creamy cream cheese frosting they are irresistible!

Prep: 45 minutes mins

Cook: 15 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings: 24 cupcakes

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Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

For the Carrot Cake:

• ▢ 1½ cups all purpose flour
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• ▢ 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 1 ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ▢ 1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar
• ▢ 3 eggs
• ▢ 1 cup carrots shredded and squeezed
• ▢ ½ cup walnuts toasted and chopped

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• ▢ 20 oz cream cheese not light, not whipped, room temperature
• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
• ▢ 2 cups powdered sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ toasted walnuts chopped, for garnish, optional

For the Marzipan Carrots (optional):

• ▢ 3 ½ tablespoons marzipan
• ▢ food coloring orange and green

Instructions 

For the Carrot Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350˚F and line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
• Add the lemon juice to the vegetable oil and set aside.
• Squeeze out the excess juice from your carrot; discard or drink it! So healthy!
• In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip together the eggs and sugar to the ribbon stage. This is when the batter will hold a ribbon on its surface before slowly disappearing.
• With the mixer running on high, slowly pour in the vegetable oil mixture and whisk until completely emulsified (i.e. you can’t see any oil).
• Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in the dry ingredients all at once just until streaky.
• Fold in the walnuts and carrots until there are no more lumps of flour and the batter is just combined. Please don’t over mix. If you think it’s done, it is.
• Scoop into prepared tins no higher than ¾ full. You will have just enough batter to fill 24 cups.
• Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes back clean.
• Cool 5 minutes in pan then turn out onto wire rack and cool upside-down. Yes, upside-down! Let cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar on medium low speed until soft and smooth, 10-12 minutes. It is very important your ingredients are at room temperature or you will have lumps of butter and you will have to soften over a water bath and your frosting will be runnier (Like mine. Don’t let impatience happen to you.)
• Add the lemon juice and vanilla and stir to combine.
• Pipe frosting onto cupcakes using your favorite tip. I used a Wilton 1A.
• Gently scoop some toasted, chopped walnuts into the palm of one hand and pat them around the edges of each cupcake.

For the Marzipan Carrots:

• Color ¾ of the marzipan orange and ¼ green, by kneading in gel coloring into the marzipan.
• Shape little carrots from the orange marzipan and mark them with the back of a knife to resemble the lines on real carrots. Make a divot in the top of each carrot.
• Roll out the green marzipan into long, thin ropes and cut into small pieces. Group several pieces together and press into the divot in each carrot.
• Top each cupcake with a small carrot. Adorable.

Notes

Let’s get into it like a PROFESSIONAL CHEF:

Presentation – Be careful to add your carrots in the right order. If baking soda comes into direct contact with carrots it will turn your cupcakes green (alternatively, you could do that on purpose for St. Patrick’s Day).

Flavor Tips – You cannot substitute for freshly shredded carrots that you have squeezed so they do not have their excess moisture. I use cheesecloth or a tea-towel in a pinch. You can use pre-grated carrots but they will be fatter and have variable amounts of moisture. Be sure to squeeze them with commitment or you will have gooey spots in your cupcakes.

Technique – This is a whole egg foam batter, so please track your eggs while mixing them with the sugar and don’t stop until you hit the Ribbon Stage and the eggs have tripled in volume. This makes the batter extra light and soft rather than dense. How do you know if it is at  the “Ribbon Stage”?  You know an egg foam is at Ribbon Stage when you stop the mixer, take the whisk and draw it across the top of the bowl, and it will briefly hold a ribbon of batter on top before falling back into the foam. 

Helpful Tools – I converted this recipe to volumetric measurements because I love you, but I suggest you dust off that scale in the back of your cupboard and weigh your ingredients. It’s actually easier in the end, much more accurate, and gives you a better chance of hitting the pinnacle of perfection in your cupcakes. 

Variations –  I have baked this batter into layer cakes, groom’s cakes, sheet cakes, carrot cake entremets, roulades, and multi-tiered birthday cakes. The only tricky bit is the baking time, so be sure you keep track of the cake and only pull it from the oven once a cake tester comes out with a few clinging crumbs.  

Storage – Store unfrosted carrot cupcakes well-wrapped at room temperature or freeze them! Unfrosted Carrot Cake Cupcakes will keep at room temperature for 3 days, refrigerated for a week or frozen for up to two months! Store unused cream cheese frosting in an airtight, clean container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Frosting can be frozen for longer storage. Once frosted, cake can be kept at room temperature for up to three days before the buttercream spoils. For longer storage, store in the refrigerator.

Can easily halve this recipe to make 12.

Nutrition

Calories: 375kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 54mg | Sodium: 135mg | Potassium: 86mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 1357IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 1mg

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Calories: 375

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