For my sons 2nd birthday we had a nice party with his pre-school friends, as you can guess my LO’s favourite teddy and animal at that time was an Owl.
Feeding small children is always tricky, you have allergies, special diets and picky eating children, So this carrot cake is perfect, gives the parents some ease given it is healthier than the common cupcake, as is dairy free and nut free! With the added bonus that the carrot makes this cake so moist and soft it’s almost like eating clouds. Huge thanks to my mom for passing on this fabulous recipe!
Making it easy for me to get away with throwing an owl themed party and getting an opportunity to make these cute owl cupcakes, which I’d been dying to make.

Carrot cake owl cupcakes
2017-09-13 20:19:12
Yields 30
Prep Time
40 min
Cook Time
45 min
The cake
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 2 1/4 cups flour, sifted
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 cups finely grated carrots
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Dash of clove powder
The frosting
- 2 tbs Cacao powder
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- water
The owl face
- 1 bag M&Ms
- 30 oreos
The cake
- Preheat the oven to 400F/205C
- 1. Whisk the eggs until fluffy and the color becomes very light yellow
- 2. Add the oil, sugar and grated carrots and beat the batter until well blended.
- 3. In another bowl mix the dry ingredients and add slowly to the wet batter.
- 4. With an ice cream scoop fill each previously buttered and floured cupcake form up to about 3/4 of the form. You can also simply line the cupcake form with cupcake holders and skip the buttering and flouring step altogether.
- 5. Bake the cupcakes at 180C for 40 minutes or until golden and you can insert a skewer stick all the way through and retrieve it without any batter attaching to it.
The frosting
- 1. Sift together the confectioners sugar and cacao.
- 2. Add one teaspoon of water at a time and mix vigorously.
- 3. Continue adding water until you reach the desired consistency, it should be creamy enough to spread but not so thin that it runs.
The owl face
- 1. Separate brown M&Ms for the eyes
- 2. Separate and cut into 2 pieces the orange M&Ms
- 3. Carefully separate the oreos keeping all the cream on one side.
- 4. Place the oreos with the cream as eyes and 1 brown M&M on each side.
- 5. Place the halved orange M&M between the oreos to make a beak.
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