Carrot Cake Everything (AIP/Paleo) is one recipe with many different versions. Make muffins, cupcakes, mini cakes, or a double decker!
You guys. I have been working like a madwoman! And I have carrot cake coming out of my ears over here! Not that that’s a bad thing…
So here’s what we’ve got going on: one recipe, many iterations. Make the batter and use it for four different desserts! You can make muffins, cupcakes, mini cakes, or even a full-on double decker carrot cake! (For the double decker, you will need to double both the cake batter recipe, and the frosting recipe.)
First, the muffins
This is the simplest version of the recipe. Just divide the batter evenly between 13 silicone muffin liners
Cupcakes
I ask you…what is a cupcake, really, but a muffin that had a dream? Choose a pretty cupcake liner instead of muffin liners, bake, cool completely, then frost! This photo illustrates that you don’t need fake-o food dyes with harmful ingredients to make a pretty cupcake. The liner decorates it! FYI, I’ve included a frosting recipe below.
Mini Cakes
This version was a little tricky because it has to cook for a long time to be done all the way through, which made the texture a little hard in places. I made this mini cake to celebrate my three-year blogaversary last month! 🥳 I decorated it with ribbons to show another way to decorate your cake without food coloring. If you’d like to try it, you’ll need these mini 3-tier cake silicone molds
A big ol’ double decker carrot cake
Ah, so you’re a glutton for punishment. You’ve decided you want to go the full twelve rounds for a double decker frosted carrot cake. Hats off to you, my fellow foodie! No judgment here. I spent (too) many long hours making, frosting, decorating and photographing the cake above, just for the love of art. This is simply the recipe doubled, divided between two 9-inch cake pans, baked, completely cooled, frosted, using a double batch of frosting, then decorated with flowers.
Side note: decorating with flowers is yet another dye-free way to decorate your cake. Please use organic flowers, or better yet, edible flowers. The flowers pictured above are neither, since I was playing and creating. After shooting, I removed the flowers, and scraped off the frosting where they were placed. They were pretty while they were there, weren’t they? Funny how some of the most beautiful things in life are fleeting…
SOOOO that’s it. What will you make? Tag me in social media posts so I can see what you did! And hey, if carrot cake isn’t your jam, you could always make Black Forest Cake. But that’s all up to you. Whatever you decide, enjoy the creative process, which never has to end in “perfection” (whatever that is), but feeds the soul.
As always, I am wishing you great love and deep healing!
💗,
Wendi
Carrot Cake Everything (AIP/Paleo)
6-12
servings35
minutes25
minutesCarrot Cake Everything (AIP/Paleo) is one recipe with many different versions. Make muffins, cupcakes, mini cakes, or a double decker!
Ingredients
1/2 cup cassava flour
1/2 cup arrowroot starch/flour
1/4 cup organic coconut flour
1 TBSP grass-fed gelatin
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 cups peeled and sliced ripe plantains (about 2 large, yellow and black)
1/2 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
1/4 cup melted organic palm shortening
2 TBSP pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp organic blackstrap molasses (optional, for color)
2 tsp alcohol-free vanilla
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins
Directions
- For the batter recipe: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together cassava flour, arrowroot starch/flour, coconut flour, gelatin, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cream of tartar, ground ginger, and ground cloves. Set aside.
- Place plantains, applesauce, palm shortening, maple syrup vanilla, and molasses (if using) in a food processor. Process until very smooth. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients, as well as the carrots and raisins. Stir until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Batter will be quite thick.
- For muffins: Spoon batter into 13 silicone muffin liners in muffin tins. Smooth tops with an offset spatula. Bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Eat when cool, as the gelatin needs time to set up.
- For cupcakes: Make muffins as above. (You may want to use pretty cupcake liners to decorate.) Wait until cakes are completely cool before frosting, or suffer a terrible fate. Oh. The frosting…
- For frosting: Using a whisk attachment on you beaters, cream 1 cup of palm shortening. Add 1/2 cup arrowroot starch, 3 TBSP pure maple syrup, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, and 1/8 tsp pure lemon oil. Cream again. Frosting will be fluffy. If you’d like it to be a bit stiffer, refrigerate for 10 minutes. (If by chance you get distracted by Netflix while your frosting is chilling, and it goes too long, it will be hard as a rock! Don’t freak out, though. You can just gently bring it back up to room temp, stir, and it’ll be fine.)
- For 3-tiered mini cakes: Place mini 3-tier cake silicone molds on a baking sheet. Fill 6 cavities with batter. (You may have enough batter for a test muffin, too.) Bake for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely before attempting to frost. Use frosting from previous step.
- For a double decker carrot cake with frosting(!): Double the batter recipe. Double the frosting recipe. Grease two 9-inch cake pans with palm shortening, and flour them lightly with cassava flour. Divide batter between the two pans. Smooth the batter with an offset spatula. Bake for 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before attempting to frost.
- Pat yourself on the back for completing an AIP baking recipe! Baking on the AIP, without benefit of gluten, eggs, or sugar is haaaaaarrrrrrd. Enjoy your creation!
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