This is all the fault of Southern Living. They sent me an email with a lovely photo of their Best-Ever Carrot Cake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they sucked me in, and I took a look at the recipe, which turned out to be from 1997! The folks at the Southern Living kitchen cook and bake constantly. In seventeen years they hadn't managed to top that recipe? Really? Hmm, worth a try. Right?
However, we really didn't need a whole cake. With no visitors coming, it seemed silly to bake an entire three layer cake. So I did my best to modify the recipe for cupcakes.
Here's the bad news. It really is the best Carrot Cake ever. No kidding. We loved it. Enough to bake the whole cake when a suitable occasion arises! It was moist, like carrot cake should be, and the cream cheese frosting had exactly the right ratio of cream cheese to butter. The pineapple didn't overwhelm it. It was cake-like with a great crumb, not mushy or packed together. It was delicious.
The recipe calls for a glaze. I made the glaze, which is really a caramelized sugar. It's quick, it's easy, but I suspect that it works better on a cake with a broader expanse of surface than it does for cupcakes. So for cupcakes, I think I might skip that step in the future.
Beware. I thought I had gotten my ratios completely wrong when I mixed the batter. It was so runny that it was hard to imagine it would bake into something cohesive. But it did, so don't panic when you see how thin it is.
I thought the frosting made exactly the right amount of frosting for twelve cupcakes. If, however, you feel like my friend who says cake is nothing but a holder for the frosting, then you might wish to double the recipe.
Southern Living's Best-Ever Carrot Cake
modified into a 12 cupcake recipe by Krista
Cupcakes
2/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup buttermilk (or 1/4 cup milk with 1/2 teaspoon vinegar mixed in)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup grated carrots
1/3 cup crushed pineapple, liquid squeezed out
1 ounce canned flaked coconut
1/3 cup pecans or walnuts
Buttermilk Glaze (optional for cupcakes)
Cream Cheese Frosting
Preheat oven to 350. Insert cupcake papers into cupcake pan.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Beat the eggs with the sugar. Beat in the oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and beat. Stir in the carrots, pineapple, coconut, and nuts. Spoon into cupcake wells, dividing the batter evenly among the 12 cupcakes. Bake 16 - 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
If making the glaze, do so while the cupcakes are baking.
Buttermilk Glaze
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/3 teaspoon vanilla
Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil gently for four minutes. Spoon over warm cupcakes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)
3 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
Beat the butter with the cream cheese. Add the vanilla and beat until well mixed. Beat in the powdered sugar.
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| Don't be afraid of the runny batter. |
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| The glaze is easy to make. |
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| I dare you to eat just one. |
Beautiful Krista, you should give us a cake decorating class! Now I have to go look at my carrot cake recipe (posted here in January) and see how it compares. I hope we don't have to eat 2 cakes just for the sake of research!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lucy. I would love to take a cake decorating class. It's such fun. I think we might have to have a carrot cake throw down! LOL!
Delete~Krista
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting seems like a marriage made in heaven.
ReplyDeleteYou refer to "the pineapple didn't overwhelm it." But I don't see any pineapple in the recipe.
Ack! Thanks for catching that, Libby. It's not a lot of pineapple, but it made a difference.
Delete~Krista
You have outdone yourself, Krista! These look amazing. Now I won't be able to concentrate all day.
ReplyDeleteXO
MJ
Even worse, I have three cupcakes in the freezer waiting for friends. They don't know about them yet, so I could just eat . . . No! No, no,no!
Delete~Krista
Wow, Krista!! These look amazing and the recipe sounds perfect. These are in my very near future.
ReplyDeleteJanet, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. I really don't think they could have been any better.
Delete~Krista
Oooh, I'm going to try to make these gluten-free. Love carrot cake. How did you get the frosting to look so pretty? Did you pipe it on? Yum!
ReplyDeleteDaryl / Avery
Daryl, I piped on the frosting. It would have been just as pretty swirled on, I think, but I love using the little piping gizmo.
Delete~Krista
These look so yummy! Funny about the batter--a cake I posted here (Le Far aux Pruneaux) also had a really runny batter and I was convinced it wouldn't turn out but it did! And was delicious! Recipes should put warnings in them about stuff like that!
ReplyDeletePeg, I think good recipes often do warn people. It's funny that some batters are so thick and others are so runny, yet both turn out well. I really should study up on that!
Delete~Krista
I made this cake on Easter Sunday, 3 layers, but didn't add the coconut (never heard of coconut in a can before) or the pineapple. I did make the glaze and it was delicious! Took most of the cake to work and everyone loved it. My husband said this was the best cake he had EVER had and that is really saying something with the amount of baking I do.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I agree. The Southern Living people bake all the time. I'm not surprised that they weren't able to top this recipe. It really is delicious!
Delete~Krista