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Ultra soft and tender carrot cake cupcakes with light and fluffy cream cheese frosting are the perfect spring dessert. So delicious no one will know they’re lightened up and gluten-free!

Can we just live in a world where anything that has a vegetable is automatically healthy? Like, can these be the side veggie side dish for my grilled chicken? Or zucchini bread. Or I’d even settle for throwing some spinach in my milkshake. That constitutes a green smoothie, right??

Okay, so maybe these aren’t quite as healthy as snacking on baby carrots, but sometimes you just need your veggies in the form of a giant, ridiculously good cupcake. And today is one of those days. I’ve been working an absolutely insane amount (which is so worth it because it’s leading to GREAT things that I can’t wait to share!) and pretty much living off canned soup and cheese toast. I am the model of healthy living over here. I miss vegetables, and at the same time I have the overwhelming urge to stress eat about a dozen cupcakes, so I’m pretty sure carrot cake is the perfect solution.

I’ve always been a huge fan of carrot cake (except when it has nuts–no thank you), and I’ve tried a couple of times to make carrot cake cupcakes, but they always ended up as a bust. Especially the time I tried to stuff them with whipped coconut cream and they ended up a soggy mess. That was fun. Finally, I decided to stick to a more traditional version, and they ended up being everything I wanted and more! So flavorful, so tender, and better than any carrot cake I have ever tasted. I seriously couldn’t get enough of them, and they are hands down one of my all time favorite desserts.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Author: Ari Ziskin

Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 1 dozen

Ultra soft and tender carrot cake cupcakes with light and fluffy cream cheese frosting are the perfect spring dessert. So delicious no one will know they're lightened up and gluten-free!

Ingredients

1½ cups gluten-free baking blend (or white whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup melted coconut oil
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ pound carrots, grated

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

½ cup butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together baking blend, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, coconut oil, applesauce, egg and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined, then fold in grated carrot.
Fill muffin tins ¾ full with batter. Bake until edges lightly brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Cool completely.
To make frosting, beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl or stand mixer. Beat in powdered sugar ½ cup at a time. Add vanilla and continue to beat until everything is smooth and incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Frost completely cooled cupcakes. Serve immediately or store refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-5 days.

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So, today is the first day of Passover (it started last night, because we’re weird, and have to start holidays at sundown), and I should be here with a recipe for matzo ball soup, or macaroons, but instead I’m bringing you totally leavened Easter brunch scones. I’m sorry mom and dad.

To be fair, I did eat my fair share of those things last night, and agreed to go over the story of Passover by watching the Rugrats Passover. I much prefer it to the 8 hours Seders we used to have where we never got to eat dinner until, like, 10 p,m. You know me, I get grumpy if you hold out on the food. 😉

Anyway, I’ve been reallllly wanting to make scones, and I’ve had almond meal scones on my recipe ideas list for quite a while now (I keep a running list in the note app on my iPhone–it’s awesome!), and when Nicole and I were deciding what to make for our Easter brunch Drink & Dish, I knew scones were the way to go.

Okay, that’s a lie. I wanted to make bagels from scratch with flavored cream cheese. I was so sure this would be brilliant. Then Nicole reminded me that perhaps trying to cram the entire bagel making process into a 5 minute video was not the best idea. This is why I’m glad I don’t do this alone. Oh, and the drinks. The drinks also make me glad to have the world’s most perfect partner in crime.

PS, did you see that Drink & Dish has its own YouTube channel now? Nicole and I figured rather than both of us sharing it on our channels, it would be easiest if you could get everything in one place, so if you haven’t yet, please take a second and head over to subscribe.

I absolutely LOVED making these scones! In fact, I made them a few times. The first time they came out far too thin and crunchy to be considered a scone. However, my friends loved those crunchy ones! The texture is easy to play with here–they don’t rise very much, so if you want closer to a cookie/biscotti, them leave them thin and let them get nice and browned. However, for scones, I wanted thick and fluffy. Well, the second time was the charm–all I had to do was keep the dough nice and thick, and they baked up perfectly soft, tender and thick. These perfectly tender scones are topped with my favorite part–the sweet, drippy, lemony frosting with tons of vanilla bean specs. They are so pretty!

These scones only require 1 mixing bowl, and they are done start to finish in about 20 minutes. Perfect for a hectic morning brunch! You can make them the night before, or whip them up quickly in the morning. They work for almost all food allergies, and are a nice healthy treat to balance out all of those chocolate eggs.

Don’t forget to watch the video for step-by-step instructions, and some friendly banter. 🙂

Check out Nicole’s delicious sangria recipe!

And for an added bonus, we uploaded one of our sound checks. We always sing when we work together, and have started singing a lot of our sound checks because…ummm I don’t know. We’re weird. But we found this one especially humorous, so we thought we’d share it for your enjoyment.

Lemond Almond Meal Scones

adapted from Elena’s Pantry

yield 8 servings

For the scones:

2 cups almond meal
dash salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp corn starch
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 tbsp honey or agave (or liquid sweetener of your choice)

For the glaze:

Heaping 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 medium lemon)

Directions:

To make the scones, preheat oven to 350. Line a medium baking sheet with Silpat or parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together almond meal, salt, baking soda, corn starch, and lemon zest. Add almond milk and liquid sweetened. Mix until combined.
Roll dough into a large ball and press down into a 1-1 1/2″ thick disk. Cut into 8 equal pieces. Do not separate. Bake as if for 9-11 minutes until golden and set. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
To make the glaze, place powdered sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Add vanilla bean paste. Slowly squeeze in lemon juice mixing constantly until you have reached your desired consistency. Again, make sure to only add a small amount of juice at a time–a little bit goes a long way.
Use a pastry brush to evenly brush glaze over cooled scones. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Drink & Dish: Lemon Almond Meal Scones {with video}

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