Petite Carrot Cakes with Whipped Mascarpone Frosting
These Mini Carrot Cakes are easy to make and in the perfect sized portion. Classic carrot cake is studded with walnuts, shredded carrots, and raisins, and topped with a creamy whipped mascarpone frosting.
I love having my cakes in this petite 2-layer way, much more than I like cupcakes or the standard 3 layer cakes. You see, my problem with cupcakes is there’s too much cake on the bottom and too much frosting on top. It needs to be more evenly distributed. And my problem with 3 layer cakes is they are a pain to make. The solution? My petite cakes. Basically you just bake off a 9×13 rectangle cake and use biscuit cutter rounds to cut out mini cakes, and you do two layers of cake and two layers of frosting. It’s a nice small bite which has just the right distribution of both frosting and cake. Plus, they look really elegant and nice. You could substitute cream cheese for the mascarpone, but you shouldn’t. The mascarpone is a million times better and makes all the difference. Oh, and just so you know, this is the BEST carrot cake my husband and I have ever had, so if you’re craving cake, you need to try this out.
Petite Carrot Cakes with Whipped Mascarpone Frosting
Ingredients
- 10 oz all purpose flour, by weight (2 cups, measured)
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 extra large eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups grated carrots
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
For the whipped mascarpone frosting:
- 2 8- oz tubs mascarpone cheese
- 4 tbsp butter at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar or to taste
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp amaretto optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a rectangular piece of parchment paper in the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a another bowl, combine the eggs, oil, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat together using a hand mixer until well blended and foamy on top.
- Add the flour mixture a little bit at a time to the egg mixture, and after you have added half of the flour, dump in the carrots and walnuts. Keep mixing, and when you get close to incorporating in all of the flour, stop mixing with the hand mixer and finish mixing by hand with a spatula. Once that flour has been incorporated, make sure you stop. Do not overmix.
- Pour the cake batter into your pan and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.
- For the frosting, use a hand mixer to whip together the mascarpone, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and amaretto. Beat until smooth and creamy.
- To assemble the cakes, take a biscuit cutter and cut little cake circles out, and do two layers of cake and two layers of frosting. Garnish the tops with extra walnuts, if desired. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
28 Comments on “Petite Carrot Cakes with Whipped Mascarpone Frosting”
Do you think this recipe will work using Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour instead?
Hello Joanne,
Will this be enough for 2 x 8″ baking pans? i would love to try this at the weekend. Thank you
Hm, you could probably do that, but the layers will be thinner, so make sure you check the oven early for doneness.
Your fantastic carrot cake recipe has been a huge hit in Panama. I’ve served it as a large cake, made mini-carrot cakes in my mini-muffin tin and have done the recipe in regular size muffin tin as well. Mascarpone difficult to find in our area, or should I say impossible to find, but no one’s complained when frosted with cream cheese frosting. This has become my go-to recipe when asked to bring dessert. Always a hit. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes and talents with us.
Hi Patti, that is so wonderful to hear! I’m glad it has worked baked in many different ways. Thanks for saying hello!
hey Joanne, just to let you know that the carrot cake was super uber awesome and that I would be conducting a cooking class next week for my girlfriends on how to make this michelin worthy carrot cake. LOL. Thank you for yet another great recipe! xxx
Hey Joanne, do you know if your carrot cake recipe works to make carrot cake pops i.e. carrot cake lollipops? They usually calls for carrot cake mix, but guess what.. we don’t have carrot cake mixture here 🙂 Thanks heaps.
I’ve never tried it, but I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work. It would actually probably be very convenient because it’s just one big 9×13 cake, very easy to mix and crumble. I absolutely love this cake by the way, and everyone who has made it loves it too. Good luck!
Joanneee… why did the middle part collapsed? did it happen to yours? I was doing the toothpick test, on multiple parts of the cake, and the middle part collapsed right after I inserted the toothpicks and probably released the pressure. ouf!
If the middle collapses that means it needed to bake just a little bit longer (the structure was not set entirely). I actually just made this cake about an hour ago because I was having a craving and bought too many carrots this week. The good news is you said you were making cake lollipops right? The outer parts of the cake should be salvageable. Also, do you have an oven thermometer?
Yes I do have an oven thermometer. After the collapse (which I poked the cake before minute 45), I baked it about 5-10 mins longer making total baking time closer to 55 mins, it never return got to return to original. Lesson learnt.
Yeah, no real harm done. I am able to cut off in circle shapes like you did. Going to do the icing tomorrow morning. I’m still going to use the other half to experiment with the lollipops.
Okay, I’m glad you have an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature is always consistent. Unfortunately if you take a cake out of the oven before it’s set and it collapses you can’t fix it by baking longer since the heat that was sustaining that rise goes away when you take it out. I remember when I learned that for the first time….I wasn’t happy LOL. I hope you still enjoy the cake regardless!
Great recipe! I’ve never baked a carrot cake but I’ve tried plenty. This was one of the best I’ve tasted. As silly as it sounds, I frosted half the cake using philly creamcheese and the other using mascarpone. The mascarpone was very good but I prefered the philly–just my personal preference. But, again, great recipe.
YAY that’s fantastic! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. That’s funny, because I tried both cream cheese and mascarpone and I prefered the mascarpone. Good to know someone prefers cream cheese! They are both great options, just different!
how many servings?
Hi Elise, The servings really depends on how large your biscuit cutter is, but it’s a standard 9×13 cake that rises to about 2 inches. I would say it could easily serve 8 people.
Beautiful! I just adore carrot cake, and these little cakes are so cute.
These are wicked.
These are wicked.
That icing looks simply divine.
Individual little cakes – how special!
what size cake pan did you use? They look amazing!!
Sorry re-read your amazing post and you of course stated what size pan to use. . . I am a sleep deprived mummy with a newborn 😉
Hey Michelle, Don’t worry about it! Please feel free to ask whatever questions you have, and congrats on the newborn!
You are a GENIUS! You’re right! I LOVE cupcakes, but I tend to eat the bottom and then scarf the frosting (hubby scrapes the frosting off….but that’s another story). What a great idea! The recipe, photos, EVERYTHING is stunning!
It’s more like a “sandwich”…I like this option, it’s just as a bite…lovely…
I never thought about the distribution of frosting on a cupcake, but your point is legitimate. Your mini cakes do make for an amazing presentation and no doubt these are delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tina!