Olaf's Carrot Cupcake

If you remember from the Princess Red Velvet Cupcakes, I used to be quite the cupcake baker.  And when I saw the Olaf carrot cake cupcake being featured at Disney, I knew it was something I was going to have to try my hand at.

The version I'm trying to replicate is from the 24 Hour Rock Your Disney Side event earlier this year (2014) and since then they've updated to a version with a piece of white chocolate for Olaf's head.  If you want to get fancy with the chocolate, you can always try that instead!



For 28 Carrot Cake Cupcakes, you will need:

• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups pureed carrots (about 4 medium carrots)
• 2/3 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Begin by mixing the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, together in a small bowl and setting aside.  Next, cream together the sugar and butter, adding the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.  Before combining the wet and dry ingredients, puree the carrots until smooth.  I recommend adding the milk in order to smooth out the puree.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients and carrot puree into the wet ingredients, mixing between each addition.

Fill the cupcake liners 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full and bake for approximately 16-20 minutes.

For the cream cheese frosting and face designs, you will need:

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (softened)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4-6 cups powdered sugar
• 2-4 teaspoons milk
• Dark food dye
• Carrots
• Chocolate bar

To begin, cream together the cream cheese and butter until the two are completely mixed.  Add the vanilla and mix.  Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until the desired consistency is reached.  If you add too much powdered sugar, add milk to thin the frosting out a bit, one teaspoon at a time.  I think that the Olaf structure of the icing would be easiest to attain with a stiffer icing, however mine was not and I thought it looked okay, so it's up to you!

Yum!

Allow the cupcakes to cool.  Get the largest round piping tip you have (or cut the corner out of a plastic bag) and create 3 tiers using the cream cheese icing.  Set some aside and color it with black or other dark colored food dye.  Use a very thin piping tip, or a toothpick (that's what I did) to draw on Olaf's mouth, eyes, and eyebrows.

Cut carrots into small points to use as Olaf's nose.  If you want, you could also use an orange taffy or fondant and design the nose using that.  Carefully cut shaving off of the chocolate bar to use for the hairs on his head.  Assemble the face of your Olaf and you're done!

So will you try to make the Olaf cupcake yourself?  Let me know in the comments how it turned out!