Mini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

These are seriously so adorable and delicious, I want to make them again and again! I gave them out to a few friends and had awesome feedback, and no matter where I hid the rest of them I couldn't get the little ones to leave them alone, which is a good thing right?! haha

The recipe is for mini cupcakes, but you could certainly make regular sized ones, or even one big cake! The icing is my go-to cream cheese recipe (and I will never use another one) and what is carrot cake without amazing cream cheese icing!? 

Mini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients:
1 carrot cake mix
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 med carrots (grated finely) approx 2 cups
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
drop of almond extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a  medium mixing bowl, combine powdered mix, spices, ground carrot, liquids, and eggs all together with a mixer untill well combined. don't over-mix. Let sit for 2-3 minutes so the carrots can have a little chance to absorbe more of the flavors.

2. Give your batter another little mix, and spoon into your paper liners about 2/3 the way up. cook for 10-11 minutes. they'll be very light and fluffy. transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Perfect Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar

1 stick butter

2 tsp vanilla

dash salt

Method:
1. Simply add your ingredients into a bowl all together and whip well till smooth and creamy. whatever you do, Do Not have a taste to make sure everything's in order, you may just not have enough left for your cupcakes!

2. Start by dividing out about 2/3 of your icing for the base, then devide the remainder and use 2/3 for the orange. use the last 1/3 for the green. be as liberal as you want because this recipe will leave you with a little extra. Mix the orange, then scrape out as much as you can, then you can use the same bowl and mixer for the green without washing!

3. To apply: use a large round icing tip such as #12, applying lots of pressure start on the outside and go in a spiral towards the middle. For the carrots, keep tip #12 and, holding the bag at a 90 degree angle, use heavy pressure to start at the top of the carrot, relaxing more to taper the shape to a point as you pull back. for the stem, use tip #32. I stuck the end of the tip slightly into the top of the carrot, then twisted slightly pilling out and releasing. Perfect!

There's really nothing I can tell you now except go make them! These were the perfect thing to get your house in the Easter mood, and really spurred me on to get out decor out and really get into spring fun! I hope you give them a try and let me know how they turn out, and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for visiting!
xoxo, Emily