Carrot Cake Cupcakes

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This is my favourite carrot cake cupcakes recipe made ‘Easter edition’ by smothering them in a beautiful matcha cream cheese frosting and topping them with a chocolate-dipped strawberry ‘carrot.’

In this recipe we will use real white chocolate to dip the strawberries, rather than ‘candy melts’ that have a long list of ingredients I would rather not put into my body. For the melted chocolate to be solid and perfect at room temperature, we first have to temper it.

I will briefly explain how I did this for this recipe below. However, for a detailed, step-by-step guide with lots of helpful tips, check out my ‘Complete Guide on How to Temper Chocolate.‘

How to make carrot cake cupcakes

These cupcakes are so easy to make! Start by preheating the oven to 350°F and greasing your muffin tray. In a large bowl add and stir together these grouped ingredients in the order they are listed:

1. Eggs, sugar, and brown sugar.
2. Oil and vanilla.
3. Carrots and pineapple.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Add this mixture into the large bowl and stir together. Finally, fold in the walnuts if you would like to use them. Distribute the batter into your muffin tray and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick test comes out clean. (Oven times can vary greatly.)

When the cupcakes are finished baking, let them sit in the tray for 10 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before decorating.

Decorating the cupcakes

Frosting:

For these cupcakes I used my matcha vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. Check out that post for the recipe and video. As you know, cream cheese frosting pairs wonderfully with carrot cake. And the green colour from the matcha powder in this frosting makes the cupcakes look like the perfect little resting places for your strawberry ‘carrots’!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry ‘Carrots’:

For the strawberries, you will want to select nicely shaped, small berries that come to a little point. Give them a rinse then pat them dry.

Use a good quality white chocolate with real cocoa butter. For more information on what kind of chocolate to use, helpful tips, and step-by-step instructions, see ‘A Complete Guide on How to Temper Chocolate.’

I tempered the chocolate for this recipe using the seeding method. You can do this method using either a double boiler or a microwave; both are explained in detail within the guide. I will briefly go over what I did using a double boiler here.

I used these:

double boiler

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food thermometer

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You will want to first temper some chocolate (about 6 ounces) for dipping the strawberries in, and then temper a smaller amount (about 2 ounces) for the drizzle.

Start by chopping up all of your white chocolate into small pieces. Set aside the chocolate for the drizzle. Fill a saucepan with about an inch of water. Bring it to a simmer on your stovetop. Put three quarters of the chopped chocolate into the double boiler on top of the saucepan.

Melt the chocolate, stirring and checking the temperature often. Once the temperature reaches 40°C (104°F), remove the double boiler from the pan. It’s ok if there are still some unmelted pieces. Add the remaining quarter of unmelted chocolate in with the melted chocolate.

These solid pieces will encourage the cooling melted chocolate to form stronger crystals. Now, stirring continuously, allow the chocolate to slowly cool. Keep track of the temperature. When it has cooled to 25°C (77°F), return the double boiler to the saucepan and reheat the chocolate to white chocolate’s working temperature of 28°C (82.4°F). Use a spoon to remove any unmelted pieces. 

Have a bowl with some hot water ready on a heat safe surface. Once you have tempered the chocolate, move the double boiler to sit on the bowl. The hot water will help maintain the melted consistency of the chocolate. Now you can add the orange powder food colouring to the chocolate. [You cannot use liquid food colouring in melted chocolate]. It is very pigmented so just add a little at a time until you get the colour intensity you want.

Check out the video below if you want to see the decorating process in action.

Stick a short kebab stick into the berries so you’ll have something to hold onto. Pull and hold the leaves upwards. Using a small kebab stick, get some chocolate onto the berry up close to the leaves where it would be difficult to dip.

Then, holding the stick for support, dip the berry into the chocolate and twist it around to coat it. Decide which will be the underside of the berry and scrap the excess chocolate off so that it doesn’t pool around the bottom when you set it onto the cupcake. Set the strawberry onto the cupcake and gently ease it off of the stick.

Continue this with the rest of the berries. If the chocolate begins to firm up while you are still working, you can heat it over the pot again to remelt it. See ‘how to keep chocolate in temper.’

Repeat the same tempering and colouring process with the chocolate you reserved earlier and yellow powder colour. Then pour it into a small zip top bag. Cut a tiny whole in one corner, and use it to squeeze out a thin drizzle on top of the berries.

Your carrot cake cupcakes are all done! Let the chocolate set and harden, then store any that you don’t eat today in an airtight container in the fridge. Take them out of the fridge an hour or two before eating to bring them back to the right temperature. (Although the tempered chocolate will be perfect at room temperature, the strawberries and cream cheese frosting need to be refrigerated.)

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