Carrot Cake Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting
Carrot Cake Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting
Soft, moist, scrumptious were a few of the words my taste testers used to describe these cute little darlin’s. I bagged up a few along with a bit of the frosting in a separate container and added them to the outdoor concert picnic for a fancy treat after enjoying the Mixed Greens, Grapes and Sunflower Seed Salad and Black Bean Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce. Our delicious portable meal helped make our date night pretty memorable, if I do say so myself.
I love carrot cake but previous recipes always blow me away in terms of the amount of fat and sugar. This modification calls for a lot less butter and sugar replaced with unsweetened applesauce and a mound of shredded carrots which keep it nice and moist. I also used whole wheat pastry flour, my go-to flour for baking. Yes, I topped it with a cream cheese frosting although this version uses reduced-fat cream cheese to shave off a few fat grams. They are small, so don’t eat them all, even though you probably will want to.
- Carrot Cake Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cooking spray
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup agave nectar or honey
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 cups finely shredded carrot
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
- 1/4 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
- 2 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp each vanilla and orange extracts
- Dash of sea salt
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- To prepare the bites: Coat mini-muffin pans with cooking spray.
- Place butter and agave nectar or honey in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 5 minutes or until well blended. Add egg, egg white and vanilla, until well blended.
- Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture and applesauce alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition. Stir in carrot and walnuts, if desired.
- Spoon batter by the tablespoon into prepared muffin pan. Sharply tap pan once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
- To prepare frosting: Place the cream cheese, butter, extracts, and salt in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, beating at low speed until smooth (do not overbeat). Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar as needed to achieve the desired consistency. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Spoon into plastic bag and snip corner of bag. Squeeze frosting onto tops of each cooled bite.