Easter Carrot Cupcakes. Lately I’ve been appearing on a regular slot on local BBC radio broadcast in Jersey and Guernsey. You can listen to me chatting each weekend with the lovely Jim Delbridge about seasonal and local food and recipes. Recently researching some ideas for an Easter baking edition I discovered an interesting fact. The carrot cake is the most popular bake over the Easter holiday season in the USA.
Suprisingly, no one is quite sure how to explain this connection. Between carrot cake and Easter apart from the obvious carrots and Bugs Bunny and bunnies and Easter. This Easter every American cake shop, bakery and diner will offer a towering confection on display. They are often smothered in whipped cream cheese frosting. Then decorated with chopped nuts or little confectionary carrots made from almond paste or icing. This got me thinking about baking some carrot cake with a little twist.
A Little Bit of Carrot Cake History
One of the first recorded recipes using carrots as sweet ingredient is for a carrot pudding. Published in ‘The Art of cookery mad Plain and Easy’ published in 1747. Early recipes often included spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg a combination that continues today. During the second world war the British Ministry of Health promoted a recipe for ‘Dr. Carrot’s Healthy Cake’. This used carrots as a substitute for heavily rationed sugar. The use of carrots in baking then jumped over the Atlantic when sugar was rationed in the United States.
The carrot cake became iconic in the nineteen seventies with the growing interest in health foods and the organic movement. You saw a carrot cake on every cafe and restaurant menu. Cream cheese frosting is thought to have been invented alongside the rise in supermarket availability of cream cheese sometime in the nineteen sixties. It may have been inspired by Italian Cannoli. This is a recipe where ricotta cheese whipped with icing sugar is pipped into a crisp pastry shell. The recipe combining the sweet icing with carrot cake was first printed in the New York Times. The rest as they say is history.
If you enjoy this recipe why not try some more of my delicious bakes like my Easter Creature Cupcakes. If you like chocolate try my Strawberry Milkshake and White Chocolate cupcake recipe or the only Chocolate Cupcake recipe you will ever need.
Carrot Cake Today
Today the carrot cake is baked and eaten around the world. You can add ginger or clove or sultanas or substitute olive oil and wholemeal flour. In parts of America and the Caribbean the recipe often includes pineapple or coconut. The Swiss version of carrot cake is called Rüeblitorte. It is made with almonds or hazelnuts covered with glace icing and is a popular birthday cake. In Brazil Bolo de cenoura carrot cake is topped with chocolate ganache.
Easter Carrot Cupcakes
Equipment
- Cupcake or muffin tray and cupcake cases
- Piping bag and nozzel
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 150 gr Self raising Flour
- 150 gr Carrots washed and peeled
- 120 gr Soft brown Sugar
- 120 ml Vegetable Oil
- 2 large free-range Eggs
- 40 gr Sultanas
- 1 small Orange juice and zest
- ½ teaspoon ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- A pinch Fine Sea Salt
For the frosting
- 200 gr Full-fat Cream Cheese
- 100 gr Icing sugar sieved twice
- 100 gr soft unsalted Jersey Butter
- 1 tablespoon quality Vanilla Essence
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350 F / 180 C / Gas Mark 4. Set up a cupcake or muffin tray with paper cases.
- Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the sultanas, orange zest, cinnamon and mix well.
- In a separate bowl whisk the eggs together the add the sunflower oil, orange juice and sugar and whisk again until thoroughly combined.
- Grate the carrots and stir into the flour mix before adding the whisked egg and oil. Beat together carefully then pour into the prepared cases.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the cupcakes are risen and feels springy to the touch. You can test one by inserting a metal skewer or small sharp pointed knife into the centre. If it comes out clean, the cupcake is done.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool totally.
For the frosting
- Place the icing sugar into a large bowl with the butter and vanilla essence. Beat together with a large wooden spoon until light and creamy.
- Add the cream cheese and beat again until smooth whisking in as much air as possible. Cover and refrigerate for thirty minutes to firm up.
- When the frosting is pipeable transfer to a piping bag with a nozzle and pipe on to the cupcakes and decorate.
