Since I like to bake a lot, I’ve taken to making “mini” of a lot of things so that when I indulge, I don’t indulge in too big a way. I make these carrot cupcakes in my mini muffin pan (be sure to use liners or they’ll be really hard to get out!). With a dollop of icing, these make great little treats. And they freeze beautifully, even fully iced. Just place on a baking sheet and pop into the freezer until hardened then store in a freezer bag.
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Summary: These are a tasty and easy way to enjoy the great flavours of carrot cake. These are moist and keep well.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup vegetable of sunflower oil
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated carrot
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- Frosting:
- 3oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Coat 12 muffin cups with vegetable oil spray and line with cupcake liners. (Don’t skip the liners of you’ll have trouble getting them out!)
- Stir the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Mix the granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and applesauce in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, about 1 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Mix in the flour and then the carrot, raisins and walnuts. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes. Remove from the muffin tray and transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
- To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed until well combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually add the icing sugar to make a smooth icing.
- Spread the icing over the cupcakes. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, pressing walnuts gently into the icing so they adhere.
- NOTE: These cupcakes are best once they’ve cooled completely and have had a chance to let their flavours develop.
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 hour
Number of servings (yield): 12
Sent you an email, Shauna. For the benefit of others, yes, you can absolutely omit the walnuts. As for the Baker’s Flour, I wasn’t sure what that was but if it’s cake flour, should be fine by adding 3 additional tablespoons of flour to the 1 1/2 cups. Bread flour is probably not the best choice as it has too much gluten to produce tender muffins, I think.
Hi Jen can I use Baker’s Flour instead of All Purpose Flour? And can I simply omit the walnuts for my toddler? Thanks, Shauna
I made these mini cupcakes last night and they were GREAT!! Thanks!!
So glad you enjoyed them, Julie! – Jen