Last year I remember seeing these adorable garden carrot cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake and knew I wanted to do something similar for Easter the following year. Welp, Easter snuck up quickly this year but here they are! Between my birthday shenanigans and a week of vacation in Florida, I haven’t been spending much time in the kitchen the past few weeks but I was THRILLED to spend most of the day Sunday baking away. And even though we got blasted with a random snow storm yesterday, I was happy to spend the first day of Spring making these festive pudding cups!

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Believe it or not this was my first time making pudding from scratch. To be honest, I haven’t even made the instant variety very often because pudding is not usually a dessert I crave. But after seeing plenty of “best ever” pudding recipes online, I figured it was time to pop my pudding cherry. So of course I turned to my go-to girl Smitten Kitchen and used her best chocolate pudding recipe. And it was great! I had no idea pudding was so simple to make from scratch, it’s a surprise they even had to invent an instant kind from a box. And turns out Ryan LOVES chocolate pudding but has failed to mention this fact in the past 9 years of our relationship, so he definitely enjoyed these treats. Plus, they’re so freakin’ cute!

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The “carrots” are obviously just strawberries dipped in orange candy melts, and I couldn’t resist using some Oreo crumbs for a top layer of “dirt” (and an excuse to buy Oreos…). They’re like sophisticated mini dirt cakes minus the gummy worms. These would be so cute on an Easter dessert table, especially because of the tiny individual cups I used, but you could also use any small dessert glasses you have on hand. Happy Spring!!

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Carrot Patch Dirt Pudding Cups

Pudding recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen + Strawberry "Carrots" adapted from Your Cup of Cake

Ingredients:

for the chocolate pudding:

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3 cups whole milk
6 oz good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

for decoration:

15 strawberries, rinsed and dried thoroughly
1, 12-oz bag of orange candy melts
10 Oreos, crushed to crumbs

Directions:

for the chocolate pudding:

In a medium saucepan, combine the cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Whisk in the milk slowly until fully incorporated. Heat over medium-low heat for 10 minutes until the mixture thickens, whisking occasionally to break up any clumps. Add the chocolate and continue to stir until smooth, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any remaining clumps.

Portion pudding into individual cups about 3/4 of the way full (I used these one ounce dessert cups) and place in the fridge for about 2-3 hours to allow the pudding to set.

for decoration:

While the pudding sets, line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Place the candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30 second intervals, mixing well between each interval, until completely smooth. Dip each strawberry in the candy melts as far up to the green part as you can get it. Place the dipped strawberry on the wax paper. Once they're all dipped, use a spoon to drizzle more orange candy for a striped look. Transfer the strawberries to the fridge for 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to set completely.

When the pudding is ready, sprinkle each cup with a layer of Oreo crumbs. Place a dipped strawberry in each, submerging the strawberry about halfway down. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.

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20 Responses to “Carrot Patch Dirt Pudding Cups”

  1. #
    1
    Lawrence Weil — December 20, 2016 @ 3:57 am

    Thanks foe sharing your awesome thought its always feel good to read your post.

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    Janel W — March 18, 2017 @ 11:41 pm
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    Holly Music — March 19, 2017 @ 1:43 pm

    What did u use for the green carrot stems?

    • Erica — March 19th, 2017 @ 1:44 pm

      They’re the strawberry stems!

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    4
    Evelyn — March 26, 2017 @ 7:14 pm

    Are you using just the Oreo cookie part and not the filling when you crush them?

    • Erica — March 26th, 2017 @ 7:18 pm

      The whole Oreo Cookie – the filling kind of mixes with the cookie part to make the crumble!

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    MyTu — April 7, 2017 @ 11:46 am

    Hello, how are you? I had feature your delicious recipe in my blog (www.myhousetucasa.com/en) , I hope you don’t mind. Have a nice day!

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    raja babu — April 9, 2017 @ 7:54 am

    This is just awesome thanks dear

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    virginia — April 10, 2017 @ 8:23 pm

    These are really cute! My grandsons love dirt cake or cups so I make them for their birthdays ! I will add this variation to my bag os tricks thanks!

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    Karlee — April 11, 2017 @ 1:19 pm

    Love this idea, going to try for this weekend! How many people would you say this recipe served? Thanks :)

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    Crissy — April 11, 2017 @ 3:26 pm

    These are so cute! I used the same dessert cups, I just love eating desserts out of those! Just made these for Easter, amazing pudding recipe, I added a couple egg yolks, but it doesn’t really need it, your recipe is perfect. So cute!

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    Alissa — March 26, 2018 @ 11:39 pm

    How many cups does 1 pudding recipe make?

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    11
    Gina — March 29, 2018 @ 9:20 am

    How many cups will this make? Thanks!

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    Gina — March 29, 2018 @ 9:21 am

    I’m assuming 15 given the number of strawberries but recipe didn’t specify exactly.

    • Erica — March 30th, 2018 @ 9:07 am

      Sorry, yes – approximately 15!

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    Sandy — March 30, 2018 @ 8:38 am

    Can you make this the day before you need it or the day of?

    • Erica — March 30th, 2018 @ 9:08 am

      You can make it ahead, but I would wait to put the strawberries in until the day of serving!

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    MaryBeth — April 9, 2019 @ 7:49 am

    Did you buy the 2 ounce cups for these? So cute!!

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