- Hey guys!
Today I'm gonna share with you
one of my favorite recipes for springtime entertaining:
carrot cake cupcakes.
I love this recipe because they're elegant
and delicious and so festive.
Also those little fondant carrots on top
are a lot easier to make than you might think
and I'm gonna show you how to make those too.
I also wanted to let you know that today
I've launched two new episodes
on my gardening channel.
One all about how to grow your own lemons,
and then I'm gonna show you how to take those lemons
and turn them into a fantastic lemon pound cake recipe.
So after this video is done, you can head over there
and check those videos out.
I'll leave you a link in the description.
Okay, so let's get to the carrot cake cupcakes.
We're first going to begin by cracking in
three eggs into a large bowl.
To that you're gonna add a cup of sugar
and then whisk that all up until
it's nice and combined.
Then we're gonna add 3/4 cup of melted butter,
unsalted will do
and give that a good whisk.
Then you can go ahead and set that aside
and then we're gonna whisk together
our dry ingredients.
So in a smaller bowl, you're gonna take
two cups of all-purpose flour,
two teaspoons of baking powder
and half a teaspoon of salt.
You can go ahead and whisk that up
and then we're gonna add our spices.
So I think one of the most delicious parts
about a carrot cake is that wonderful spice
that typically comes from cinnamon and nutmeg.
So we're gonna use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
and a half a teaspoon of nutmeg.
And then you can go ahead and whisk that in
to your flour mixture.
Now we're gonna take our dry ingredients
and slowly combine it to our wet ingredients.
Just mixing it up in thirds
until everything is nice and combined.
Then it's time to add our carrots!
So we're going to take about three peeled carrots
and just take a box grater or a hand grate,
whatever you have
and just grate the carrots over a bowl
until you get about a cup.
Then we're gonna add our carrots to our batter
and we're also gonna add a half of cup of raisins.
Now I really love to use raisins in this recipe
but I know you raisin haters, that don't like raisins,
you're gonna be looking for an alternative.
So I would say if you don't like raisins
you can use a half a cup of pineapple,
that would be really good
or half a cup of walnuts
or you could add all three.
Then you're just gonna combine your batter
until everything is incorporated
and you're gonna take out a muffin tin
that has been lightly greased with some baking spray.
Now for these, because these are elegant cupcakes
that almost resemble more of mini cakes,
I don't like to use muffin papers.
I find that they just look a little bit
more elegant without them
so that's why I like to make sure
that our tin is nice and greased.
Then you're gonna scoop out your batter
with an ice cream scoop, filling out
about 3/4 of the way full.
Then you're gonna place them
in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for about 18 to 20 minutes.
Just until the cupcakes are nice and set
and turning golden brown.
While our cupcakes are cooling
we can get on with making our fondant carrots.
This is a really fun little project
that's great to do with kids or really any adults,
it's like playing with Playdough.
So what we're gonna do is
we're gonna take out about 6 ounces of fondant.
Now if you're not familiar with fondant,
it is a wonderful sugar paste
that can be molded into all kinds of things.
So we're just gonna take out a little mound,
flatten it and then you're going to add
about two to three drops of orange food coloring.
It's better to add less than more
just to make sure that you get
the desired color because if you add too much
it's really hard to lighten it,
you have to actually add more fondant
and it's a lot harder to do,
it's a lot easier to add more if you need it.
And what I like to do just at this stage
is take a fondant and pop it in a Ziploc bag
just so that we can work in the food coloring
and not get it all over our hands.
Then once the food coloring
is incorporated into the fondant,
you can remove it from the bag
and then we're just going to take
a little bit of powdered sugar
and dust it on our board.
This is gonna prevent the fondant
from actually sticking on the board
and make it a lot easier to handle.
Then you're gonna pinch off a little ball
about the size of a Jawbreaker.
And then make sure that it's nice and rolled
into a beautiful ball.
And then we are going to pinch one end of it
and flatten out the top.
You're basically looking for the shape
of like a little skull.
And then you want to flip it over
and do the same thing on the other side.
And then at this point we're gonna
start to roll it on the board
and you're gonna end up with something
that looks like a old fashioned light bulb.
And once it looks like that little light bulb,
you're gonna take two fingers and just,
working towards one end,
begin to roll it.
And as you'll see, as you roll it,
it'll start to thin out on the bottom
and fatten out on the top.
And you'll start to see a little carrot will form.
Just keep going until you get about a two inch carrot.
The next we're gonna do
is add a little dimension to this carrot
with a paring knife.
So you're just gonna take your knife
and start to make little indentations
all of the side of the carrot.
And what that's gonna do is resemble those
little grains that a natural carrot would have.
And don't worry, it doesn't have to be perfect.
In fact the more imperfect it is
the more it's gonna look like the real thing.
Then you can transfer your carrot
to a parchment lined cookie sheet.
And this is really just so that
the carrot does not stick
because at this point,
the fondant is still probably pretty tacky
but what will happen over time,
in about an hour or so,
those carrots will actually dry out
and become harder and that will make them
a lot easier to put on the top of our cupcakes.
Once you have all your carrots
we're gonna make the tops of the carrots
and these are even easier.
So we're gonna take another pinch of fondant
and flatten it out,
we're gonna add one drop
of the green food coloring
and you really don't need to use that much
because again we're going for a very light,
pastel color green.
You can go ahead and just smoosh it all together,
throw it in your Ziploc bag,
work it in until it's nice and incorporated.
And then we're gonna remove it from the bag
and at this point you probably need
a little bit more powdered sugar.
Pinch off a little bit, about the size of a pea,
roll it into a little ball,
then you're gonna flatten it and form it
almost like a little oval.
And you can pinch it down at one side
so that it sort of comes together at a point.
And then we're gonna go back
and take our little paring knife
and put one line in the center
and then two little branches on either side.
We're going for the look of like a little leaf pattern.
Then you can just repeat that process 11 more times
until all your little tops are done!
So to prepared our frosting it's really simple.
We just gonna take 18 ounces of softened cream cheese,
put it in the bowl of an electric mixer.
To that we we're gonna add a cup of softened butter.
Whip that all together until it's nice and combined.
And you're slowly gonna add a cup of powdered sugar
and once that's all combined,
then you can add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
That's all you have to do!
Your frosting is done.
Then you can take your frosting,
transfer it to a pastry bag,
fit it with your favorite tip
and for this I'm gonna use the Wilton 2D tip.
I really like this tip because I find
that it creates a slightly unusual piping
that's very pretty for a carrot cupcake
but you can use anything you like.
So now we're ready to assemble our cupcakes.
So you're gonna pipe a little mound of frosting
on the top of your cupcake.
What I like to do is frost all my cupcakes first
then transfer them unto a cake stand
and then you can go ahead and place the little carrots
and the tops into the frosting.
And you'll see the frosting actually acts
like a little glue, holding them in place.
And there you have it carrot cake cupcakes
with little fondant carrots on top.
I love this recipe because they are so cute and charming
and perfect for any springtime occasion.
People are always charmed
when you bring this to the table.
They're so elegant and festive
and they're so delicious too.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
And remember head over to the garden channel
if you're interested in learning
how to grow your own lemons
and want a recipe for a fantastic lemon pound cake.
Alright you guys, I'll see you over there!
Bye!
(festive guitar tune)