Carrot Cakes

I had fun making these cakes for this month’s Center Parcs blog.

I’ve wanted to share these mini carrot cakes with you for a while. It’s a failsafe recipe and they are very moist and moreish, especially with the tangy cream cheese frosting.

Instead of my usual standby of making cakes and sticking mini eggs on top, I decided to make teeny carrots out of fondant. I had a pleasing little production line going and made far more than I needed, so George and Ed ate them as sugar filled snacks for the rest of the week.

Easter seems to have become a huge retail event lately. I can’t believe the amount of Easter-themed products and decorations in the shops this year. I shan’t be decorating my house for Easter, or buying lots more food than normal, but I will be making carrot cupcakes.

The Easter Bunny doesn’t usually bring me a chocolate egg, so I am going to eat his cakes.

      

If you’d like the recipe click here where there’s the recipe for the cake and frosting and instructions for making the carrots.

There’s even a downloadable template for the easter bunting, ‘cos I’m nice like that.

Happy Easter!

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients Makes 12

200g golden caster sugar
150ml sunflower oil
3 large eggs
220g grated carrot (about 2 or 3 large carrots) – use the finer side of the grater
60g sultanas
60g chopped nuts (walnuts are traditional but I like brazils)
220g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
1 pinch of salt

For the icing
100g butter, softened
100g full-fat cream cheese
200g icing sugar (add a touch more if you want to pipe it)
Orange zest

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line 12 muffin tray holes with muffin cases – the sturdy brown paper ones are best
2. Mix together the sugar, oil and eggs until smooth, then stir in the grated carrot, chopped nuts and sultanas
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, spices and salt, then tip this into the wet carrot mixture and stir well
4. The mix will now be quite runny – split it between the muffin papers and bake for 25 minutes until well risen and evenly brown. Allow to cool completely
5. For the icing, mix your butter and cream cheese together in a bowl until smooth and light
6. Stir in the icing sugar, mix well and add the orange zest. Then you can pipe or spoon the icing onto the cold cupcakes (if the cupcakes are still warm, the icing will melt and slip right off)
7. Top with a pinch of orange zest or – if you’re feeling arty – some fondant carrots.

Fondant carrots

You’ll need orange and green fondant, a skewer and a cocktail stick.

First, make your carrot/cone shape out of orange fondant and some tiny green sausages for the leaves.

Leave them to stiffen up for an hour or so. Stab a little hole in the top of each carrot with a skewer and press a cocktail stick against the sides to make carroty creases.

Fold the leave in half, wet them slightly and stick them into the hole at the top of your carrot.

Leave them to dry for a little while and then place them on your iced cupcakes.