What would a meal be without dessert?
You certainly wouldn’t have happy guests if you skipped out on this necessary component of the meal.
For mother’s special day, I opted to make a chocolate tart and mini carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing.
I know what you’re thinking, ‘did she crack an egg on top of the cupcakes?’
NO, I most certainly did not. But now that I think about it, my little bit of creativity would have fared better during Easter.
Oh well. They still tasted good.
Here is the tart crust, the hardest part to make.
I spent about 30 minutes trying to even out the edges, then I decided, if it’s a little rough around the edges maybe people will want to eat it more?
The filling was pretty much just chocolate ganache. Heavy cream and chocolate — what could be better?
I had to take a photo of the drooping cupcake. See it? On the left?
Looks like there might be a couple on the right too.
Breakfast anyone?
And for the final touches…
I used this Martha Stewart recipe for the chocolate tart.
And I used my own recipe for the cupcakes.
Mini Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 1 cup flaked coconut
- ¾ cup roughly chopped walnuts
Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 cup/package of regular Philadelphia cream cheese
- ¼ cup (or half a stick) unsalted softened butter
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and place cupcake liners in mini muffin tray.
- In a large bowl, mix white and brown sugar, oil, and eggs until they’re nice and smooth.
- In a small bowl, sift flour together with baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Pour flour mixture into wet mixture and beat just until moistened—do not over mix.
- Add the carrots, coconut, and walnuts and fold into the batter until the ingredients are well-incorporated.
- Pour batter into cupcake liners until about 3/4 full.
- Bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, combine all the ingredients for the icing in a food processor. Mix on low speed until the icing is smooth with no lumps. A hand blender also works well for this step.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before icing.
Enjoy!
Yours edibly,
Elana
that tart looks gorgeous…and I think the drooping adds character!
wow the chocolate tart couldnt look any better!! and it looks like its from a restaurant… make it again june 7th?? 🙂