Delicious, tender carrot cake cupcakes topped with a fluffy, lightly sweet whipped cream cheese frosting. They come together quickly and taste amazing.
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Hello Hello.
How are you, my friends?
We had a great long weekend and spent most of it with family, which always makes it the best. Spent the day up in Ogden yesterday and had lunch with my cute niece who is going to school up there. It was a lot of fun.
We ate at a great Italian restaurant so if you’re looking for good Italian in Ogden, Zucca’s is a great little place. I highly recommend it. The food was fresh and made with good ingredients. It’s been hard to find an Italian place we like, but I’ll definitely be going there again.
Okay now to move on to the reason we’re both here.
These carrot cake cupcakes
I’m super excited to share with you these carrot cake cupcakes that have been in the development stage for a long time.
I’ve made dozens of these guys and brought them all over the place and each time I get requests for the recipe.
They really are delicious. Light and tender and perfectly sweet. And that frosting. YUM. It’s a very light whipped cream cheese frosting. And on top of those perfect cupcakes…well the whole package really is pretty much amazing.
I know most people think of carrot cake in the spring. But I really don’t know why. Carrot cake really should be a thing all year long, but maybe especially in the fall.
Take the color for example. Orangey-brown?
Yeah totally fall food all the way.
Anyway, I really don’t care when you decide to make them, but make sure you do make them. We make them all year long and no complaints here.
Light and tender, the cupcakes totally rock my world. Leave the frosting off and call them a muffin if you want. There’ll be no judging here. And I should mention that the cupcakes by themselves are dairy free if that’s important to you. I was dairy free for about a year and I know it is always so much better to get a good recipe that just IS dairy free, not just adapted to be that way.
Let’s talk about the frosting
Oh boy it’s the good stuff. None of that heavy, sickly sweet frosting for me. This is lightly sweet and perfectly fluffy. It won’t overpower the cupcake and the whole flavor combo just kind of works together perfectly.
My favorite cupcake liners are these from Amazon (aff. link). They don’t hold onto the grease and pull away easily from the cupcakes. Nothing fancy, just plain and basic, but they do a great job.
Just another quick plug for my favorite Mexican vanilla (aff. link). Oh I love this stuff. It has an amazing flavor and is clear so it works great in this light and fluffy frosting.
Okay my friends. Let me know how you like the cupcakes. I’ll tell you one thing, this cook sure took advantage of her cook’s treat privileges in the development of this recipe. YUM!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
Delicious, tender carrot cake cupcakes topped with a fluffy, lightly sweet whipped cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
For Cupcakes:
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons (10.65 ounces) all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- dash cloves
- 5 large carrots (12 ounces)
- 1 ¼ cup (9.4 ounces) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (3.75 ounces) brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ¼ cup canola oil
For Frosting:
- 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
For Cupcakes:
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
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In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Whisk together to combine and set aside.
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Wash carrots well (no need to peel them) and in a food processor fitted with a fine shredding disk (or grate by hand using a fine grater), shred the carrots. You should have about 1 ¾ cups of packed carrots. Set aside.
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In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer (or use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or by hand with a whisk), beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs on medium-high speed until thoroughly combined, about 45 seconds.
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Reduce the speed to medium and with the mixer running, add oil in a slow, steady stream, being careful to pour oil away from the beaters or whisk.
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Increase the speed to high (or whisk quickly by hand) and mix until the batter is light in color and well emulsified, about 45 seconds to 1 minute longer.
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Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients by hand until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain (being careful not to overmix).
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Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin tins, filling the cups about ⅔ full. Bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean, about 20-23 minutes.
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Let the cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
For Frosting:
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In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle or whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, whip together the cream cheese, sour cream and granulated sugar for 1-2 minutes until creamy and smooth.
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Add the vanilla and heavy cream and mix until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add additional heavy cream and whip thoroughly if needed for a softer frosting.
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Frost the cooled cupcakes and store the frosted (or unfrosted) cupcakes in the refrigerator until serving.
Recipe Notes
1. My favorite cupcake liners are these from Amazon (aff. link). They don’t hold onto the grease and pull away easily from the cupcakes.
2. I love using this clear Mexican vanilla (aff. link) in the frosting. It’s my favorite.
Recipe Source: Heather @ The Cook’s Treat
All images and text ©The Cook’s Treat
Disclaimer: post contains affiliate links for items on Amazon.
Thanks so much Heather! I LOVE these carrot cakes of yours. They are the best! Now I can make tons of them for me–well, maybe not ALL for me. LOL
I know you’ve been asking me a while for this recipe, Marlou. Enjoy!!