August 1: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese WHOOPIE PIES!

It’s the monthly blog event with Sweet and Simple Bakes.  Check out the spot HERE.

This month’s recipe is Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese. Well I did make carrot cake, but I turned it into something a little more fun… WHOOPIE PIES!  That’s right, carrot cake whoopie pies.  I think you’ll enjoy this one.

The following is the original recipe from Sweet and Simple Bakes but I’ve noted my adjustments.  Make sure to check the Sweet and Simple site to see what everyone else did with the recipe.

Serves 12, Ingredients:

• 6 1/2 oz self-rising flour (I used 8 oz All Purpose flour)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch salt (I used about 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground nutmeg)
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin pie spice
• 2 eggs
• I added 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 oz vegetable or sunflower oil
• 7 oz light or dark brown sugar
• 11 oz grated carrots (I used 10 oz and I boiled them for 5 minutes to soften)
• 4 oz sultanas (raisins)…(I used about 3/4 cup)
• I added 8 oz crushed pineapple, slightly drained
• I added 3 oz coconut
• Optional:  3 oz chopped walnuts (omitted in cake mixtured but used to decorate).

Cream Cheese Icing: * I doubled this recipe

• 3 oz cream cheese
• 3 oz softened butter
• 4 1/2 oz confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp)

Directions:  Please see the original recipe at Sweet and Simple  if you want to make a whole carrot cake. The following is the directions for Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies.

Preheat oven to 300 F.  Mix all dry ingredients and set aside.  Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the oil and brown sugar. In a food processor, add the cooked grated carrots, raisins, coconut and puree. NOTE:  This is how I sneak raisins into a recipe when there is someone who doesn’t like raisins…the raisins in puree form are undetectable by texture and yet still add their wonderful sweetness.

Add the pureed mixture into the oil and sugar and mix well. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix only until combined. No over mixing allowed! 

From left to right and down: The oil sugar, the carrot-raisin-coconut puree, the dry flour mix.

Prepare muffin pans. I used 12 small muffin pans (typically used for mini tarts) and 8 of the 12 large (jumbo) muffin pans. Spray with non-stick. Pour your mixture (about 1 TBS in small pans, about 3 TBS in large pans) into the pans.  Remember you are going to sandwich the baked cakes so you want them to be fairly flat and small.  Bake for 15 minutes in small pans and 25 minutes in large (jumbo) size pans.

Allow to cool then remove from pans. 

Prepare the cream cheese frosting: 

Beat the cream cheese and butter until combined. Add the vanilla extract and the confectioners sugar.  Turn into a piping bag.

Assemble:

To assemble the whoopies, pipe frosting on top of half of the baked cakes. 

Top with cream cheese frosting

Now top with an uniced cake to make a sandwich.  To decorate, press down slightly so some of the icing peeks out from the sides, now roll in chopped walnuts if using or coconut or whatever you wish to decorate.

Roll in chopped walnuts to decorate

Chill and serve your Whoopies!

Rosie and Maria, great recipe. You can’t go wrong with carrot cake and certainly the way your recipe is written it is SO easy. I added a few more pans and gadgets to clean up but it was STILL an easy, super good recipe.  Love it!

Enjoy a whoopie pie