Sunday Night® Caramel Carrot Cupcakes with Ermine Cream Cheese Frosting
These cupcakes are a spring-time favorite. They are tender and lightly-spiced to perfectly complement our Sea Salt Caramel Sauce and topped with our founder’s twist on Cream Cheese Frosting (hint: it combines Ermine Frosting). And of course, more ...
Category
Dessert
Servings
20 frosted cupcakes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Author:
Eileen Gannon
Ingredients
1 ¼ cups (248g) vegetable or avocado oil
2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine salt
4 large eggs
3 cups (326g) carrots, finely grated*
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups (250g)all-purpose flour
1 jar (10 ounces/284 grams) Sunday Night Sea Salt Caramel sauce, divided
½ cup (62 g) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon fine table salt
1 ¾ cups (14 ounces/415 milliliters) whole milk
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 8 pieces
16 ounces (454 g) full-fat cream cheese, slightly softened, cut into 8 pieces
Carrot Caramel Cupcakes
Ermine Cream Cheese Frosting
Directions
Carrot Caramel Cupcakes
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the oil, sugar, salt, and eggs until fully incorporated. Stir in the carrots.
In a separate bowl, sift together the spices, baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until just blended.
Line muffin pans with paper liners. Scoop the batter into 20 muffin cups until each is 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few sticky crumbs. Cool on a rack.
To make the frosting, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan. Slowly pour in the milk, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Set over medium-high heat and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture begins to thicken and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 3 minutes. You should have a thick, glossy paste. Remove from heat and scrape into a medium bowl.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool, about 45 minutes.
Transfer the cooled mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high for 3 minutes to remove any lumps. Reduce the mixer to medium speed and best in the vanilla extract. Beat in butter, one tablespoon as a time, and continue beating until the butter is fully incorporated. Beat in the cream cheese, one piece at a time, and beat until fully incorporated.
Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides with a silicone spatula. Continue beating on medium speed for 4 minutes. You want a smooth, fluffy frosting that is free of lumps. If the frosting seems too thin to pipe on the cupcakes, cover it and refrigerate it until it reaches the desired consistency for piping.
To assemble the cupcakes, use a small knife or a metal decorating tip to cut a small hole into the center of each cupcake.
Remove the lid from the jar of Sunday Night Sea Salt Caramel sauce and warm for 30 seconds in the microwave. Stir the sauce in the jar with a small spoon. Spoon the warm caramel into the hole in the cupcake and fill to the top.
Frost the top of the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting and drizzle extra caramel sauce over the top.
Store the cupcakes, covered, at room temperature for a day or refrigerate for up to 5 days.
Ermine Cream Cheese Frosting
Frosting the Cupcakes
Tips From Eileen
*Since these are cupcakes, it’s best to finely grate the carrots so that you don’t have large pieces of carrot.
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