[1] and [2] Mini carrot cupcakes are a lighter version of dense carrot cake. Here’s the recipe (photos © Kraft).

[2] These carrot cupcakes have a pinch of ginger and spiced cream cheese frosting. Here’s the recipe.

[3] Shred extra carrots and add them to a salad (photo © Stylepresso).

[4] Lactose intolerant? Use Green Valley Organics’ lactose-free cream cheese. You can also substitute ghee for butter, at a 1:1 ratio (photo © My Lilikoi Kitchen).

Yesterday we made carrot cupcakes. Mini ones. With a recipe from Kraft.

While we usually dig into a slice of dense loaf cake instead of airy cupcakes, we deemed these just right for Easter week.

We don’t add pineapple to our carrot cake, but the fruitiness was just perfect in these cupcakes.

Bring them to work, bring them to neighbors, or enjoy the entire batch at home.
 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARROT CAKE

According to the Carrot Museum in the U.K., food historians believe that modern carrot cake most likely descended from medieval carrot puddings.

During the Middle Ages, sugar and other sweeteners were expensive and difficult to come by, and carrots had long been used for their sweetness.

Printed recipes for carrot pudding have been found as far back as 1591, but no reference to carrot cake appears until the 19th century. Thus, we don’t know how cake got to here from there.

In the New York Cookbook (1992), Molly O’Neill says that in 1783, George Washington was served a carrot tea cake at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan.

She notes that an adaptation of that early recipe, which was printed in The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook (1975), is quite close to the carrot cakes of today.

 
RECIPE: MINI CARROT CUPCAKES

Ingredients

For The Cake

 
For The Cream Cheese Frosting

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Combine and mix the eggs, egg white, sugar, oil and applesauce in a mixing bowl.

2. COMBINE all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and beat together. Add the carrots, pineapple, and pecans and mix again. Spoon into 24 lined muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full.

3. PLACE the pan on the middle oven rack and bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes; then remove from the pan. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

4. MAKE the frosting. In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add milk to the desired consistency. (Don’t make it too thin or the frosting will slide off the cupcakes.)

5. FROST the cupcakes with a small spatula, or use a pastry and tip for a fancier presentation (you can use a plastic bag with no top, as shown in photo #2). Garnish with crushed pecans, if desired.