Mini Carrot Cakes

It’s officially springtime, heading straight into summer and there are brunches, showers and events galore happening in your life right now. If you need to bring a dessert to your next birthday party or baby shower, consider these mini carrot cakes. They are 100 percent absolutely delicious. They’re incredibly moist (thanks mostly to the coconut oil and applesauce) and have an incredible spice cake flavor. I’m not usually a carrot cake fan because of the additional ingredients that are added (nuts, raisins, pineapple), but these have none of those. Just plain ol’ carrots! Which make them health, right? Oh, and did I mention they have cream cheese frosting (okay, that blew my healthy bit)?! This is probably one of the better recipes I’ve tried lately and i’m so happy I get to pass it along to you. Enjoy!

Mini Carrot Cakes  |  04.24.17

​Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil (in liquid form)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely grated carrots
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step 2: In a large bowl, cream together oil, sugar and eggs.
Step 3: Add vanilla extract, applesauce and grated carrots and mix well.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, mix flour baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
Step 5: Add dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until incorporated.
Step 6: Pour batter into a greased 9×9 inch baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Step 7: Cool completely, cut and then frost.

For the Frosting:
Step 1: With the whisk attachment on your electric mixer, whisk the softened cream cheese, vanilla extract and salt until smooth and creamy.
Step 2: Gradually add the powdered sugar as you mix until you have the consistency of icing.
Step 3: Reserve 1/2 cup of frosting for the carrot decoration and then spread the remaining frosting over the cooled cake.
Step 4: Divide the reserved frosting into two bowls and mix a few drops of green food coloring into one and yellow and red (to make orange) into the other.
Step 5: I didn’t have the right tip for my piping bag handy (if you do, use a small round tip), so I just spooned the icing into a ziplock bag and cut a small hole in the corner. Didn’t make perfection, but it worked well enough.
Step 6: Pipe your carrot and the stem onto the mini cake.

Notes:

I found these dry out pretty quickly if you leave them out, so refrigerate when completed. They rehydrate once they’re refrigerated, so no worries if you left them out a little too long.

These go from not being done in the oven to very done, so make sure you check them often when baking.

I halved the amount of icing that was called for in this recipe (the original was double the amount I listed above). If you need more, just make another batch. I made the original amount the first time and found I had enough for a second batch and still enough for a third batch. Maybe I just don’t uber ice my little cakes 🙂

If you don’t want to pipe little carrots on top, obviously that’s okay! There are a variety of other things you can do to make them look springy (little candies, edible flowers, a sprinkle of cinnamon) or just leave them plain. They’ll taste just as delicious!
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recipe adapted from: Lovely Little Kitchen