Can I tell you how happy carrot cake makes me? Especially when it has little Peter Rabbit bunnies and friends popping out of billowy cream cheese frosting clouds. Lately my kids have been all about Beatrix Potter stories, so when I saw these darling cupcake liners and novelty toppers I had to go for it. Just in time for bunny rabbit Easter celebrations too!
I love carrot cake. I love it more with lightly sweetened whipped cream cheese. At first I had named these “double” carrot cake cupcakes. “Double” because first I roasted the carrots in butter. That little bit of caramelization boosts the carrot flavor in awesome ways. Half of those carrots I puréed with milk. They other half I dice into fine little pieces. The batter is infused with the puree and the chunky pieces add a little something more.
You can also top your little cakes with Homemade Whipped Cream.
Could these illustrations be any more beautiful? The animals are softly drawn and are so very sweet. Makes me want to head out to the garden with a sketch pad. If only little animals could scurry around in vintage clothing carrying parasols!
I was not sure whether to name these cupcakes or muffins. They look like cupcakes, but have more of the whole food ingredients of a muffin. So I went with cupcakes because that implies more of a celebration.
Lucky you (and me) these cupcake/muffins can be enjoyed anytime of day. They are packed with protein (yogurt, egg, milk and cream cheese) the perfect amount of fat (a little butter and the cream cheese goes a long way.) And gobs of good for you gluten free whole grains (oats and corn.)
I should have brought some of these cupcakes to my friend Averie the other day at our meet-up at Starbucks. Sorry Averie, they were gone shortly after I baked them. Next time OK?! Averie and I have a hoot of a time when we get together for our monthly chit chats. It is cool having an amazing blogger girl friend close by to talk shop and everything else. There is a whole lot of “everything else!” Averie’s blog is Love Veggies and Yoga. She teaches me cool things about life. Always.
What is your favorite carrot cake recipe?
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Carrot Cake Recipe Links
Carrot cake is my brothers very favorite. I am going to make these for him this weekend. They are adorable and I love the wholesomeness. Happy Easter Marla!
What a wonderful idea to roast the carrots in butter. I love the combination of the chopped pieces along with the puree.
Marla these are so incredibly adorable!
Lovely cupcakes! I absolutely love Beatrix Potter’s stories. I grew up reading her books…
Cheers,
Rosa
Awww, thanks for the sweet words, my friend! Our meetups and chat sessions are the highlight of my day/week/month…truly! It’s just…awesome.
This cracked me up
“So I went with cupcakes because that implies more of a celebration.”–So true! Even tho I would have been inclined to say muffin, you’re right, cupcakes DO mean celebration 🙂
Love the Beatrix Potter book…that was a staple in my childhood. Reminds me I need to pick them up for Skylar’s growing library!
The photography, the bunny theme, the recipe…all just delicious!
i’ve always loved the carrot cake my mom makes, which is my papa’s recipe with pineapple and tons of pecans. yum!
Can I tell you that I basically live for cream cheese frosting? These sound delicious! And I love that they are so good for you as well! Those peter rabbit decorations are adorable…bring back such fabulous childhood memories of reading that book over and over and over.
I absolutely love carrot cake too. But it has to have a healthy load of cream cheese icing that’s not too sweet on top. So these sound perfect! I love the idea of roasting the carrots in the butter first, something I haven’t tried before. Super cute!
Love it. Love it!!! Peter Rabbit is one of my fave book characters!
Those are so cute! I love the rabbit theme here. Rabbits and carrots go perfectly together. Once again a delicious sounding recipe with wholesome ingredients!
These look so cute. Your frosting looks light and fluffy, and so sweetly decorated. A perfect complement to the book.
these are adorable! and they sound so delicious!
Really beautiful Marla! Those little toppers are absolutely gorgeous!!
So cute!! My daughter loves Peter Rabbit, and I know she’d love these!
So beautiful, Marla…and I love all the extra touches you gave to the carrots to add flavor!
Love the Peter Rabbit cupcakes – delicious and gotta love Beatrix Potter – so v British!
Lucy: Looks like this will be my virtual trip to the UK! Can’t wait to bring the kids to England some day. A great deal of my greatest childhood memories are from my aunt & uncles farm in Devon. Those thatched cottages are straight from the pages of Beatrix Potter.
These look so cute! And they are way too cute!
Love carrot cake and love Beatrix Potter. What a great way to infuse the two!
Fantastic post :), I dont think those cupcakes could possibly be any cuter! These would definitely make a great easter treat!
*kisses* HH
darling and delicious looking, a great Easter Treat!
Those could NOT be any cuter Marla!! I am SO so so impressed!!
Amanda: You impressed with me?! *blush* Thank you! You epitomize baking to me.
These are daaaaahling! I know what you mean…I feel like sketching when I look at Beatrix Potter’s books…and the cupcakes…my, my!
I love Beatrix Potter! these cupcakes are super cute! I’ll have to try to make them soon 😉
Adorable! I loved reading the Peter Rabbit stories as a kid. This post brought back so many nice memories 🙂
I’m in looooove! Gorgeous post down to the tiniest detail.
Awww your carrot cupcakes are SO adorable!!!!!! I couldn’t help but smile when I saw them! So cute!! And seeing the Peter Rabbit books and plate really took me back to my childhood.
Happy Easter to you and your family!
I’ve never heard of roasting carrots for use in carrot cake/muffin/bread recipes, but I love the thought of it! I’ll have to try it next time I make a carrot cake. Which, might be this weekend 🙂
Liz: I first learned about roasting the carrots first at my favorite local Blackmarket Bakery. I took many classes there and this was a technique we learned for carrot cake. I had never tasted anything like it so now it is something I gotta do.
Love the idea of roasting the carrots first! We must both have carrots on our mind – I just made some gluten free carrot muffins too!
Jeanette, baking with carrots is one of my favorites. I think we often have similar recipes on the brain 😉 Can’t wait to see your GF carrot muffins.
Hi Marla! I just got back from vacation this week and I’m so happy to be catching up on my blog reading — I’ve missed you, girl!! Carrot cakes make me super happy too and I love how adorable yours are. They really are the perfect Easter treat!
Yay! Faith is back. Missed you bunches & I can’t wait to read all about your travels to the Middle East. xo
I wish I could just grab one out of the screen now. They look so nice.
How great to have a treat you can feel good about eating any time of day. So fun!
That’s how we roll over here Barbara! Love our “anytime” treats 🙂
These are just darling… what a creative idea~ makes me wish we had little ones running round again!
These are so adorable that I had to take two seconds out to let you know.
Wow, Marla, these cupcakes look incredible and I love that you made them so wholesome and healthy. What a delicious holiday treat. Happy Easter to you and your family! 🙂
These are adorable, Marla. I have wonderful memories of my parents reading Beatrix Potter books to me when I was little and was so happy to carry on the tradition with my boys.
lovely cupcakes and Peter rabbit is so much fun
I am going to get to visit the cottage of Beatrix Potter in June! Love the stories and the drawings and your tasty looking cupcakes 🙂 I would have never thought about caramelizing the carrots first. Will have to try that! Happy Bunny celebrations to you and yours 🙂
Sunny, that is so exciting that you will be visiting Beatrix Potter’s cottage. Awesome that you will be in the UK this June. I cannot wait to hear about your travels and see the photos! I think you gotta figure out a pie with those caramelized carrots.
I love carrot cake and yours look fantastic! The Peter Rabbit decor is the perfect Easter touch 🙂
My hubby is obsessed with carrot cake. I love that you and Averie were able to spend some time together!
Jennifer, wish you live closer too girl. Always lots to chat about & so fun to be able to do it in person. With lots and lots of coffee.
so cute and gluten free! Wow, Happy Easter!
oh my goodness! I’m not a cupcake lover, but these are adorable. The carrot batter and the cream cheese icing are fabulous.
Those look amazing! I love all things carrot and baked! 🙂 Happy Easter, Marla!
These carrot cupcakes look wonderful and they are gluten free too! I am always looking for gluten free recipes. Yes, the Beatrix Potter stories are charming and the illustrations are just fantastic! 🙂
Oh these cupcakes are adorable!
These are so cute! Probably one of the cutest ideas I’ve seen in a while. 🙂
Hey Marla, I started making this recipe and I have a question. When you roast the carrots, it says to put 1 of the 2 tbls over the carrots before roasting. What do you do with the other tbl of melted butter? Did I miss it somewhere else in the recipe? Can’t wait to finish it up and try it…I love carrot cake! Thanks!
Hi Cindy. Hope I got back to you in time. The extra tablespoon of melted butter goes in the batter. Stir it in with the carrot purée, egg, etc. Let me know how your cupcakes turn out. Happy Easter!
Yes, you gave me plenty of time to finish and thank you! I added some raisins and used 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (still haven’t tried stevia-planning on it this summer). I made it for our family’s Easter lunch, so I’ll let you know how it goes over tomorrow. Happy Easter to you & your family as well! 🙂
Cindy: No doubt in my mind that the brown sugar will taste awesome! So glad I got to you in time about the butter. Thanks for playing recipe tester and editor. I tell you girl, wish I had some back up around here 😉 I am extra careful when I write out my recipes, but sometimes things slip through the cracks. Love that you added raisins too. I hope your Easter is a ton of fun and the cupcakes are amazing!
Marla, Ok, so my husband, mother-n-law, & I were the main people that liked this. (Which is what I expected…Lol!) I will have to try them again without the raisins. I think the recipe will be better with more of a “pure” carrot taste. I also ran out of tin foil muffin cups (forgot…oops) and cooked it in a 9″ cake pan. Not sure if that affected the result, but it turned more dense than the beautiful pics of your muffins. I’ll have to try this one again as written and I think I’ll get better results. 🙂
Cindy: I am so happy that you got back to me on your experiment with this recipe. I was wondering what would happen with the sugar & I thought the raisins would be a good thing. I certainly do have some dense cakes that I make (my chocolate date cake being one of them) but you are right, these cupcakes had a more tender/lighter crumb. Let me know what happens if you try them as cupcakes. Love your feedback!
These are so cute! They have such a wonderful, little girls’ tea-party look to them. Irresistible!
These are adorable! What a creative idea!
Aww they are just gorgeous Marla! And I know this sounds very random but how cute are those polka dot straws! 😮 😀
Lorraine, not random at all. You should have seen how excited I was when I stumbled across those polka dot straws. Amazing what excites me these days. Glad they make you smile too 🙂
Mmm I love carrot cake in any form. Happy Easter!
Hehe I’m so glad you understand Marla. They are gorgeous! 😀
These are so pretty, I love carrot cake too – these are definitely extra cute and gluten free too 🙂 Happy Easter!
How cute are these cupcakes! When I was a child Peter Rabbit was my absolute favorite. 🙂 I love how you roasted the carrots for these cupcakes, I would have never of thought of that!
These are absolutely adorable!!! One of my favorite children books.
Xoxo ♥
Rocio R.
http://myfashiondolly.blogspot.com
These cupcakes look and sound delicious. I love the photo set up too. It looks so classic literature. I doubt that is a real descriptive sentence but it makes sense in my head…haha 😉
I love Peter Rabbit! And I’ve been looking for a *good* gluten-free carrot cake recipe – this one looks terrific! I’ll definitely be making these soon. Thanks for the inspiration and it was so great meeting you this weekend!
These are so sweet and perfect!! Such a sweet child’s party theme!
Hi Marla, My daughter saw your cupcakes and called me today all excited. When I checked out the bunnies and now I can’t wait to try them. Your site is a visual treat. Thankyou for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
You have made a lot of people very happy. Donna
Hi Donna! Such a super sweet comment. Thank you so much & I hope you and your daughter get to try these cupcakes soon 🙂 Happy Easter!
These are too precious for words. I love Peter Rabbit tales and the toppers – too adorable for words. I must find these for next year so I can make them for my nephew!
Absolutely lovely!!