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Carrot Cake (plus cupcakes!) with Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from: Baked In
- 1 pound of carrots
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp (or a pinch) allspice
- Pinch of ground clove
- ¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup milk plus 1 tsp vinegar (or you can use buttermilk)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp maple flavor
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup raisins
Frosting
- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅛ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp maple flavoring
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line one muffin pan with paper
liners and set aside. Also prepare two 9" cake pans (butter, parchment, butter, flour is the best method).
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl and set aside.
Peel the carrots, and finely grate them (food
processor all the way for this!). Place the grated carrots
in a large bowl.
Add the eggs, milk with vinegar, vanilla, maple flavoring, sugar, oil and lemon juice with the carrots and whisk until thoroughly combined.
Gently stir the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until
just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
Next mix in the pecans and raisins. Again, be cautious not to overmix.
Scoop batter evenly into prepared liners, filling each ⅔ full. Evenly separate the remaining batter between the two 9" bake pans. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes
out clean. If baking all the pans together at once, make sure to rotate out positions in the oven and racks so as not to burn/undercook/etc. Cool for five minutes in pans, then remove to racks to cool
completely.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream
cheese on medium speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add the butter and beat
until well-incorporated and fluffy, another two minutes. Beat in the brown
sugar, vanilla, maple flavoring, and cinnamon. Add the powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a
time until desired consistency is reached (3-4 cups total). Beat
for an additional two minutes. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes (if spreading
rather than piping, you can halve the frosting recipe).
Decorate as you see fit! Making candied carrot curls is a really stellar way to go.
