Carrot Cake with Honey and Cream Cheese Icing with a Gluten-Free Option

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 F and line your cupcake baking trays with liners (recipe makes 20-24 cupcakes) or grease a 9″x13″ baking dish. (I use a Corningware dish and I serve the cake straight from it.)

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer (or a medium sized mixing bowl if not using a stand mixer). Add the oil into the dry ingredients. Then measure and add the honey using the same measuring cup so the honey slides out easily. Mix gently for 5 seconds.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix gently again for a few seconds. Add the carrots and pineapple and mix until they are well distributed in the cake batter.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes (for cupcakes). Use a toothpick to test a cupcake. If it comes out clean they are done. A full size cake version will take approximately 40 minutes depending on your pan and oven. Set the timer for 35 minutes just to be on the safe side.

When the cupcakes are done, remove them from the pan to a rack to cool.

For the icing:
While they cool, beat the softened cream cheese in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until it is smooth. Add the icing sugar (use only one cup of icing sugar if you prefer a slightly less sweet icing or use up to 1/2 cup more if you like sweeter icing). Beat very slowly at first so that you don’t cover your kitchen and yourself in icing sugar. When the icing sugar is combined with the cream cheese, add the honey and beat for 2 minutes or so.

When the cupcakes are fully cooled, spread the icing on top of the cupcakes and serve.

For the gluten-free version:
If you are making the gluten-free version and are using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour you use the same amount of flour listed in the above, but add ½ teaspoon of xantham gum powder. If you are using a different brand of gluten-free all purpose flour then follow the directions on the box for the conversion from conventional flour to their gluten-free product.

When testing a gluten free version, I recommend using the tip of a knife to pierce the centre of the cake so that you can look into the cake. If it looks like it is still wet in the centre then add a few minutes to the bake time.