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This recipe comes to you from my second book, Comfort and Joy: Cooking for Two. While the cover features my famous (well, internet famous!) 15-minute puff pastry, it does in fact have 15 dessert for two recipes in the back. I just couldnโt resist sharing more small-batch sweets with you! You know how I am.
This warm carrot cake with melted cream cheese frosting almost didnโt enter into my life. One of my hobbies is barbecue. (Yes, a eating a certain kind of food can be a hobby!). Iโve eaten at many stops along the Texas barbecue trail, Iโve had all the famous places in Kansas City, and since my Dad grew up in North Carolina-you better believe Iโve slurped that mustard-sauced barbecue like a champ. Clear barbecue sauce? Yep! White barbecue sauce in Alabama? Yes maโam! I love all forms of barbecue.
I have serious harsh words for restaurants that do not make good barbecue. Itโs not like Iโve gone on a twitter rant about it (I have), but it just irks me off. Barbecue is sacred. There is a method. One method. There are different meats, different sauces, and different woods, but low & slow & smoky is the same.
Iโm rambling. The point is, I ate at a very bad barbecue restaurant one time, but the warm carrot cake with melted cream cheese frosting on their dessert menu made up for it. In fact, the carrot cake kept me from a Yelp rantโit was that good.
My husband loves carrot cake like no other cake. The middle layer of ourย wedding cake was carrot cake. He eats all the carrot cake flavored Lara bars. He asks me to make carrot cake when the Easter bunny is still in the bushes in the middle of winter. I make a lot of carrot cake.
Did you know:ย I have 5 different sizes of small carrot cake on this site?
-this carrot cake for two made in ramekins
-a single layer carrot cake made in a 8ร8โ pan
-my 6โ small carrot cake
-a healthy carrot cake made in a mini muffin pan
-and of course, a small batch of carrot cake cupcakes
This warm mini carrot cake recipe is made in two tiny ramekins (the same size you use for creme bruleeโ6 ounces). Just to reiterate: this recipe makes TWO MINI CARROT CAKES IN TWO RAMEKINS. Then, make the warm cream cheese sauce the moment the cakes come out of the oven. A sprinkling of toasted pecans on top is, well, the icing on the cake.
Warm Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Sauce
These warm carrot cakes are finished with a cream cheese sauce.
Ingredients
For the mini carrot cakes:
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup freshly grated carrot
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
For the cream cheese sauce:
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 5 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350, and spray two 4-ounce ramekins very well with cooking spray.
- Place the ramekins on a small baking sheet.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg, vanilla, and grated carrots.
- Next, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients in a small bowl, and add to the wet ingredients. Stir until well-combined.
- Divide the mixture between the two ramekins; the batter should come almost up to the inner line.
- Bake on the baking sheet for 23-25 minutes, until nicely domed and a toothpick inserted comes out with only moist crumbs.
- In a small bowl, combine all of the sauce ingredients except for the vanilla, and microwave in 30-second pulses until melted.
- Whisk together, and stir in the vanilla. Pour over the cakes and serve.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 648Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 151mgSodium: 308mgCarbohydrates: 72gFiber: 1gSugar: 52gProtein: 8g
These were wonderful!! It is the perfect special dessert for empty nesters! :)
Do you have any idea how I can adapt this recipe for a 6โณ double layer cake?
I have a 6โณ carrot cake recipe on the site already :) Use the search bar :)
christina, i love your recipes! however, i made this recipe and it was extremely dense. have you made this recipe since and considered updating it? otherwise, has anyone made it with baking powder or soda yet?
I made it yesterday and it was great! If you overtake, it can be dense. Sometimes the top of the cake looks wet, so you think itโs not done and you bake it longer. Use a toothpick to test.
Christina, just made these and they grew A LOT! People should test the recipes before they send you nasty emails!! Amazing recipe, specially for when we run out of baking powder and soda! :) Thank you for sharing! <3
Aw thanks, Sofia! We just baked them again too :)
I made this tonight for Easter dinner but when I made h the glaze there was still lumps of cream cheese. Should I have microwaved it longer or mixed it longer? The cake was dense but I like that in a carrot cake! It was delicious!
Hi there! I made your 8inch one layer carrot cake this weekend and it was great! I just tried to find it again to send to my mother-in-law and I canโt find it! It keeps bringing me to the carrot cake with warm Frosting and thatโs not the recipe! Any thoughts?
Hi Heather, use the search bar to type โcarrot,โ and youโll find the other recipes :)
This is a lovely tasting cake but they donโt come out of the ramekins like the picture so line with greaseproof paper or st cake out of a ramekin.
Did you spray the ramekin with cooking spray, as directed?
I love carrot cake, and I never made for two, I canโt wait to bake the recipe for two, thank you very much for sharing โฅ๏ธ๐ฅฐ๐