Carrot Cupcakes

Some friends of mine at work have been bugging me to make carrot cake cupcakes. It’s also a good friend’s birthday this weekend. I decided to kill two birds with one stone by making carrot cake cupcakes that I could serve on her birthday, and bring the leftovers to work. The recipe I used is from allrecipes. I’m a big fan of this recipe, and had made it before. However, it calls for a somewhat unusual frosting that has white chocolate and orange extract in it. I happen to think it is delicious, but some others are pretty devoted to the standard cream cheese frosting. To make things easier, I just made both kinds of frosting, and frosted half the cupcakes with each.

Carrot Cupcakes

Makes 27

3 eggs
1 2/3 cups white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
3 cups shredded carrots
¾ cup crushed pineapple
2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
1 ¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
2 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground ginger
1 cup chopped walnuts.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugars until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla and vegetable oil and whisk to combine. Fold in the carrots and the pineapple.

2. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

3. Pour the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and whisk to combine. Fold in the chopped walnuts

4. Fill the cupcake liners using a ¼ cup measure. Bake for 23 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool thoroughly before frosting.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

3 oz white chocolate
1 8oz package non-fat cream cheese, softened
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp orange extract
3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the white chocolate, vanilla, and orange extracts.

2. Beat in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. After three cups stop and taste. If you want it sweeter, add the fourth.

Regular Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8oz packages non-fat cream cheese, softened
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softend
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the Vanilla extract. Beat in the powdered sugar one cup at a time.