Carrot Cake Cupcakes

These carrot cake cupcakes are perfectly spiced while also soft, moist and fluffy and topped with a delicious mascarpone frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Total Time 1

Servings cupcakes

Calories 388kcal

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside.
Beat together the eggs, white sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just blended. Fold in the carrots and coconut by hand until just incorporated.
Spoon the batter into the liners, filling ⅔ of the way full. Bake at 350°F for 20-22 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place cake on cooling rack. While the cupcakes are cooking, make the buttermilk glaze.

Mix together sugar, buttermilk, butter, light corn syrup and baking soda in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Let the mixture come to a boil and reduce to simmer for about 4-5 minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
Take a toothpick and punch a few holes throughout the cupcakes. Taking a pastry brush, brush the glaze over the cakes.

Beat the mascarpone cheese and butter together in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt and beat until fluffy, about another 3 minutes.
Using a piping bag, pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Be creative with your decorations.

All refrigerated items should be at room temperature, which helps the batter mix easily and evenly.
Grate the carrots by hand which creates a moist cupcake.
You may not realize this but baking powder and baking soda actually expires pretty quickly. Use baking powder that is less than a year old since it has been opened. If you use older baking powder, it won’t be powerful enough to help leaven the cupcakes. You can test it by stirring half a teaspoon of baking powder into a cup of hot water. It will immediately start to fizz and release carbon dioxide gas if it’s still fresh enough to use. Baking soda should be less than six months old and you can use the same test.
When adding the batter to the muffin tin, don’t fill more than ⅔ of the way as they do rise.
Allow the cupcakes to completely cool before adding the frosting, otherwise it will melt.