Carrot-Shaped Carrot Cakes

To make the cake ball batter:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line your cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
3. Combine cake mix, butter, milk, vanilla and eggs in a stand mixer and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add shredded carrots and chopped pecans to batter and stir in by hand with a large wooden spoon or spatula.
5. Pour cupcake batter into cupcake liners, filling each about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 21 minutes at 350°F.
7. When cupcakes are done baking, remove from oven and allow to cool completely before handling.
8. Once cool, remove cupcakes from cupcake liners and crumble into a large mixing bowl. You want fine crumbs (no big chunks).
9. Add two heaping tablespoons of cream cheese frosting into the crumbled cake and mix until you've achieved a dough-like texture. Add more frosting if needed until dough forms. (You might want to mix by hand for best results).
10. Flatten out cake batter onto a medium cookie sheet and set aside (about 1/2" - 3/4" thick).

To make your candy carrot stems:

1. Using a double boiler, melt your green candy melts. Once melted, scoop into a disposable piping bag and cut the tip off (about enough space for a thick pencil lead to fit through).
2. Pipe stems onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. We "drew" our carrots stems to be about 2-3 inches long, then attached little leaves along those lines. (At least 2-3 stems per cake)
3. Set stems aside to dry completely.

To make your mini carrot cakes:

1. Using a carrot-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many mini carrots cakes as possible from your sheet of dough.
2. Cut the tops off the carrot cakes (like pictured below). Discard, or save along with the extra dough from cutting - this could make a delicious trifle, or breakfast bake!
3. Melt white chocolate, stirring in 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to thin the mixture slightly. Pour into a piping bag.
4. Line up all of your mini carrot cakes on a wire cooling rack, then place this rack on top of a cookie sheet (this will make for easier clean-up afterwards!)
5. Carefully push the green candy stems into the top of the carrots.
6. Cut the top of your plastic piping bag filled with melted white chocolate, then drizzle to completely cover each of the mini carrot cakes. Leave green stems uncovered, though pouring chocolate around the area where the stems are pushed into the cake can help secure them in place.
7. Allow excess white chocolate to drip through to the cookie sheet below.
8. While the white-chocolate coated mini carrot cakes are drying, melt the orange chocolate and pour into another plastic piping bag.
9. Cut the tip off the orange piping bag and drizzle over the white chocolate covered cakes, forming loose stripes.
10. Allow your mini carrot cakes to dry fully before moving from the wire rack.