Brazilian Carrot Cupcakes with Brigadeiro

Hello friends! Today I am bringing this amazing Brazilian Carrot Cupcakes with Brigadeiro that belongs to my book Fantastic Filled Cupcakes. The book has 56 recipes for cupcakes with filling, and this right here is one of my favorite recipes from the whole book.

Check out the video on this page or on YouTube, showing you exactly how to make these delicious Brazilian Carrot Cupcakes with Brigadeiro.

In Brazil, this is how we do carrot cake: carrot cake filled or topped (or both) with brigadeiro. Our carrot cake itself is different than the traditional American carrot cake.

Differences between Brazilian and American carrot cake

• While in American carrot cake, we usually add shredded carrots to the batter, in the Brazilian version we puree the carrots with the wet ingredients. The results are visible at the end, Brazilian cupcakes are orange, while American ones are brown with orange streaks and spots, from the shredded carrots.
• When making American carrot cake, it’s common to add spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and others, and in the Brazilian version, no spices are added.
• The Brazilian version of carrot cake involves a chocolate (typically brigadeiro) frosting. And we usually serve American carrot cake with Cream Cheese Frosting instead.

And while brigadeiro itself is not your usual frosting, it’s used many times in Brazil to top and fill cakes and cupcakes. We also eat brigadeiro in truffle form, it’s the most popular way to serve and enjoy brigadeiros.

Brigadeiros are a type of fudge made out of condensed milk, butter, and some sort of flavoring. The traditional flavor is chocolate, and it’s typically made with chocolate powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder), and for the gourmet style it’s used chopped chocolate instead of the powder.

I always like to use chopped chocolate, or Callebaut callets for my brigadeiro.

Here is my Brigadeiro recipe. I also have many other flavors you can find here:

• Key Lime Brigadeiros
• Caramel Brigadeiros
• Nutella Brigadeiros
• Strawberry Brigadeiros
• Coconut Fudge (beijinhos – brigadeiro’s coconut sibling)

The trick with getting brigadeiros right for frosting is that it can’t be too hard, or it will be impossible to pipe, and it can’t be too soft, or it will melt away instead of holding up on top of the cupcakes.

I’ve been making brigadeiros since I was very very young, it was the first recipe I ever made by myself, and sometimes I even cook it a bit too long, or too little. It’s important to pay attention to the cues of when the brigadeiro is done, and with practice you can make a brigadeiro that will pipe beautifully.

Tips for making the perfect brigadeiro to frost cupcakes

Tip 1: Cook until you can run a spatula through the middle of the brigadeiro and you can see the bottom of the pan, and the fudge will slowly come back together, in a thick lava consistency.

Tip 2: When you pick up a whole spatula of brigadeiro, and watch it fall back into the pan, it should do so in chunks, not in a stream.

And that brings me to tip 3, which can also be identified on the picture above.

If you look at the bottom of the pan, the brigadeiro is coming off from the bottom of the pan as a whole, in a wave, if you slowly tilt the pan over you can notice a wave forming with the brigadeiro that’s falling over. The consistency of the brigadeiro should not be liquidy, and not too runny, the brigadeiro should look glossy, fudgy, thick.

These Brazilian carrot cupcakes would also do amazing with some Condensed Milk Chocolate Frosting on top.

I’ve used brigadeiros in some of my other recipes:

In these Almond Cupcakes, which I have topped with Almond Brigadeiros. In these Macadamia Coconut Cupcakes, which are topped with Coconut Fudge, and also in these delicious Strawberry Chocolate Cupcakes, filled with white brigadeiro and strawberries.

For all of my cupcake recipes please click here. I also have many posts about how to perfect your cupcakes: 12 Cupcake Tips, How to make Filled Cupcakes, Cupcake Troubleshooting. There are all worthy checking out.

I hope you liked my Brazilian Carrot Cupcakes with Brigadeiro! And if you want to check out my book Fantastic Filled Cupcakes please click below!

Thank you so much for reading and for all the support!

Brazilian Carrot Cupcakes with Brigadeiro

Camila Hurst

These carrot cupcakes are filled and topped with brigadeiro, this is how we do carrot cake in Brazil. It’s so delicious, fudgy, and rich!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine brazilian

Servings 14 cupcakes

Calories 350 kcal

Ingredients

  

Carrot Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (191 g)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 2/3 cups chopped carrots 200 g
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 120 ml
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1/4 cup milk at room temperature (60 ml)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 150 grams
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Brigadeiro

• 2 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk 794 grams
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter 28 g
• 1/2 cup semisweet chopped chocolate or chocolate chips 85 g

Instructions

 

Carrot Cupcakes

• To make the Carrot Cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line 12 cupcake tins with cupcake liners.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• Place the chopped carrots and oil in a blender and blend for 1 to 2 minutes, until the carrots are pureed and you no longer see chunks of carrots in the mixture. Add the eggs, vanilla sugar, and milk to the blender. Blend the mixture for about 20 seconds, until completely incorporated and smooth. Pour the blended ingredients into a bowl and add the sifted dry ingredients. Gently mix with a whisk until the batter is incorporated.
• Divide the batter among the cupcake liners, filling them about two-thirds of the way. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. To see if the cupcakes are ready, gently press with your finger on top of the cupcakes, and if they spring right back, that means they are done baking. Let the cupcakes cool completely before filling and frosting.

Brigadeiro

• To make the brigadeiro, place the condensed milk, butter and chocolate in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring nonstop. If you stop stirring, the fudge will stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the mixture is thick and fudgy and you can see the bottom of the pan when you run the spatula through the middle of the fudge. Remove to a small bowl and let it cool completely. Don’t place it in the fridge before filling and frosting the cupcakes, or the fudge will get too hard to be piped. The fudge can be kept at room temperature, covered, for up to 1 day.
• To assemble the cupcakes, remove the center of each cupcake with a spoon. Place the cooled fudge filling in a piping bag fitted with the tip of choice. Pipe some filling into the middle of each cupcake and continue piping all the way to the top to frost the cupcakes.
• The cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days, if you can go that long without eating them all!

Notes

This recipe belongs to my book Fantastic Filled Cupcakes which has 56 amazing recipes for filled cupcakes!

Fantastic Filled Cupcakes– this is my book if you wanna check it out Fantastic Filled Cupcakes: Kick Your Baking Up a Notch with Incredible Flavor Combinations.

Brigadeiro– getting to the proper consistency of the brigadeiro can be tricky, if you cook it too long it will become too hard to pipe, and if you don’t cook it enough it will be too soft to hold up as the frosting.

Keyword brigadeiro, cupcakes