Mini Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you can answer YES to one or more of the following questions, then this post is for you. 

1. Have you ever had runny frosting? 
2. Have you ever put runny frosting on your beautiful cupcakes making them look awful? 
3. Have you ever been frustrated by runny frosting? 
4. Have you ever searched the internet for "how to stiffen frosting" and found SO many conflicting answers? 

Search no more. 

We have a tried and true solution for frustrating-runny frosting.  

We answered yes to ALL of the above questions when we were making our mini carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. And when we "googled" how to fix runny cream cheese frosting or how to stiffen cream cheese frosting, we found so many trouble-shooting the techniques. The PROBLEM was that divabaker would say "Refrigerate the frosting" and mommysweetqueen would say "Refrigerating works until the frosting comes to room temperature." And on, and on, and on....

If any of you know a dietitian, you know we can be a tiny bit perfectionistic. This is not different for dietitians-in-training.

So we tried EVERY suggestion we found on the internet to see for ourselves. Here is what we found: 

• Refrigeration. Refrigerating cream cheese frosting DOES stiffen it, but only if it stays refrigerated. 
• So if cold cupcakes don't offend your palate, then refrigerate away! 
• Adding cornstarch. Cornstarch will stiffen your cream cheese frosting too, and it does NOT make it taste weird. 
• To 1 cup of powdered sugar and 4 oz of cream cheese, you can add 1/2 cup cornstarch with no affect on taste and a MUCH stiffer frosting.
• Adding more powdered sugar. Adding powdered sugar to your cream cheese frosting will stiffen it BUT it will also make it sweeter. 
• You can add an add an additional 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup powdered sugar to your frosting recipe, it will stiffen it some without being sweetness overkill.

But, just make it easy on yourself. Use our already calculated, tried and true stiff cream frosting recipe below. The mini carrot and zucchini cupcakes are a great way to transport that deliciously stiff frosting into your mouth!

Mini Carrot and Zucchini Cupcakes*

Ingredients: 

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup grated carrots or zucchini

1/2 cup raisins or chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 42 mini muffin cups with mini cupcake liners; set aside. Spray liners with non-stick spray. 
2. Beat sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and buttermilk together.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add three-quarters of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture; mix until well combined. Add carrots and raising to remaining flour mixture; toss to combine. Stir into batter until well combined. 
4. Fill each muffin cup with about 2 teaspoons batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in to the center of the cupcakes and comes out clean, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before frosting.  

Cream Cheese Frosting*

Ingredients: 

4 oz of low-fat cream cheese

3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 

1/2 tsp. Fresh Lemon Zest

1/4 to 1/2 cup Cornstarch 

Directions: 

1. Beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and cornstarch until smooth. Start at low end of powdered sugar and cornstarch. Increase to desired sweetness and stiffness. 

*Recipes adapted from Martha Stewart's Carrot Cake Mini Cupcakes and Skinny Taste's Low-fat Cream Cheese Frosting

Nutritional Information (1 mini cupcake with frosting): 90 calories, 1 g protein, 3 g fat, 0 g fiber