This post is also available in: Deutsch
Easter is just around the corner! And these vegan carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are not to be missed at your Easter feast in two weeks!
They are – of course 🤫 – made from only plant based ingredients, easy and quick to prepare and absolutely sure to succeed. In addition, these cupcakes with cream cheese frosting can be easily prepared in advance at your leisure. And most importantly, they taste incredibly delicious.
Jump to Recipe
Print Recipe
Yellow daffodils and forsythia, blue Easter eggs, sweet Easter treats, bunnies, hens and the like are flooding social media right now. It’s hard to miss, Easter is just around the corner. And what typically can not be missing on this occasion?
Really sweet – and in my case vegan – Easter bakes with carrots. Simply a must, you can’t have one without the other. Like Bonnie and Clyde or French fries and ketchup.
Therefore, I decided to spice up the recipe of my carrot slices – also an excellent vegan Easter Bake – and tweaked it a little bit. And created these delicious vegan carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. And what should I say, they turned out incredibly moist and are super easy to prepare.
The base of these moist carrot cake cupcakes is a classic carrot cake batter. In my view, certain spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cardamom should not be missing here. To me, these are the classic spices that belong in a carrot cake batter – or in this case, in these easy carrot cake cupcakes.
Also the frosting is actually a classic, just in vegan. All you need is vegan butter, powdered sugar and vegan cream cheese. I have already tested several vegan cream cheese varieties for frostings and my personal favorite is the cream cheese from SimplyV. Next, I’d like to try Philadelphia’s vegan cream cheese as soon as it’s available here. But for this recipe I can definitely recommend the SimplyV. Of course the mild one, not the one with garlic or herbs! Unless you’re into vegan Easter bakes with garlic breath, hey no judging here 🙃.
Above I shouted out loudly that these vegan carrot cake cupcakes are incredibly easy to prepare and actually succeed. Don’t worry, I wasn’t making fun of you, it`s actually really the case. However, there are one or two small things you should keep in mind, when baking these moist treasures.
First, I really recommend working with a food processor or something similar. There is nothing more tedious than grating carrots by hand. In the food processor, this is a breeze and you have your shredded carrots ready in no time.
When preparing the dough, I recommend mixing the dry ingredients in one bowl and the liquid ingredients in another. In addition, when baking, it is always useful to have all the ingredients at the same temperature so that they combine to form a perfect dough. So let the vegan butter or margarine cool to room temperature after melting.
As with most vegan bakes, it is important not to stir, or mix, for too long. So add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix briskly. Mix only until the dough is combined. How so? If you stir too long, the dough will not rise. And please leave the vegan carrot cake cupcakes in the turned off oven for 5-10 minutes after baking to prevent them from collapsing.
For the vegan cream cheese frosting, on the other hand, it is very important that your ingredients are cold. So take the butter and cream cheese out of the refrigerator just right before processing. The vegan butter should also be whipped first until it gets a white color and creamy consistency. Only then sprinkle in the powdered sugar and whip again with the food processor. The vegan cream cheese can then only be folded in briefly with a spatula at the end.
The vegan cream cheese frosting works well made the day before and then stored in the refrigerator overnight. In this way, it can also become somewhat firmer in consistency. And remember, the frosting goes on top of completely cooled cupcakes.
Bon appétit!
Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 1 muffin or cupcake tray for 12
- 12 paper cups for muffins or cupcakes
- 1 sauce pan
- 1 food processor or cutter
- 2 large bowls
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 spatula
- 1 ice cream scoop optional
- 1 food processor with whisk attachment
- 1 piping bag
- 1 round nozzle approx. 20mm
- 1 tea strainer
Ingredients
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- 85 g vegan butter or margarine
- 250 g carrots
- 200 g wheat flour
- 100 g ground hazelnuts*
- 85 g sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 package bourbon vanilla sugar app. 8g
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 150 g apple sauce
- 100 ml plant based milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 130 g vegan butter cold
- 85 g powdered sugar
- 300 g vegan cream cheese cold, equivalent to approx. 2 packets
- Matcha powder
- 12 vegan marzipan carrots
Instructions
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 180° Celsius. Line cupcake/muffin tray with 12 paper cups of your choice.
- Melt vegan butter or margarine in a sauce pan, set aside and let cool to room temperature.
- Peel carrots, cut into coarse pieces and chop into fine pieces in a food processor. Set aside.
- Place all dry ingredients up to and including ground cardamom in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon.
- In a separate second bowl, add the liquid ingredients, namely apple sauce, plant milk and lemon juice. Add the melted butter. Mix everything briefly with a wooden spoon. Then add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix the ingredients quickly and with as little stirring as possible.
- Now fold in the shredded carrots with a spatula. Again, work as quickly as possible and stir as little as possible.
- Now, using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the 12 paper cups. To do this, use the portioner to put in 1 scoop per paper cup. If there is any batter left over, spread it out.*
- Bake the carrot muffins in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes. They are done baking when a toothpick can be pulled out cleanly without any batter sticking to it. Let the carrot muffins cool in the oven for another 5 minutes, then remove.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whip vegan cold butter using a food processor fitted with a whisk attachment. The butter should turn a white color and become creamy.
- Then gradually sprinkle in powdered sugar to the butter. Stir continuously. Until a creamy solid white mass is formed.
- Quickly fold cold cream cheese into frosting with a spatula. If there is still liquid in the cream cheese package, drain it well first.
- Now place the frosting in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. Or fill directly into the piping bag with a round nozzle and pipe onto the completely cooled carrot muffins in circular motions.
- If you like, you can now sprinkle a little green matcha powder on the frosting using a tea strainer and finish with a marzipan carrot on the top of the frosting.