Mini Carrot Cakes
- Katie Rowe
- Mar 25, 2023
- 3 min read
I did not intend for it to be a food blog. But I do love baking, so I might use this as an occasional space for documenting my amateur recipe experiments.
I ended up with way too many carrots last week, so I decided to make some carrot cake. This was my first time making it, so it was a little ambitious to try to do my own thing rather than follow a standard recipe. I value the creativity of the process over the quality of the final product, and they turned out pretty good anyway.
They were definitely moist and pretty dense, which inspired the game-time decision to double up the cupcakes into mini layer cakes. They were pretty good, though, especially when they were fresh, and I was really pleased with the frosting and the crumb.
Would make again (with some tweaks)!
Carrot Sponge
Ingredients
115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick)
150 g granulated sugar
150 g light brown sugar
3 eggs
110 g buttermilk
75 g grapeseed oil (or other clear, odorless oil like vegetable or canola)
4 g vanilla (1 tsp)
10 g honey (1/2 tbsp)
225 g all purpose flour
3 g cinnamon (1 tsp)
1 g nutmeg (1/2 tsp)
4 g baking powder (1 tsp)
4 g kosher salt (1 tsp)
2 cups of grated carrots
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare two cupcake tins with paper or reusable liners.
Combine the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next, beating on high for 1 minute after each addition. After you add the last egg, scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on high for 4 more minutes.
Combine the buttermilk with the oil and, with the mixer on medium speed, stream them in very slowly. It should take you approximately 3 minutes to add these liquids.
Add vanilla extract and honey. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high, and paddle for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl. On the lowest mixer speed, slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet all at once and mix for 45 to 60 seconds, just until the batter comes together.
Add in the carrot shavings and mix on low speed.
Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake tins. Bake for 18-25 minutes, until a fork or toothpick comes out clean.
When baked through, remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
Spice Crumb
Ingredients
40 g non-fat milk powder
40 g all-purpose flour
12 g cornstarch (2 Tbsp)
10 g granulated sugar (2 Tbsp)
15 g brown sugar
2 g kosher salt (1/2 tsp)
3 g cinnamon (1 tsp)
1 g nutmeg (1/2 tsp)
55 g unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 250°F (120°C). Line a quarter-sheet pan with parchment paper.
Combine all ingredients except butter in a bowl and stir until well-mixed. Then, pour in melted butter and mix until clumps form.
Pour onto the prepared pan, and bake for 20 min. Cool to room temperature.
Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
115 g unsalted butter
115 g cream cheese
150 g confectioners sugar
4 g vanilla extract (1 tsp)
Honey to taste
Instructions
Allow butter and cream cheese to come to room temperature. Then, beat with sugar until smooth and combined.
Stream in vanilla and honey.
Assembly
I decided to make these into mini layer cakes rather than normal cupcakes only after seeing how flat and short they ended up, but I actually think it works a lot better for the texture and flavor profile.
For each mini cake, I popped one cupcake out of the wrapper, added one layer of frosting, sprinkled some crumb and gently pressed it down with the back of the spoon, and then added another frosting layer on top. Then I added the second cake layer, another layer of frosting, and then final crumb.
I innovated part way through the process and started to...
Flip the cakes over and frost the bottom side, like you would with a real layer cake.
Trim a bit of the overdone tops off of the cakes for the top layers.
Scrap Truffles
I had some leftovers at the end of the assembly process, so I decided to roll 'em together into some quick cake truffles. I mixed up the cake scraps with a little bit of frosting to bind them, then rolled them in frosting to make a layer for the outside, and finally in the crumb.
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