Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Get your stretchy pants on people because carrot cupcakes are
here and they are here to stay. The icing is a dessert in
itself – the cream cheese is completely heavenly and a
natural pairing for carrot cupcakes / cake. I usually reserve
this type of icing for carrot cake but now I think to myself,
but WHY? It should be standard for all cakes.

I had every intention of sharing these cupcakes far and wide,
as to not make my hips feel far and wide but unfortunately,
that didn’t happen and now I am wearing stretchy palazzo pants
because my stretchy jean pant weren’t stretchy enough.
Hopefully I am not scaring you off these carrot cake babies but
half of me wants to tell you to make them and the other part of
me wants to tell you to …..ruuuuun, for your waistline’s sake.

But that is what Mondays are made for. Cleanses and healthy
eating. Mind you, these carrot cakes are full of nutrition.
They contain carrots, (duh), but LOTS of them, eggs, pecan
nuts, raisins and cinnamon amongst other ingredients. It
virtually is a smoothie disguised as a cupcake and hence one
(or five) a day can only add to your nutrition. YES? YES!

If you have ever searched for an amazing carrot cake
recipe – this is your winner right here, you just
our the batter into a cake mould. I have tried and tested it
a number of times. I have used it to make a carrot sheet
cake as well as a double layer
carrot cake and they have come out perfect every
time. The recipe calls for oil instead of butter and I find
those recipes tend to do better in terms of moistness. Feel
free to substitute the pecan nuts with your choice of nuts
and if you are not a raisin fan, you could substitute some
grated apple too.

I usually decorate carrot cake recipes with a
sprinkling of cinnamon and whole pecan nuts but this
time, seeing as though it is Easter, I decided to indulge
with mini carrot sugar decorations. Whatever you do and
however they look, I can almost guarantee they are going to
taste good.

I initially used the quantities for a double layer cake and
it yielded 24 cupcakes and 2 mini loaves, which was more than
I expected so the recipe below, has been adjusted to yield
12-14 cupcakes or 12 cupcakes and 1 mini loaf.

Print

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

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Description

Delectable carrot cupcake recipe with the best cream
cheese icing ever! The batch makes 12-14 cupcakes.

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Ingredients

• 2 eggs
  


• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  


• 1 cups brown sugar
  


• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  


• 1 cup flour
  


• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  


• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  


• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  


• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  


• 1 cup carrots, finely grated
  


• 1/4 cup raisins
  


• 1/2 cup pecan nuts, chopped
  

• 
  Cream Cheese Icing
  


• 250g cream cheese
  


• 50g butter
  


• 1 cups icing sugar
  


• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
  

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place cupcake cases
   in a cupcake tin
   


2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, oil, sugar and
   vanilla essence together for 4-5 minutes.
   


3. Sieve the flour, baking soda, baking powder,
   cinnamon and salt into the bowl and beat together
   until just incorporated
   


4. Add in the carrots, raisins and pecan nuts and
   mix evenly.
   


5. Pour into the cupcake cases
   


6. Bake at 180°C for 40-45 minutes (inserting a
   toothpick into the centre of the cupcakes should
   come out clean)
   


7. Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before
   taking them out the cupcake tin and allow to cool
   completely before icing.
   


8. To make the cream cheese icing, add the butter
   and cream cheese to a mixing bowl and blend until
   smooth. Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl, add
   the vanilla essence and blend again until smooth.
   Using a piping bag to ice the cupcakes or
   alternatively, simply ice them with a knife.