I have finally settled after 6 hours in the kitchen today and 2 last night to make some Christmas goodies. That doesn't include the actual cooking I need to do for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I am happy to say that I am done shopping already as well. This may be the first year that I won't be shopping on Christmas Eve.
The first set of cupcakes I made (out of 4), were carrot cake cupcakes. I debated between using a recipe I had found and the one I used for my carrot cake cheesecake. The cheesecake version uses pineapple in it, which keeps it super moist and gives it a really great sweetness. I decided to use the newer recipe, which uses applesauce to keep the cake moist. I've used applesauce in many of my cake recipes and it definitely makes a difference. I used a simple cream cheese frosting and then colored some canned vanilla frosting for the decorations. They came out great! I even got to use my new mini food processor to shred the carrots. So, so, so much easier than grating them by hand.
To make the carrot decoration I used two Wilton tips, both the same tip just slightly different sizes. I'm going to be lazy and not go dig them back out of my tip bucket, but I'll post a picture of the tip to use for it.
I wish I had colored some of the cream cheese frosting to use, which was a little firmer than the canned frosting, but I didn't want to waste what I had already colored. They came out just fine in the end.
The original recipe makes 12, so I doubled it. Below you'll find what I used to make 24 cupcakes.
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
from Cooking Classy
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 cups very finely shredded carrots (from about 7-8 medium carrots)
1 and 1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped pecans
For the frosting:
1 block cream cheese, softened
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
6 tbsp. salted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 muffin pans with liners.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg for 30 seconds, set aside.
3.Shred carrots as directed in notes below, set aside.
4. In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar and brown sugar, then add eggs and using an electric hand mixer, blend mixture on low speed 30 seconds, until slightly pale.
5. Mix in applesauce and vanilla extract. With mixer running on low speed, slowly pour in vegetable oil and mix until combined, then mix 20 seconds longer.
6. Mix in half of the dry ingredients, then pour the shredded carrots into the bowl with the remaining flour mixture and toss in flour mixture to coat carrots (they'll clump together a bit but that's fine). Pour carrot mixture into the batter and blend until evenly combined.
7. Pour batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean, about 19 - 21 minutes. Cool in muffin tin several minutes then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
8. For the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time and beat. Mix in vanilla and beat to combine.
9. Frost the cupcakes as desired. I frosted mine, rolled the edges in chopped pecans, and then decorated the top with carrots.
Now I just need to post my other three recipes: Gingerbread Cupcakes, Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes, and Winter Whiteout Cupcakes.
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