This mini carrot cake recipe is very moist and full of flavor. It's spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and frosted with cinnamon cream cheese buttercream. A 1x batch makes 3 mini cakes, but you can make more or less depending on the cake ring or cookie cutter size that you choose. They freeze great!
Servings 8servings
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Cook Time 18 minutesmins
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
240 grams (1 ¾ cups + 1Tablespoon)All-Purpose FlourI use Gold Medal
Preheat Oven to 325 degrees. Line a ¼ sheet pan with parchment paper and spray the bottom and sides of the pan with nonstick cooking spary (on top of the parchment paper).
Puree the carrots and crushed pineapple together in a food processor until the carrots are very small.
Sift the Dry Ingredients in a bowl and then whisk until well blended.
Whisk the Wet Ingredients and the prepared carrot and pineapple puree in a separate bowl until well blended.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk until well blended. Pour the melted salted butter over the batter and whisk until it is fully incorporated and the batter is smooth and shiny.
Pour the carrot cake batter into your prepared ¼ sheet pan. Spread the batter out until it is even throughout the pan all the way to the edges--an offset icing spatula works well for this.
Bake on the middle or top rack (avoid bottom rack) of the preheated 325-degree oven for 18 minutes, then turn the oven down to 300 degrees. Set the timer for an additional 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick or paring knife comes out mostly clean (watch closely towards the end of baking). A couple of moist crumbs on your knife are fine, but they shouldn't look wet.
Allow cake to cool completely, then wrap thoroughly in plastic wrap and freeze the cake in the pan until it is cold or frozen. (You can bake and freeze the cake a couple of weeks ahead if desired. I pull the plastic wrap out and place the pan on top of it. Then I wrap 2-3 ways horizontally and one way vertically so that there are two layers of wrap on all sides of the pan including the bottom).
Assemble the mini carrot cakes
Since the carrot cake is very moist and delicate, the easiest way to layer and decorate these mini cakes is from cold or frozen. Cut out 6 mini cake circles from the cold cake with a 4" cake ring. Pipe cinnamon buttercream on top, then top each mini cake with a 2nd cake circle and more cinnamon buttercream. You can decorate them with easy caramel drizzle and chopped pecans, if desired.
Top the mini carrot cakes with caramel drizzle and pecans. Let them set up in the fridge, but remove from the fridge 2-3 hours before serving so they can come back to room temperature. These cakes have the best texture at room temperature. These mini carrot cakes will stay very moist if kept in an airtight container. Eat within 2 days or freeze. Enjoy!
Notes
Instant Pudding mix contains modified cornstarch (a.k.a. Instant Clearjel), which helps cakes retain more moisture for longer while keeping a soft texture. I use Instant pudding mix in cakes and save my instant clearjel for recipes that don't have an ideal substitute (as described in my Instant Clearjel Shortage Section). However, if you'd prefer to use instant clearjel, it is likely that 1 to 2 Tablespoons will work well (in a 1x batch) in place of the Instant Pudding Mix--I just haven't tested it yet in this recipe