Carrot Cupcakes

It was Mr T's birthday last week, and after responding to the first request for banana bread, I ended up making carrot cake with cream cheese frosting as well. After all, no birthday is complete without a cake right? I was running short on time but fortunately carrot cake isn't a complicated one and only required a speed trip to the local Sainsbury express for carrots, walnuts and sultanas. I ended up making cupcakes as they were quicker to bake, and I wouldn't have to divvy them up into slices afterwards. Carrot cake is a funny beast; some people love it, and other people say that vegetables have no place in a cake. What do you think? No need to tell you which bucket Mr T falls into...

The simplest carrot cake recipe I found was in Mr T's trusty Stephanie Alexander book - such a bible for all things food. This recipe featured brown sugar, self raising flour and oil ... whereas Martha Stewart and Hummingbird preferred vegetable oil , buttermilk, white sugar and plain flour. With so many great recipes how does one choose what to use? Solution - I can't. So, I adapted one instead (based on the Hummingbird recipe) and turned the carrot layer cake recipe into a cupcake version, substituting the buttermilk with creme fraiche and regular milk (that was what was in the fridge at the time!) I quartered all the quantities so we wouldn't die from cake overload - the recipe below made about 8 cupcakes, more than enough for 2 people, birthday or not!



Cupcake recipe (adapted from Hummingbird Cake Days)

1. Mix together wet ingredients (I used a stand mixer for this) until well combined:

• 1 grated carrot


• Bit of grated ginger


• 2 eggs


• Spoon of vanilla


• 100g caster sugar


• 80ml vegetable oil


• 20ml creme fraiche / buttermilk / sour cream / regular milk (whatever you have!)

2. Sift dry ingredients into another bowl:

• 120g plain flour


• 1/4 tsp bicarb


• 1/2 tsp baking powder


• Couple of shakes from the salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves jars (I'm guessing this equates to 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of each)

3. Add dry ingredients progressively to the wet ingredients and keep mixing until combined.

4. Add in optional extras to the batter (handful of chopped walnuts or pecans, handful of sultanas soaked in alcohol).

5. Bake at 170 degrees for about 10min until golden on top.



Frosting recipe

Beat together around 40-50g softened butter (about a quarter of a standard 250g block), 100g of cream cheese (about half a tub of Philly cream cheese) until smooth and fluffy. Add in icing sugar progressively and keep beating until the desired consistency. I have actually no idea how much icing sugar I end up using. I'm guesstimating its about a cup, but could be more or less depending on the texture. The trick is to do the butter and cream cheese first and make sure this is well beaten before adding in the sugar. Also, if you don't want an excessive amount of icing, a small handheld mixer tends to be more effective than a stand mixer in this case as it seems to "grab" small quantities of butter a bit better.

Here are some snaps of the finished product. Doesn't Charlie look cute examining the cupcakes? He's so fluffy! (yes, this is a Despicable me reference).



Happy Birthday Mr T and I hope you enjoyed your carrot cake

Love