Moist miniature carrot cakes are finished with a blood orange glaze, and finished with crunchy, sweet, Swiss meringue kisses

Hi hi! Just popping in to share this recipe for Carrot Cake Tea Cakes with you! I am calling these guys ‘tea cakes’ which sounds a little fancy, but in reality they are just tiny cakes baked in a muffin pan, then flipped upside down! I finished them off with a blood orange glaze and some Swiss Meringue kisses for a super simple but super pretty finish.

Carrot cakes are one of my favourites - they are super easy to make, and keep well. This recipe is the perfect balance of fluffy and moist - the moisture is provided by a neutral tasting oil in the recipe. I used my favourite Extra Light Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Filippo Berio. The oil has all the benefits of an olive oil, but is super light in taste, making it perfect for use in baking where a neutral oil is called for. The addition of the olive oil removes the need for butter, which also means that carrot cake is generally dairy-free. I used a dairy-free glaze and meringue recipe, which makes this whole recipe sneakily dairy-free too!

You can turn these into a choose your own adventure situation - the cakes alone would be amazing just baked in cupcake liners or in the muffin pans and served as little cupcakes or tea cakes, or you can finish them off with a glaze as I have here. I chose blood orange because I love the super pretty pink colour, but your favourite orange juice would work great here too.

The meringues are a great way to finish off these wee cakes - I often have them on hand in my pantry. They keep for a super long time in an airtight container, so I like to make a whole bunch of them at once so that I have them for finishing off baking or adding a little pretty touch to something (or just eating, they are so delicious)! If you didn’t want to make the meringue kisses, a little edible flower or a wee shower of sprinkles would be so, so cute on these too! Make them your own! x

A few wee tips:

Using a good non-stick muffin pan here really makes a difference. This is the one that I have. Make sure that you grease it well with baking spray, and give it a little dust of flour and tap out the excess if you are worried.
The recipe for the meringue kisses makes quite a lot, but they keep for a really long time in an airtight container. You are essentially drying them out rather than baking so it’s usually fine to have two trays at once on the go in the oven.
These can be done as a cupcake too if you like with cupcake liners.
These also just so happen to be dairy free!

Thank you so much to Filippo Berio for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.

Made this recipe and love it?

If you made this recipe then I would LOVE for you to leave me a review below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram if you make it!

A note on salt and oven temperature

It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.

All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.

Using the double / triple function in the recipe card

You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!

Tools and equipment

For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.

Why is this recipe in grams?

I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!

Carrot Cake Tea Cakes with Blood Orange Glaze and Swiss Meringue Kisses

Author: Erin Clarkson
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes plus cooling time
Yield: 12-14 mini cakes 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Moist miniature carrot cakes are finished with a blood orange glaze, and finished with crunchy, sweet, Swiss meringue kisses

Ingredients

Scale

Swiss Meringue Kisses

200g egg whites
300g granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Sprinkles to finish (optional)

Carrot Cake Tea Cakes

340g raw / turbinado sugar
190g Filippo Berio Extra Light Olive Oil
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
115g all-purpose flour
115g whole wheat / wholemeal flour
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom
½ tsp ginger
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
270g grated carrot

Blood Orange Glaze

300g powdered sugar, sifted
50g blood orange glaze

Instructions

SWISS MERINGUE KISSES

Preheat the oven to 210°f / 100˚c. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit a large piping bags with your tip of choice (I used an Ateco #865)
Measure the egg whites and granulated sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer or other heatproof bowl. Place over a pot of simmering water, ensuring that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Heat the mixture, whisking often and watching the edges carefully, until it no longer feels gritty when rubbed between your fingers, and it registers at least 160°f / 70°c on a thermometer.
Carefully transfer to a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the vanilla bean paste. Whip on high speed until stiff peaks just start to form - you do not want the meringue to dry out too much or it will not pipe nicely. It should be glossy and flow slightly.
Use a few small blobs of meringue to secure the parchment paper to the baking sheet. Pipe 'kisses', onto the baking paper lined sheets, leaving a small amount of space between each (they will not spread in the oven). You can pipe whatever shape you would like here - blobs, nests, kisses etc. Sprinkle the piped kisses with sprinkles of your choice, if using.
Place the baking sheets into the oven. Bake for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until they feel firm and no longer sticky (baking time will vary depending on size, but keep an eye on them as you do not want them to colour), and peel cleanly off the paper when you lift them up. Turn off the oven, and leave them in there for at least an additional hour to dry out and crisp up.
Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

CARROT CAKE TEA CAKES

Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Grease 1-2 non-stick muffin pans with baking spray (this recipe makes 12-14 so I baked some of the extra off in cupcake liners). If your muffin tin isn’t super non-stick you can use baking spray with flour or lightly dust the pans with flour after spraying, making sure to tap out the excess.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the raw sugar, Filippo Berio Extra Light Olive Oil, and eggs, and mix on medium speed until well combined and slightly lightened in colour, 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla bean paste and mix until combined.
In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and baking soda. Add to the mixer and mix until just combined. Add the carrots and mix on low until just combined.
Add about 3 Tbsp of the batter to each cavity of the muffin pan (you want to fill them less than you would a regular muffin so that they don’t rise up over the edge and can sit flat).
Bake the tea cakes for 20-25 minutes, or until the centres spring back when lightly touched and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean - start checking for doneness after 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes in the muffin pans before turning out onto a wire rack and allowing to cool completely.

BLOOD ORANGE GLAZE

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and blood orange juice. Stir until combined, and then add more blood orange juice if needed a few drops at a time to form a thick glaze (you want it to be thicker than you think, or it will go everywhere). If you are unsure about the consistency, do a test glaze on a tea cake to make sure that it isn’t too runny, and then adjust as needed. Use immediately.

ASSEMBLY

Place the tea cakes on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Add the glaze to each tea cake, applying to the top and letting it drip down the sides. Leave to sit until the glaze sets, and then top with a few of the meringue kisses.
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature. If possible, keep the meringue kisses in an airtight container until serving so that they don’t go soft.

Keywords: carrot cake tea cakes, blood orange glaze, swiss meringue, swiss meringue kisses, carrot cake