Carrot Mini Easter Egg Cakes: an easy bake to make with your kids
Make these adorable carrot Easter Egg cakes with your kids, and you’re guaranteed some fun in the kitchen that ends in tasty cupcakes.
It doesn’t hurt that these cakes are made with a simple one-bowl carrot cake you can mix in minutes.
| Taste | Texture |
| Cozy spice, fruity carrot cake | Moist, tender, creamy |
| Active time | Total time | Yield | Difficulty |
| 20 min | 1 hour 10 min | 8 cakes | Easy |
We love carrot cake around my house, so it was only natural when I scored an adorable vintage mini egg cake pan at the thrift store that carrot cake was going to be my first choice for using this cake pan. The Easter bunny himself would no doubt love carrots being baked up into these festive mini egg shaped cakes.
Why you’ll love making these cakes with your kids
- One-bowl: The cake batter here is as easy to make as a muffin. If you can stir, you can make this cake.
- Easy decorating: These are great cakes to practice simple cake decorating with. The cream cheese icing is easy to make and easy to spread. Plus, it’s okay if your layer of frosting isn’t perfectly smooth because you’re going to add sprinkles. These eggs will look good no matter if they’re perfect. This is a great project for kids.
- So so tasty: The flavors of cinnamon carrot, walnut, pineapple in a less-sweet version of carrot cake is such a nice little cake.
Where to find a mini egg shaped pan
- Thrift it: I found my pan at the thrift store a while back. I think I paid $2 for it. I always make it a habit to scan thrift stores when I’m in them for vintage bakeware as it’s almost always in great shape and obviously much cheaper than buying one new.
- Ebay: My pan as far as I can tell is a vintage Wilton egg cake pan. You can find many on Ebay for about $10, though watch your shipping prices.
- Nordicware Egg Cakelet pan : Nordicware’s pans are top notch, though I wouldn’t invest in one if this is a recipe you’ll make once.
- Cheat it: You can also simply bake this batter in a sheet pan and use a egg cookie cutters to cut out layers (2/cake). A 3″ cutter will make a nice sized cake.
Ingredients for Carrot Cake Mini Egg Cakes
Carrot Cake batter
- Carrot
- Egg
- Granulated sugar
- Carrot juice, orange juice, or apple juice (I’m using Bolthouse Farm’s Pineapple Carrot Orange)
- Cold pressed sunflower or avocado oil
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Coconut flakes
- Chopped walnuts or pecans
- Drained, chopped canned pineapple chunks (Don’t use crushed because it’s too juicy).
- Butter and breadcrumbs or more flour for the pan
Cream cheese icing
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
- Butter
- Vanilla extract or paste
- Carrot juice, orange juice, or apple juice
- Cake sprinkles
Equipment needed
- Mini egg shaped pan (see options above)
- Small offset spatula or butter knife
- Cookie scoop (I’m using a Vollrath yellow scoop which is 2 ounces)
- Muffin cup papers
Process for making carrot mini Easter egg cakes
- Prep: Shred the carrots (I use my food processor ). Chop the nuts. Drain the pineapple and chop it into small pieces. Grease the pan with a little melted butter and then either flour it or coat the insides with breadcrumbs.
- Make the batter: Whisk the egg with the sugar until smooth. Add in the oil, juice, vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, whisking until smooth. Add in the flour, nuts, carrot shreds, pineapple, and coconut. Stir just until you have a smooth batter.
- Bake: Fill the pan with the batter almost up to the top. Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.
- Cool: Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before overturning them onto a rack to finish cooling. Loosen any of the top edges before you do this. Cut away any extra cake around the cake shape (Snacks!).
- Frosting crumb coat: Beat the frosting ingredients together with a hand mixer or a stand mixer until smooth and creamy. Spread a small amount of frosting over the cake just to cover the surface. Place the cakes in the freezer for about 10 minutes. This will set the frosting so that it’s easier to spread on the top layer of frosting cleanly.
- Finish decorating: Use an offset spatula or butter knife to smooth on more frosting to make a nice pretty layer. Add some sprinkles over your cakes in stripes or other patterns. Chill the cakes until serving on a sheet tray, setting each one on a muffin liner as you would a cupcake.
Tips for making the best mini egg cakes
- Breadcrumbs: It’s an old grandma technique, and it needs to come back because it works! Instead of buttering and flouring your pan, coat the inside of your pan with breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs create a barrier between the rising, sticky cake batter and the pan sides, letting the cake bake but also not stick after baking. Breadcrumbs are better than flour for this purpose as they sink into the batter better, leaving less of a film on the cake. Flour still works though!
- Don’t make it too perfect: This is meant to be a baking project for families to make with their kids. We want kids to like cooking and baking, so let them enjoy the decorating. Do your best to make the frosting smooth on the cake, but don’t obsess if it’s not perfect. Sprinkles cover a lot of imperfections.
Carrot Mini Easter Egg Cakes
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 7 small cakes 1x
Description
These adorable Easter egg cakes are really just a different form of carrot cake cupcakes. Made with a simple one-bowl batter, these are as easy to bake as they are to decorate. Farmer MacGregor would’ve had a hard time keeping Peter Rabbit from these.
Ingredients
Scale
Butter and breadcrumbs or flour, for the pan
Carrot cake batter
- 1 large egg
- 6 Tablespoons granulated sugar (75 g)
- 1/4 cup carrot juice (or orange or apple, I’m using Bolthouse Farms Pineapple Carrot Orange from my grocery store), (59 mL)
- 6 Tablespoons cold-pressed sunflower or avocado oil (59 mL)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour (86 g)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 large carrot
- 3 Tablespoons coconut flakes
- 3 Tablespoons chopped walnuts
- 3 Tablespoons drained, chopped canned pineapple (don’t use crushed as it is too juicy)
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature (57 g)
- 4 ounces full fat cream cheese, softened (113 g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g)
- 1 Tablespoon carrot juice from above
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Grease the pan with a little melted butter and then either flour it or coat the insides with breadcrumbs.
Prep the mix-ins
- Shred the carrots either in a food processor of a box grater. Chop the nuts. Drain the pineapple and chop it into small pieces.
Make the batter
- Whisk the egg with the sugar and vanilla until smooth.
- Add in the oil, juice, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, whisking until smooth.
- Add in the flour, nuts, carrot shreds, pineapple, and coconut. Stir just until you have a smooth batter.
Bake the cakes
- Fill the pan with the batter almost up to the top. You should be able to fill 7 of the 8 wells in the pan.
- Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before overturning them onto a rack to finish cooling. Loosen any of the top edges before you do this.
- Cut away any extra cake around the cake shape (Snacks!).
Frosting crumb coat
- Beat the frosting ingredients together with a hand mixer or a stand mixer until smooth and creamy.
- Spread a small amount of frosting over the cake just to cover the surface.
- Place the cakes in the freezer for about 10 minutes. This will set the frosting so that it’s easier to spread on the top layer of frosting cleanly.
Finish decorating
- Use an offset spatula or butter knife to smooth on more frosting to make a nice pretty layer.
- Add some sprinkles over your cakes in stripes or other patterns.
- Chill the cakes until serving on a sheet tray, setting each one on a muffin liner as you would a cupcake. Store the cupcakes in a covered container for up to 1 week.
Notes
Pipe the frosting: If you’d prefer to pipe the frosting on, take out the extra juice in the frosting. Still crumb coat the cakes with a thin layer of frosting. From there you can scoop the frosting into a piping bag with a decorative tip. Only do this if your kids are bigger with enough hand strength to squeeze out the frosting. Otherwise, the thinner, more spreadable frosting is much easier for kids to work with.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
