A big thanks to Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods for sponsoring this post. 

Chai Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting are my new spin on plain old carrot cake and will take your spring baking to a whole new level. The Chai tea spices, especially the distinctly warm flavor of cardamom, are so good with this cake you’ll wonder why all carrot cakes don’t include those amazing flavors as a standard.

These cupcakes turn out perfectly light with just the right amount of moisture. Carrot cake is notorious for being soggy, especially the longer it sits uneaten (it’s a vicious cycle really…). Bob’s Red Mill Premium Organic Baking Flour made these cupcakes turn out beautifully and oh so yummy. This flour is freshly milled from organic hard red wheat and is a high protein flour that is not enriched with any additives. Translation; it’s a great high quality flour that is used by professionals everywhere and will give a little extra lift to your baked goods. For people who like to bake, it’s a bag of awesomeness, pure and simple :0)

If you happen to follow a gluten free or paleo diet, Bob’s has perfectly formulated baking flours for you too! So any of you lovely readers out there who may subscribe to those diets can still celebrate spring with my recipe for Chai Carrot Cupcakes. Bob’s Red Mill Organic Flour was the perfect choice for me when I was developing this recipe.

I like my carrot cake without raisins and nuts (I know… I’m kinda picky sometimes…) but I did decide to add a few finely chopped walnuts in with my Easter sprinkles on the frosting. My old food processor died a couple weeks ago, so I used that sad episode as an excuse to go out and get a big fancy replacement, which made whipping up this recipe a cinch. In fact, I decided to create the whole recipe in the food processor so I could have more playtime with my new toy (hehehe). I learned that slowly adding the oil through the feeding tube with the machine running creates a nice emulsion that keeps the oil suspended throughout the cake, which also helps to eliminate those soggy bottoms. (Seriously, who wants soggy bottoms???)

I fiddled and fiddled with the frosting recipe to get it just right~ not too sweet, not too ‘cream cheesy’ and not too heavy. I needed something to lighten up the traditional cream cheese frosting that accompanies carrot cake; mascarpone cheese was just what I was looking for. If you want to pipe this frosting on with a pretty tip, you’ll need to refrigerate it for about an hour so to get the right stiffness. These cupcakes would be a beautiful dessert for a springtime feast or the first backyard barbecue of the season. Enjoy!

Chai Carrot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Buttercream Frosting

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• Author: Emily
• Yield: about 30 cupcakes 1x

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Description

Incredibly delicious carrot cake with the perfect pairing of frosting.

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Ingredients

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Chai Carrot Cupcakes

• 2 and 3/4 cup Organic Bob’s Red Mill flour
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon ground cardamom
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh fine ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound of carrots, peeled and tops trimmed
• 1 and 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup golden brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup applesauce

Mascarpone Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 16 oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 7 cups confectioners Powdered Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

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Instructions

1. Set your oven to heat to 350 degrees and move the oven rack to the middle position. Set desired cupcake liners in a 12 cup muffin tin and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, clove and salt. Set aside.
3. Finely shred carrots in a food processor using a shredding disk. Empty shredded carrots into the flour mixture and rinse the bowl and blades.
4. In a clean food processor bowl add in the sugars and eggs. Process for about 20 seconds until smooth. With the machine on low, slowly drizzle the oil down through the feeding tube. Pour in the applesauce and process just until blended.
5. Empty the liquid mixture into a large mixing bowl and add in the carrots and dry ingredients by gently folding until no white streaks remain. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 17-22 minutes, rotating halfway through for even baking. Remove from the muffin tin and repeat with remaining batter. Let baked cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
6. Beat butter, mascarpone and cream cheese until smooth and light. Slowly add in the sugar and vanilla. Once all ingredients are added, whip the frosting for about 5 minutes. Chill for 1 hour before piping onto cupcakes.

Notes

This recipe is written for baking at 5500 ft. If baking at sea level reduce the flour to 2 and 1/2 cups and increase the baking powder to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cupcake

This post has been sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill; all thoughts and opinions are my own.