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You are here: Home / cakes / Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate "Creamy Dreamy" Frosting

Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate "Creamy Dreamy" Frosting

October 19, 2010 By Laura 10 Comments

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I think I’ve mentioned somewhere on here before that my kids each get multiple birthday parties. It is a function of both growing older (and having kid parties) and having out of town families which are difficult to coordinate. So I stopped trying, and instead have 1 party for each side of the family and then also one with kids. Anyway, although Sammy’s birthday is the 20th, we had her party for my family 2 Saturdays ago, before my dad left on his annual hunting trip and during an out of town away game for my brother (who coaches college football), so his wife and their kids were free to come. The point being, these carrot cupcakes are birthday dessert number 1 for Sammy–because let’s face it with 3 parties plus an actual birthday, the most important question is what is for dessert on each of those occasions?


Sammy requested carrot cupcakes–I am not sure where she got the notion, but she became obsessed with it. Which was nice, because I used to feel guilty for foisting more autumnal desserts on her when Alex got chocolate and/or lemon in June. Sprinkles are a Shaky Handed Mom’s dream come true, because every kid loves them and you don’t need steady decorating hands to use them. (My niece’s birthday is also in the fall and we just went to her party, where her mom had made a beautiful pink princess cake–someday I am going to get her to come and decorate my kids’ cakes!) With Halloween just around the corner, we went for Halloween colored sprinkles–but you might also see dinosaurs and football helmets mixed in there.


The frosting is Rose Levy Berambaum’s White Chocolate Creamy Dreamy Frosting, which has definitely become my go-to cream cheese frosting. It is so much less sweet and so much more, well, creamy. I used a combination of Guittard and Green & Black’s white chocolate–the most important thing is that it have real cocoa butter in the ingredients. I was tempted by Beranbaum’s carrot cake recipe as well, but instead I went with my tried and true America’s Test Kitchen recipe from Baking Illustrated. The recipe is for a 9 X 13 sheet cake, so it makes a lot of cupcakes. I like it because, as promised in the recipe, the cake is never bottom heavy or soggy, because you mix the batter by emulsifying the oil into the eggs in a food processor.


Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate "Creamy Dreamy" Frosting
 
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Carrot cake very closely adapted from America's Test Kitchen; Frosting adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum
Author: TheSpicedLife
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Cakes
Ingredients
  • 12.5 oz (2½ cups) AP flour
  • 1¼ t baking powder
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1½ t Vietnamese cinnamon
  • ½ t freshly grated nutmeg
  • ¼ t ground cloves
  • ½ t salt
  • 1 lb grated carrots
  • 1½ cups (10.5 oz) granulated sugar
  • ½ cup packed (3/5 oz) light brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1½ cups vegetable oil (neutral tasting; I used regular olive oil)
  • Double recipe of white chocolate creamy dreamy frosting
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven at 350 F with oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line the muffin cups with liners and lightly spray (I used 24 muffin cups plus a tray of mini muffins to use up the extra batter, to give you an idea of amount).
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Toss in the grated carrots. Set aside.
  3. Dump the sugars and the eggs into a food processor and process until frothy and well combined, about 20 seconds. With the processor still running, add the oil in a slow but steady stream in the feed tube. Continue processing until the mixture has lightened in color and is well emulsified, about 20 additional seconds. Scrape this mixture into a large bowl and then stir the carrots and flour into it until there are no more visible streaks of flour. Divide the batter between 3 muffin pans (36 wells), filling the extra wells with water. You will have to wait to bake one tray of cakes until the other 2 have finished.
  4. Bake 2 trays of cupcakes for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Bake the third tray after moving the top rack back to the center of the oven.
  5. Let each finished tray cool for 5 minutes, and then dump the cupcakes out onto a cooling rack. When they are cool, frost them with the white chocolate frosting.
3.2.2708

 

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Filed Under: cakes, carrots, cream cheese, cupcakes, white chocolate Tagged With: carrot, carrot cake, cream cheese, cupcakes, white chocolate

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Comments

  1. Joanne says

    October 20, 2010 at 5:25 am

    Being a huge fan of carrot cake myself, I can see why Alex requested it. Excellent choice. And that white chocolate creamy dreamy frosting? Definitely creamy dreamy. Definitely.

    Reply
  2. Jennifurla says

    October 20, 2010 at 11:51 am

    I love the frosting

    Reply
  3. The Food Hound says

    October 20, 2010 at 7:26 pm

    I have a slight obsession with all things related to spice cake, especially when carrots are involved!! Carrot cake cupcakes was our wedding cake choice, and they were such a hit! We did them when they were just starting to be trendy 🙂 The cream cheese icing sounds amazing! Multiple birthday parties?? My kind of birthday!

    Reply
  4. Belinda @zomppa says

    October 21, 2010 at 5:44 am

    Sure is pretty dreamy! Gorgeous way to celebrate any occassion.

    Reply
  5. TheChocolatePriestess says

    October 21, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    You are 100% correct — if it isn't primarily cocoa butter, then it should never call itself or portray itself as white chocolate. I might be a bit biased.

    Reply
  6. grace says

    October 21, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    i like carrot cake, but i LOVE cream cheese frosting. this batch sounds tremendous. tremendous, i say.

    Reply
  7. Archi says

    October 22, 2010 at 6:33 am

    damn you – you made me very hungry.

    Reply
  8. meltingbutter.com says

    October 22, 2010 at 8:10 am

    oooh these look sooo good… I am such a sucker for carrot cake…

    Reply
  9. Allison says

    October 22, 2010 at 9:48 am

    These look amazing–especially the frosting. I think I'm eventually going to have to adopt your multiple-party approach to birthdays, too. Since my little guy is only turning 1 this year, I'm hoping to keep it to one party for now.

    I've started a new food blogging group that celebrates the printed cookbook. I'd be honored if you would join us–I've been reading your blog for about a year and a half now (though I'm terrible about actually commenting). http://www.cookbookloversunite.blogspot.com.

    Now to figure out what excuse I can make this weekend to make this recipe…

    Reply
  10. Tia says

    October 25, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    your frosting truly does look dreamy! mmmmmmmmmmm

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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