Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Have you ever been charmed by a carrot?

This homely root vegetable is likely all but forgotten at the bottom of your vegetable drawer. The fresh and perishable vegetables probably get layered on top week after week. It’s not until you use the last of your leafy greens or whatever that you unearth the sad bag of carrots and think “I should really do something with those.” 

Unlike bananas, there’s no fanfare when you’ve neglected your carrots. (Raise your hand if you’ve ever purposefully let bananas go brown to justify banana bread ✋). Instead, they just sit cold and placid like prizes in a claw machine waiting to be picked one by one. 

But carrots are saved from a completely depressing existence by their marquee moment: the carrot cake. Unlike other vegetables’ “signature bakes” (looking at you, zucchini bread), carrot cake receives a good deal of pomp and circumstance. There are the mix-ins (I’m pro-walnut and raisin and not much else), the cream cheese frosting, and that gorgeous au naturel color (side eye to red velvet *cough*). To carry forward this marquee metaphor, carrot cake is a headliner and she knows it. 

A classic finishing technique is to mimic the flavor of the cake in the decoration. For instance, a strawberry chiffon cake would be adorned with fresh strawberries, a peanut butter and chocolate cake might feature mini Reese’s cups, and so on. Carrot cake usually gets whimsical frosting carrots piped on, as any actual carrots are too unalluring to top the cake.

Or so I thought. In her cookbook, Flour, Joanne Chang suggests making candied carrot peels for decoration. Having no better ideas and no inclination to make orange frosting, I gave it a whirl. Reader, if it wasn’t the cutest darn thing I ever did see! After boiling carrot strips in sugar water you roll them up into tidy little rosettes. It was easy, it was fun, it was downright adorable. 

If my kitchen were a Disney movie, this would be the pumpkin carriage moment. Something lowly and plain is turned into something beautiful and elegant! Cue the swelling music and tell Prince Charming to stay home because these carrots already stole my heart. Bippity boppity boo!

Recipe from Joanne Chang’s cookbook, Flour.