Cocoa powder, chocolate chips, cinnamon, pecans, and carrots create a showstopper cake, made even better with the addition of chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

There are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but the nice thing is that they are almost all pantry basics.

Recipe Tips

You can use a grater to grate your carrots, but I find it much easier to use a food processor. I do the same thing with my carrot cupcakes. There’s no need to peel the carrots first; make sure that you scrub them really well before food processing.

How It’s Made

If you’ve never made cupcakes before, start with my post on how to make cupcakes before moving on.

Start by mixing the dry ingredients – sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. The cardamom is totally optional, but if you like that flavor, you’ll love it here.

It’s made with almond flour, sweetened with maple syrup and dates, and frosted with whipped coconut cream – all of that makes it a healthy alternative to regular carrot cake.

This recipe yields a two-layer cake. If you prefer, you could make it as two single layer cakes or even as carrot cake cupcakes!

No matter how you make it, this is a must-try carrot cake!

One of our son’s friends thought my carrot curd tasted like spiced pumpkin pie. He wasn’t that far off. The carrot curd taste is distinctly carrot with a hint of ginger, but it is thick, sweet, and buttery.

I could totally see how anyone could think they were eating delicious pumpkin pie or even candied yams if they didn’t know better.

This Tzimmes recipe (Tsimis recipe) is the Jewish answer to green bean casserole.

We skip the greens and the creamy soup and instead spend our holidays eating a sweet stew made with root vegetables, apples and pineapple (if you’re my mom), raisins, and other dried fruits.

Why You’ll Love Carrot Curls

Why are carrot cakes and Carrot Cake Cupcakes always topped with a piped carrot drawing? Apple cakes don’t have apple drawings on them, nor do peach cakes have little piped peaches.

Why not top your carrot cakes with the real thing?! My candied carrot curls are crunchy and sweet with a light lemony flavor. They’re the perfect way to garnish a classic and moist Carrot Cake, these fun Pumpkin Cupcakes, or even a decadent Chocolate Carrot Cake!