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Want an easy way to elevate your desserts for Easter or spring gatherings? Learn how to make Decorative Carrots!
These adorable little carrots seriously take your decorating to a whole new level.
Use these little carrots to top your Carrot Cake Cupcakes or Carrot Cake. Everyone will think you went to a gourmet bakery!
The three methods are described and illustrated below, and if you’re more of a visual learner, the video shows you exactly how to accomplish each.
Whether you’re making dessert for Easter, Mother’s Day, a birthday, or just a casual get-together, these cute edible and decorative carrots are the perfect addition to your cupcakes or cakes.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Decorative Carrots
How-To Video
Check out the complete how-to video just below for a visual guide through how to make each option!
Method 1: Buttercream Carrots
For these buttercream carrots, you’ll need a small batch of my Best Buttercream Frosting.
This is probably the quickest way of making decorative carrots because you likely have most of what you need on hand, except maybe the small plain piping tip (Wilton #12) and small leaf tip (Wilton #352). While you could make do without them, but the carrots won’t be quite as neat and cute.
Simply color your buttercream frosting, place in piping bags fitted with the plain and leaf tips, and pipe out the shapes!
Method 2: Candy Melt Carrots
This method takes green and orange candy melts into adorable carrots that add height and dimension to your cupcakes. Super quick and easy – just melt and pipe! The only downside is that candy melts don’t exactly taste great. Whatever you do, avoid flavored candy melts.
Method 3: Marzipan Carrots
This marzipan method is probably the most realistic looking, which I adore. You simply take some marzipan, which is basically almond based candy dough, and color it orange and shape it into carrots. Then, for a super adorable effect, stick some parsley stems inside the top. They look completely real!
As far as taste goes, it’ll depend on whether you like marzipan. It is quite sweet. The only downside to me is that marzipan can be difficult to find in some stores (which is why I just order from Amazon) and is a little pricey for a one-off project.
Recipes to Use Decorative Carrots:
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Ingredients
Method 1: Buttercream
- Small batch of
buttercream frosting - Orange & green gel food coloring
Plain open piping tip Leaf piping tip
Method 2: Candy Melts
- Orange and green candy melts
Method 3: Marzipan
- Marzipan
- Orange food coloring
- Fresh parsley, trimmed, for carrot tops
Instructions
Buttercream Carrots
- Place 3/4 of the buttercream in a medium mixing bowl. Add orange food coloring and stir until colored.
- Place the remaining buttercream in a small mixing bowl. Add the green food coloring and stir until colored.
- Transfer the orange buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Transfer the green food coloring to a piping bag fitted with the leaf tip. Pipe an upside triangle on your cake or cupcake. Add three or four ‘leaves’ using the green buttercream.
Candy Melt Carrots
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Melt the orange candy melts per the package instructions then transfer them to a sealable plastic bag or piping bag. Let the melts cool slightly until less runny. Cut off the tip and pipe the shape of a carrot.
- Repeat with the green candy melts, but pipe the green leaves of each carrot.
- Transfer the baking sheet to the fridge for 5 minutes or until the candy melts have fully hardened. Carefully release each carrot from the baking sheet and place on your cupcakes or cake.
Marzipan Carrots
- Knead food coloring into marzipan until brightly colored. Roll into a log and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Rolling each piece between your palms, form into a small carrot shape.
- Make lines into the carrots with a toothpick dipped in oil to give a realistic appearance. Use the toothpick to poke a small hole at the top of each carrot. Insert parsley stems the hole. Place on top cupcakes or cake.
Would the food coloring of marzipan melt into cream cheese? I ask this because in case i carry the cake on board for someone’s birthday party. Is there any chance that the color will melt on the way.
Hi Amy! Yes, it’s possible the food coloring could begin seeping into the frosting, depending on your climate and the length of time the carrots are on top of the cupcakes. If you need to travel with these, I’d recommend keeping them separate, then top the cupcakes with the carrots just before serving. I hope that helps!
I wanted to put chocolate cooked pudding inside of my carrot cake cupcakes for a little surprise. Good or bad idea.
We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure how it’d turn out! Let us know how it goes if you give it a try 🙂
A friend requested carrot cake cupcakes. I admit I was nervous trying this recipe for the first time for a friend’s event but they came out perfect. I made a test cupcake for myself (in case) and I was extremely pleased. When I bake I weigh everything so needless to say when I tripled the recipe it made exactly 3 dozen cupcakes. I also decorated them with the candy melt carrots and they were adorable. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to check out your other recipes now!
My son (he is 25) always requests my yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for his birthday. I have been making marzipan carrots to decorate the cake for many years. I sometimes make the cake as a 9″ round layer cake and sometimes as a 9×13 sheet cake. For the round layer cake I make larger marzipan carrots around the outside and much smaller ones in the center of the top of the cake. For the 9×13 cake, I first frost it with cream cheese frosting and then cut it into squares and then place a 2 carrot cluster on each piece. Now for the best way of making green carrot tops – after coloring the marzipan green (you don’t need too much) I squeeze small amounts of it through a clean standard garlic press. The marzipan comes out like thin stringy hairs and I gather a tiny bunch to place at the wide end of the carrots. I keep the strings at different lengths in a seemingly haphazard way to keep them realistic looking. It looks terrific. Actually, his birthday is this Friday so I had better get baking!
What a great idea, everything is totally edible!
Those are adorable and the video is great! Thank you so much for sharing!