Little Mini Carrot Cakes

taken from name the Garels

These made me feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland.

There's a big difference between biting into a slice of carrot cake and biting into an individually cased and decorated mini carrot cake.  Everything about them is good.  The word 'carrot' in the name instantly eradicates any sense of guilt usually associated with eating a cake.  The sponge was moist and flavoursome and bursting with carrotty raisiny goodness.

The icing is an orange cream cheese icing.  There is some left over in the fridge and it has taken a lot of self control for me to not tuck in to it.

The recipe for the sponge and the icing is taken from the Primrose Hill Bakery recipe book.  It is somewhat of a bible to me and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in making cupcakes, no matter how wonderful or lacking your baking skills are.

i've sprinkled a bit of cinamon on them (using a tea strainer) and as you can see, I've also decorated them with mini carrots.  Believe it or not, these aren't actual vegetables.  I have made these out of sugarpaste.  Incase you are interested in making these, here is how i did it below.

Sugarpaste Carrots ♥

*Colour up some orange and green sugar paste, using a gel dye.

*Make yourself a little cone out of the orange paste.  Then make a little hole in the end using the tip of a frilling tool, or if you don't have one, some sort of clean pointy stick.

*If you can, allow the green paste to harden a little bit (this happens if you leave it uncovered), so that it's    a bit crumbly.  This way it will be easier to break off tiny bits.

*Using a paintbrush, dab a tiny bit of water into the hole.  You really only need a little bit.

*Using either a veining tool or something similar, pick up individual flakes of green and effectively stuff them into the hole.  Keep doing this until you have enough foliage.

*To get the creases in the carrot, take a reasonably blunt knife and indent little lines all the way down the carrot.  then, gently hold the carrot at each end and push the carrot back together, so the lines become more like creases.

*If you want, like me, you can dust your carrots with a bit of gold powder.  Lush