Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I used this Allrecipes recipe to make carrot cake a few years ago, around the time that I really starting getting into baking/cooking. This was before I knew about some of the fancy food blogs that are my go-tos for recipes today. Despite that, I really like this carrot cake recipe and will probably always use it. When I first made the cake, I thought I needed 4 whole bags of carrots to get 3 cups of shredded carrots. Nope. About 5 large carrots will do.

I made the recipe into cupcakes this time because it seemed more fitting to take cupcakes on a camping trip. They baked for exactly 20 minutes, but since all ovens are different, I'd probably start checking on them after about 15 minutes.

I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, so I used less confectioners sugar, but it was still sweet enough. I ended up wiping the frosting off of my cupcake anyway; they actually are really tasty as muffins! That said, if you do like cream cheese frosting, I think this one is a good one.

I feel like every one of my blog posts should have a "what I did wrong this time" section. This time, I dumped 2 cups of chopped pecans into the cake mixture, instead of reserving 1 cup for the frosting. I liked the nutty cupcakes, but the nutty frosting on the first cake I made was good too. So, whatever you like.

Note: Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots (from about 4-5 large carrots)
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill cupcake pan(s) with muffin tins.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Fill each cupcake tin about 3/4 to the top.

3. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes (check after 15). They are done when a toothpick (or for me, sharp knife) inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes before frosting.

4. For the frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cupcakes.




The batter is good for eating (not too much kids!):

Muffins!

Frosting: