Quick and Easy Carrot Cakes - Recipe and Video Tutorial from SiliconeMoulds.com

I'm not going to kid you on. This is a recipe I have made many many times before. I've even blogged it before (back in 2010). Sometimes I make these little carrot cakes as muffins and other times I make it as one big cake and just cook for a bit longer.

It's moist, tasty and delicious. Not overly sweet - until you smother them with lashings of cool cream cheese frosting. Then you know you've died and gone to heaven....

Generally I try not to repeat recipes on the blog ....... but fact is that we bake favorite recipes on a regular basis. Not everything has to be "new" and I've no shame in reposting this recipe.

However, I DO have something new to share, and that is the new little carrot silicone bakeware mould I've designed. 

You may be asking yourself why on earth I'd want to make a mould that makes it fast and easy to make sugarpaste and chocolate carrots - but these really do look wonderful on top of carrot cakes. 

Hopefully you will also like my Youtube Tutorial showing how to use these. These moulds are a brand new product release and can be found HERE on our website at www.siliconemoulds.com , currently priced at £3.25

Recipe

10oz / 280g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

100ml of fresh orange juice (preferably with "bits")

2 tablespoons honey

5oz / 140g of caster sugar

6oz / 165g carrot finely grated

6oz / 165g carrot coarse grated

100ml vegetable or sunflower oil

3oz / 85grams sultanas or raisins

For the cream cheese icing - I usually just take a good 3 to 4 tablespoons of cream cheese and add as much icing sugar as required to get the right consistency. Start with a little and gradually beat more in with a woden spoon

Put wet ingredients in one bowl and sift dry ingredients into another. Add the two together and stir until just combined.

Butter a 12 hole standard silicone muffin tray if not lining with paper cases. This will generally make 10 big muffins in lined muffin tins or 12 slightly smaller ones if in unlined silicone muffin trays. Where icing with cream cheese frosting, I do like to use muffin cases inside the trays. I don't bother if I'm not icing

Preheat the oven to 180deg C - Fan oven and bake for approx 25 mins

It Isn't Carrot Cake Muffins ..... It's Apple.... !

I've been stuck at home this week, and some of last week.... literally.

Mostly because my little Bogwoppit (Oliver) has been very poorly indeed with a chest infection - but latterly also due to the fact that my pick up truck died on the driveway and had to be trailered to the garage. It's looking like an expensive repair... :-(

Oliver has barely eaten in a couple of weeks - though now he's on penicillin, is starting to improve.

"All I would like is a carrot cake please Mummy"

Hmm - when your child is as miserable as this, hasn't eaten all day (it's 5pm) and requests carrot cake, what are you going to do ? Make carrot cake of course !

Well - I went to the fridge and had a root around. Stacks of vegetables - but only two carrots. Rather rubbery, shrivelled and bendy carrots at that. They weren't going to be much good to make carrot cake - now were they .....

Being as I live miles from anywhere, had a poorly little boy and no car, improvisation was the order of the day.

They smelled glorious when I took them out the oven and I glazed the tops with a little warmed honey.

As I was taking these photos, Oliver had fallen asleep. There was a noise outside and a rap on the door.

HOORAY ! The local garage had turned up unannounced  and unexpected with a courtesy car. I can go on my chocolate making course tomorrow now after all !

As they handed me the keys, I handed them a plate with 6 warm apple muffins - also unexpected and just as welcome. Smiles all round.

"Is my carrot cake ready yet Mummy?" a little voice pipes up.

"Yes Honey. Sort of......"

Basically, this is my favourite carrot cake recipe, baked into muffins... but substituting apples for the carrots. When I make carrot cake, I'd normally use orange juice and zest and some more cinnamon plus a good big handful of raisins. Otherwise, it's as below : 

INGREDIENTS

RECIPE MAKES 12

280g plain flour

140g sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1 egg

90ml apple juice - or sub with other fruit juice

360g coarsely grated apple

1 tsp vanilla essence

100ml vegetable oil

Add nuts or raisins if wished.

Add oil and juice together and mix in the egg with a fork. To this, add the grated apple.

Sift all the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients to the bowl. Mix in roughly with a wooden spoon - only until combined. Spoon into a lined tin or paper cupcake cases in a 12 cell silicone muffin mould or tin

Use a 12 hole silicone muffin mould and line with paper cake cases / liners. The moulds and paper case are available from our online shop at http://www.siliconemoulds.com

These will look rather full as below.

 Due to the huge amount of apple (or carrots if you have any) - these don't rise very much.

Bake at 175deg C fan for 20mins. Glaze with warm honey or agave nectar on removing from the oven.

Enjoy !

Carrot Cake Muffins - adored by children and friends !

This recipe can easily be made into one large cake, or bakes just as well as 12 muffins / cupcakes. I think they would be best referred to as muffins since there is no creaming of butter and sugar involved. These have a very high carrot content which adds loads of natural sweetness and also keeps them very moist.

Frosting really is not required - but it's quite nice to plaster some lemon buttercream or cream cheese icing on top.

Oliver and I rattled two batches of these up a fortnight ago before work one Saturday morning. One batch was for colleagues and customers and the other lot were for a friend (Mel), her husband and kids.

You can never make too many of these. They'll keep for a couple of days in the fridge ok, or freeze well.

RECIPE

280g plain flour

2 tsp baking poweder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp ground cinnamon

1egg

90ml fresh orange juice

zest of an orange 

360g carrots (1/2 coarsely grated, 1/2 fine grated)

1 tsp vanilla essence

100ml vegetable oil

Add nuts or raisins if wished.

Add oil and orange juice together and mix in the egg with a fork. To this, add the grated carrot.

Sift all the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients to the bowl. Mix in roughly with a wooden spoon - only until combined. Spoon into a lined tin or paper cupcake cases in a 12 cell muffin mould or tin

For cupcakes, bake at 180deg C fan for approx 20mins,. For a large cake - same temperature in a  http://www.siliconemoulds.com/250mm-blue-round-birthday-cake-mould-p-137.html  (but I forget how long - probably about 50 > 60 mins)

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies

These carrot cake whoopie pies were my bake for last Saturday and I took them into work.

This has turned into a bit of a quest...... I saw Kim at (Lovin' The Oven) photo of her carrot cake whoopies during her "week of cookies" and just HAD to make them.

Actually - I've made them twice trying to get mine to look even vageuly like Kim's and trying desperately hard to get a cookie and not a cake.

The first time, I make the recipe exactly as Kim posted. However, I prepared the night in advance and refrigerated until morning before baking.

This is the first batch/ What resulted were little carrot cakes. Cakes. Not cookies. Pretty little cakes.... that made lovely little whoopie pies, sandwiched with cream cheese icing.

They looked ok, they tasted ok - but definately cakey and not cookie and the carrot (though aparent) looked naff in comparison to Kim's. Kim's looked absolutely delightful and cookie like. I adore the little wispy bits of baked carrot in her super photos.

So, I had another go and tweaked the recipe second time round

1 cup packed soft brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

250g salted butter

2 eggs

2 tsp of vanilla extract (homemade !)

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1.1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1.1/2 cups grated carrots

You'll see I omitted the salt as I used salted butter. I added more cinnamon and reduced the oats. As oats are very absorbant, I thought my cookies might spread more without them.

Crema butter and sugar, add eggs and combine. Add other ingredients and combine (keeping the carrots and oats back until last)

Cooked at 170deg C for approx 10mins.

I've no idea how many I made this into - but it was rather a lot.

My second batch (pictured first) were really the best. Nearest to cookie like and filled with buttercream icing. The icing was a bit on the sweet side though and was a real sugar overload. The only ones that looked carrotty on top were ones I'd laid some grated carrot over before baking.

They tasted ok - still a bit cakey. Texture was not what I really wanted and neither was the colour. Totally edible ( a couple of people had two) - but I'd set my heart on cookies and got a sort of carrot cake instead.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE carrot cake - but I'd make it as muffins or cake any day over and above whoopies. If you want CARROT CAKE WHOOPIES - these won't let you down. I just couldn't get them cookie like or looking like the photos.

I still love Kim's photo and am in awe of her carrot cake whoopie pie cookies - so my quest will continue and I'll adapt another recipe in my search. I'm gutted !

Kim, thanks for sharing the recipe and photos - will you send me one of your carrot cake whoopies ?? lol