Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Meringue Carrot Tops
Servings: 18 servings
Calories: 517kcal
Equipment
- stand mixer optional
- hand mixer optional
- food processor optional (for shredding carrots)
- box grater optional (for shredding carrots)
- piping bag optional
- gallon-size zip top bags optional (if you don't have a piping bag)
- kitchen scale optional
- meat mallet or rolling pin optional (for crushing cookies)
Ingredients
For the meringue carrot tops:
- 3 large egg whites at room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2-3 drops orange gel food color
- fresh parsley sprigs for garnish
For the cupcakes:
- 1 cup butter I used salted butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup milk
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 1 cup chopped candied pineapple chopped into small pieces
- 1½ cups chopped pecans chopped into small pieces
For the cream cheese buttercream frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 4 tablespoons butter softened, I used salted butter
- 1½ cups confectioner's sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup crushed chocolate cookies
- 1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
Instructions
To make the meringue carrot tops:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (100 degrees C).
- Whip the room-temperature egg whites and the granulated sugar together using a stand-mixer whip, hand mixer beaters, or hand whisk on high until they're bright white, doubled in volume, and soft peaks form. Add the orange gel food color (until your desired shade of orange, but don't add too much or the meringue will become too soft), and gently fold the gel color into the whipped egg whites until color streaks are no longer visible.
- Use a spatula to spoon the orange meringue into a piping bag (or gallon zip-top bag) with a corner snipped for piping the carrots to your size preference.Pipe the orange meringue mixture in dollops onto a parchment lined baking sheet gently pulling the meringue up as you pipe. Continue the same process with the remaining meringue.Tap down the pointy tips of each "carrot" with a fingertip dipped in water.
- Bake the carrots in the preheated oven for 1 hour. After one hour, turn the heat off in the oven (leaving the carrots inside) and prop open the oven door with a wooden spoon so the temperature inside the oven drops slowly which will prevent the meringues from cracking.Allow the meringue carrots to cool completely inside the turned-off oven for at least 2 hours. Remove the cooled carrots, and store them at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or even in the freezer, in an airtight container until ready to use.
- When ready to use, poke a small hole in the top of each carrot with a toothpick or skewer and insert fresh parsley springs in the hole for a cute carrot top effect. *Note - the parsley will wilt relatively quickly, so do this final step right before serving.
To make the carrot cake cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C).
- Line the wells of one or two standard-size cupcake tins with paper cupcake liners. Spray each lightly with baking spray, if desired. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (using the paddle attachment), or a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the softened butter together with the granulated sugar until light, fluffy, and pale yellow in color. Slowly beat in the eggs, vanilla extract, oil, and milk until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Gradually (on low speed) beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in three increments scraping down with sides of the bowl as needed. Once the ingredients are fully combined, fold the prepared carrots, pecans, and chopped, dried pineapple to the batter making sure to fully incorporate all the mix-ins into the thick batter.
- Use an ice cream scoop to evenly scoop the batter into each waiting cupcake liner.Bake the cupcakes on the center rack of the preheated oven for 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.Cool the cupcakes completely on a wire rack before frosting.Continue the same process with the remaining cupcake batter.
To make the cream cheese buttercream frosting:
- Combine the softened cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and blend well until thoroughly combined.Slowly (and on low speed) add the confectioners sugar into the bowl along with the ground ginger. As the frosting blends together, you can gradually increase the speed of the mixer, if desired.Once made, spoon the frosting into a gallon zip-top bag (or piping bag) fitted with a piping tip (optional) for piping.
- Add the cookies to a gallon zip-top bag and crush them into fine crumbs with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Pour the crumbs into a shallow bowl and mix well.
To decorate the cupcakes:
- Pipe a decent sized dollop of frosting into the center of each cupcake. Turn each frosted cupcake upside-down and press the frosting gently into the cookie crumbs.Continue the same process with the remaining cupcakes.To finish, pipe a small dollop of remaining frosting onto the center of the cookie-crumble topping (this will help the meringue carrot stick to the cupcake), and gently press one meringue carrot topper onto each cupcake. Right before serving, add the parsley garnish and serve.
Notes
Store the cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
May be frozen. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container or freezer bag. Label and date. Freeze for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 517kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 67mg | Sodium: 493mg | Potassium: 253mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 2844IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 120mg | Iron: 2mg
