Easter recipe - Carrot cupcakes

 

I hope you have had a lovely week, ours has been a very busy and productive week and w are looking forward to the weekend.

Carrots and Easter seem like a great match as we associate bunnies with Easter and they eat carrots.

I used to think that  my carrot cake recipe was the best until I discovered Clare Ptak's recipe which takes carrot cake to the next level. It has a lovely light feel to it and this is thanks to the use of egg whites which are whipped to a meringue consistency and then folded with the rest of the ingredients.

Clare Ptak's Carrot Cake/ Cupcakes

Makes one double-layer 23cm cake, serving 12, or 24 cupcakes

For the sponge

carrots 250g, grated

unsweetened desiccated coconut 100g

pecans 100g, lightly toasted and chopped fine

vegetable oil 400g

vanilla extract 1½ tsp

caster sugar 400g

eggs 2

egg yolks 2, plus 4 egg whites

plain flour 320g

baking powder 1 tsp

bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp

ground cinnamon 2 tsp

salt ½ tsp

For the cream cheese icing/filling

unsalted butter 200g, softened

cream cheese 250g

icing sugar 750g, sifted

vanilla extract ½ tsp

Preheat your oven to 150C fan/gas mark 3. Butter 2 x 23cm cake tins and line with parchment paper, or line 2 x 12-cup muffin trays with paper cases.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the carrots, coconut and pecans and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the vegetable oil, vanilla, 200g of the caster sugar, the 2 whole eggs and the egg yolks until foamy. Add this to the carrot mixture and fold together well. Wash and thoroughly dry this bowl, ready for the egg whites.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon, and fold into the egg and carrot mixture until barely combined.

In your clean electric mixer bowl, whisk together the egg whites, salt and the remaining 200g of caster sugar until the mixture forms stiff, meringue-like peaks. Fold this into the carrot mixture until just combined. Either divide the mixture between the two cake tins, levelling the tops with a palette knife or spatula, or scoop it into the cupcake cases, filling each case half-full.

The whole cakes will take about 1 hour to bake and the cupcakes about 25 minutes. The cakes are ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean.

To make the icing, in the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the butter until it is light and creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat well. Gradually add the icing sugar and beat on a low speed for 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, then add the vanilla and beat for another 5 minutes.

Use the cream cheese icing to decorate the cupcakes or to fill and ice the top and sides of the whole cakes – or you can just ice the tops of each cake and sandwich them together.

The icing can be kept at room temperature for a couple of hours; otherwise store it in the fridge for up to one week. Before using, remove from the fridge and let it soften for about 20 minutes, then whip again for about 4-5 minutes.

Use a timer; the beating will take longer than you realise. 

From The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak.

Note ours are topped with some desiccated coconut which I have dyed green with a couple of drops of food colouring as I wanted the bunnies to look like they were sitting on grass.

I am now off to ice some more cupcakes and find some more chocolate bunnies....

Happy Good Friday ♥♥

Leeann x