Juliet Sear’s Halloween Themed Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes approx. 16 cupcakes

Now at PT we love to keep things simple and we really loved the sound of this - a really simple and great win recipe for Halloween cupcakes using a Carr’s Carrot Cake Mix. It’s really simple to create little gravestones by dipping rich tea biscuits ¾ of the way into some black icing or plain chocolate. You can even make little pumpkins with shop bought orange icing and white ‘writing icing’ for the gravestones, or keep it simple and go for a cream cheese frosting and walnut topping.

Equipment

Bowl and wooden spoon/stand mixer/electric whisk

A baking sheet lined with baking paper

Piping bags if doing pumpkins and writing

Cupcake tin with liners

Modelling tool, knife or cocktail stick

Ingredients

1 pack of Carr’s Carrot Cake Mix and ingredients listed on the pack

150g unsalted butter at room temperature

300g sifted icing sugar

100g full fat cream cheese

2 tsp vanilla extract or bean paste

Decoration

For plain cupcakes you’ll just need approx. 30g chopped walnuts

For Halloween style;

Rich tea finger biscuits

A few dark coloured biscuits, such as Oreos, crushed or blitzed to resemble earth

100g thick runny black royal icing

1 tbsp eqch soft peak white and green royal icing

Approx. 150g orange sugar paste

A little icing sugar for rolling and dusting the pumpkins

Method

1. Make the cupcakes as described on the back of the pack and allow to cool.

2. For the frosting, beat the icing sugar, butter and vanilla together until you have a pale and smooth buttercream frosting, then beat in the cream cheese. Use a spoon or palette knife to cover over the top of the cupcakes, and sprinkle with chopped walnuts, or if doing them in a Halloween style, decorate as shown.

3. To make the gravestone decorations, take a rich tea biscuit and spoon over black royal icing. Ensure the surface and edges are covered, but leave a small gap at the bottom for you to hold it. Place these onto a parchment lined tray and leave to set until they’re dry. Once set, add the Boo or R.I.P writing using a tablespoon of soft peach white royal icing in a piping bag with a small hole snipped in the end or you can use a small round piping nozzle if you have one. Leave to dry.

4. For the pumpkin decorations, using the orange sugar paste create various sized balls and dent lines into the side of each using a modelling tool, blunt knife or cocktail stick to give the pumpkin effect. Leave to firm sat on a little icing sugar for a few hours.

5. To assemble the cupcakes, spread the cream cheese frosting onto each cupcake and sprinkle over the crushed biscuit to resemble dirt. Place a gravestone into each cupcake, pushing gently into the top of the sponge and pop one or two pumpkins on top.

6. Put the green royal icing into a piping bag and pipe this onto the top of the pumpkins to create stems.

Tip: It’s a good idea to make the gravestones and fondant pumpkins a few hours in advance so they’re easier handle and won’t damage as you push them into the frosting.

Recipe created by Juliet Sear using Carr’s Flour’s Cake Mixes. 

The full range is available to order from their online shop at shop.carrsflour.co.uk