GF BABY BUNDT CARROT CAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE GLAZE

GF Baby Bundt Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Icing

These baby bundts go very well with a shot of espresso.  The bitterness of the coffee is a perfect accompaniment to the carrot cake’s sweet flavour profile.

I purchased 6 silicone baby bundt molds from Safeway of all places.  There was a display of Ricardo Larrivée Cookware and Bakeware (he's a Quebec chef from Food Network Canada) of Ricardo and Friends.  The individual baby bundt molds caught my eye and came in a set of 6.  So cute!  The line is called Ricardo Cuisine.   There were hearts and flowers, but I chose the bundt shape.  I liked the little hold in the middle.

The GF Sweet Rice Flour Blend worked out okay with this carrot cake recipe.  However, I omitted nuts and raisins because my kid’s allergic to nuts and I don’t like raisins in my food.   I used the rest of the batter for cupcakes and piped the cream cheese frosting in a swirl on them.  For the baby bundts, I microwaved a bit of the frosting to make it pourable and drizzled it over the bundts. 

The carrot cakes should be kept in the refrigerator to store.  They taste best the next day.  The texture wasn’t at all heavy but they definitely were moist.   This is due to the use of grapeseed oil instead of butter.    The cupcakes puffed up a little in the oven and shrank a bit after removal from the oven.  So you don’t get a very dense cupcake here.  Instead, it is light and moist.  The tops are not domed so they do look best with a swirled frosting on top. 

Bib and I actually prefer the carrot cupcakes without the frosting as they are sweet and moist enough without.  We easily ate two each before they were frosted.  Bebe likes the frosting.  Without the frosting though, you could take them for a snack at school and eat straight out of hand.  They are similar to banana bread in that way.  Delicious!  If you do make the baby bundts, I do think you ought to gild them with the warmed up frosting. They do look much prettier.

This recipe could be dairy free if you omitted the frosting.

Mini Baby Bundt Carrot Cakes (GF)
adapted from Simply…Gluten-free Desserts

• 2 cups organic cane sugar
• 1 1/3 cups grapeseed oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups sweet rice flour blend [or your favourite GF flour blend](see HERE for a recipe)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 1 pound carrots, finely grated (about 3 cups)

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting 

• 8 T unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/8 t salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake pan with paper liners and/or prepare mini bundts on a sheet pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the sugar, oil and vanilla.  Lower speed and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well until each egg is fully incorporated, and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula after each addition
3. In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour blend, ground cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt
4. With the mixer on low speed, add half the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.  Add the carrots to the remaining flour mixture and toss well to coat.  Add to the batter and mix well using a large spatula, and making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl well.  Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.  Tap the pans on the counter three times gently to settle the batter.
5. Bake the cupcakes for 35-45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
6. Cool for about 10 minutes in pans then remove from the pans and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.  When completely cool, frost, if desired.
7. Refrigerate carrot cakes to store.  Unfrosted cakes can be frozen.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream the softened butter and cream cheese until smooth. Mix in confectioners' sugar, vanilla and salt until well combined. 

To Decorate Mini Bundts:
In a small custard cup, heat the cream cheese frosting until melted (check every 10 seconds).  Set the bundts on a rack on a sheet pan and drizzle the glaze over the bundts, allowing the excess to fall off through the rack.  Allow to set.
To Decorate Cupcakes:
Using a 1M tip, swirl frosting from a piping bag in a circle starting from the outside perimeter of the cake towards the centre.

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