Carrot Cupcakes

Hi all, Hope all of you enjoyed the long Easter weekend. I had fun. We went to the beach on Good Friday with a couple of Hubby’s colleagues.

I was itching to bake something, but I didn’t have time to go shopping. So I wanted to baked something with ingredients in my fridge. Turns out all I had were some carrots. So I browsed through my recipes and found one from Annie’s Eats. It was a simple carrot cupcake recipe. And I thought it went along perfectly with the Easter weekend situation. So off I went to go grate my carrots!

The recipe called for 4 eggs. But the friends that we were going to meet were vegitarians. I knew that they don’t mind cakes with eggs. But since I have lots of leftover flaxseeds from my Eggless Chocolate Cookies. So I thought this would be a good excuse to try out those flaxseeds as egg replacement in these cupcakes.

I halved the recipe and made the cupcakes with 2 large carrots. I grated them with my normal kitchen grater. And reduced the amount of cinnamon in the recipe, cause hubby doesn’t like cinnamon in baked goods. Good thing I did this, otherwise it would have over whelmed then cupcakes. The cake itself doesn’t have any flavouring except the carrots and the little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg added.

I had some creame cheese left over from my previous cupcakes experiment. And I used that up for the frosting. The cupcakes with the frosting was so moist and lovely. It was a different track from the regular vanilla and chocolate cupcakes that I bake. I like the idea of adding half flour and half carrots to my cupcakes making them somewhat healthy in a way ;)

Carrot Cupcakes
Ingredients:

Yield: about 20-22 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

•          2½ cups (12.5 oz) all-purpose flour
•          1¼ tsp. baking powder
•          1 tsp. baking soda
•          ½  tsp. ground cinnamon
•          ½ tsp. grated nutmeg
•          ½ tsp. salt
•          1 lb. (6-7 medium) carrots, peeled
•          1½ cups (10.5 oz) granulated sugar
•          ½ cup packed light brown sugar
•          4 large eggs 
•         (Replacement for 2 eggs - I used 3 tbsp flaxseeds mixed with 6 tbsp of  warm water)
•          1½ cups canola, safflower or vegetable oil

For the frosting:

•          12 oz. cream cheese (not softened)
•          7½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
•          1 tbsp. vanilla extract
•          3¾ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  
• In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt; and set aside.
• With a grater, grate the carrots.
• Add the carrots to the bowl with the dry ingredients and set aside.
• Beat the sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds.  
• With the machine running, add the oil in a steady stream until well blended.
• Continue to process until the mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 more seconds.
• Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.  
• Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.
• Scoop evenly into the prepared cupcake liners.
• Bake for about 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  
• Let cool in the pan at least 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.