Carrot Cake Cupcakes With Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
Carrot cake cupcakes like no other! These cupcakes are spiced with cinnamon and ginger and are flavoured with orange. They melt in your mouth - it's the only carrot cupcake recipe you'll need! You can also make these as a cake. See recipe for instructions. p.s. the show stopping brown sugar cream cheese frosting is out of this world!
Ingredients
- 160 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) plain flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 medium eggs
- 220 g (1 cup) packed soft, light brown sugar
- 150 g (¾ cup) canola oil
- 3 tablespoons buttermilk*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 orange
- 260 g (2 cups) tightly packed shredded carrots
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
- 55 g (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 226 g (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 150 g (¾ cup) soft brown sugar (light or dark)
- 30 g (¼ cup) icing sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175C (350F) and line a standard 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a larger bowl, beat (with a handheld or stand mixer) the eggs and brown sugar on a medium speed until the mixture is thick and light (about 10 minutes with a hand held mixer and 3 -4 minutes with a stand mixer). In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, orange zest and vanilla. On a low speed, slowly pout the oil mixture into the egg-sugar mixture (it’s important to do this step slowly as we don’t want to lose the air we just created).
- Fold the flour mixture into the egg-sugar mixture and when it is just combined, add the carrots and continue to fold until everything is combined (try not to over mix). Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes (or until they are golden and spring back when touched gently. Invert cupcakes on to a cooling rack and when completely cool, top them with frosting using a knife or piping bag.
To make the frosting
- In a clean, medium sized bowl, add the butter. Using a stand mixer, or hand held mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy. Add the cream cheese, brown sugar, icing sugar and vanilla and continue beating until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
Notes
* If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make your own by adding 2 teaspoons of vinegar to 3 tablespoons of milk, and let it sit for a few minutes. You can learn more about making your own buttermilk substitute here.
** This recipe can be used to make a cake – simply pour the batter into a lined 8 inch cake tin and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.