The Best Carrot Cake Ever {With Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting}
Guys, I can't even explain to you how amazingly perfect this carrot cake is. It's moist. It's sweet. The texture is flawless. It's quick. It's easy.
Wait, wait, wait. Doesn't this all sound a little familiar? Well, that's only because it is. Yes, this carrot cake cupcake recipe is based on the world famous recipe for Grandma's banana bread muffins.
Don't believe me that they're world famous? Read the 100+ comments for yourself. They truly are the best. And these carrot cake cupcakes are no different.
If you follow me on Instagram, you'll realize that there's something else familiar about this recipe. I made it as a three layer cake for my cousin's baby shower. My sisters were the ones who invented the marshmallow bunnies. Aren't they adorable? And they're easy too. I made them in like five milliseconds.
Believe it or not, this moist, tender, fine-crumbed cake that you see before you is actually made with gluten free flour. I'm posting them over on Yammie's Glutenfreedom too, but I thought that this particular recipe was just too amazing to let you miss. Besides, you don't have to make them gluten free. Regular flour works fine too.
(P.S. If you're in the market for Easter treats, check out these Easter S'mores.)
- The Best Carrot Cake Ever
- This recipe makes one dozen cupcakes or probably one 9 inch round. I doubled this recipe to fill 3 8-inch pans.
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (or rice flour for gluten free)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon*
- a pinch of ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup finely grated carrot, pretty firmly packed
- 1 batch of Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)
- Marshmallow Bunnies (see instructions below)
- Preheat oven to 375ºF if making cupcakes or 350ºF if making cake. Grease and flour cake pans or line cupcake tins with paper.
- Mix together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix together the dry ingredients and add to the wet, mixing just until combined. Add the carrots and stir until combined.
- Bake in prepared pans. 20-25 minutes for cupcakes or 30-35 minutes for cake or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- *Feel free to modify any of the spices. You can leave them out all together or double them all based on how "spicy" you like your cake. This is very mild, but flavorful.
- Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz. cream cheese, slightly softened
- 1 cup (two sticks) butter, slightly softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4-6 cups powdered sugar (Depending on desired thickness. For the frosting pictured I used 4 cups)
- Beat together the cream cheese and butter. Add the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time until desired thickness is reached. Beat on high speed for five minutes, until fluffy.
- Marshmallow Bunnies:
- Big marshmallows
- Little marshmallows
- About 1/4 cup of melted chocolate
- Slivered almonds
- Stick two almonds into a big marshmallow for ears. Use a toothpick to draw a face on with melted chocolate. Glue a mini marshmallow on for the tail with more melted chocolate.
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