Make Ahead

inside out carrot cake muffins

August  5, 2014
4
6 Ratings
Photo by CherylStyle
  • Makes 12 muffins
Author Notes

Who’s ready for a fresh take on an all-time favorite? We put the creamy frosting on the inside of our carrot cake muffins because, well, why not? It’s different and totally delicious!

Some of the frosting will get absorbed into the cake during the baking process, making them extra moist and delicious!

Don’t be tempted to use more filling than what the recipe calls for, even if you have extra. Otherwise, you won’t be able to fit your batter into the muffin tins. We promise you’ll use all of the filling before baking is done.

And to make things super simple, use a half package of baby carrots and grind them in a food processor. No peeling and no weighing—so easy! —Cheryl Najafi

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • carrot cake
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 pound grated carrots (1.5-2 cups)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • cream cheese filling
  • 8 ounces package cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Pinch salt
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Grate the carrots on a box grater or pulse them in a food processor until they are very finely chopped and then set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla together until completely blended, then stir in carrots, salt and cinnamon. Sift the flour and baking soda on top of the wet ingredients and gently fold until completely blended. Set aside.
  3. In a separate medium-sized bowl, add all of the cream cheese filling ingredients and whisk to blend until perfectly smooth. Set aside.
  4. Add about 2 Tbsp of the carrot cake batter into the bottom of each muffin liner. Then, drop one heaping teaspoon of the cream cheese filling directly into the center of the batter. (You will not use up all of the filling at this point.) Use the remaining cake batter to fill each muffin to within about ¼" from the top. (Enough to completely cover the filling.)
  5. Bake 18–20 minutes until the sides of the muffin are firm to the touch. (It is likely that the filling will have begun to ooze from the top of the muffins, which is what you want!) Remove the cakes from the oven and cool them on a rack for about 10 minutes.
  6. While the cakes are cooling, fill a pastry bag with a small round tip (or resealable bag with the corner snipped) with your remaining cream cheese filling and pipe into the hole where the filling broke through the top of the muffin. (There will be a small hollow cavity inside the muffin that we want to fill with the remaining frosting.) Serve these fun original cakes warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!

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