I would like to refer to these as the "Easter Dessert That Almost Wasn't". It took three tries to get this right and it had nothing to do with the recipe, and more to do with human error. Perhaps a Comedy of Errors? I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was a little frustrating. But despite all the little hiccups, I had been dreaming about these deliciously spiced cupcakes with sinful cream cheese icing for weeks...and there would be no substitutes.
The recipe itself is a tried and true family favourite that my Great Aunt M makes for us. I remember being a little kid and going to visit her up at the farm house and she would have a batch of this made in a cake pan, with little toothpicks stuck in the top to keep the cling wrap from touching the icing. Counting the toothpicks before we cut into it was a ritual in itself.
Although she traditionally makes this in a cake pan, but cupcakes seemed like a fun variation and made for easy travelling to the family lunch. I've posted the directions for making this as a cake at the bottom.
What you'll need:
Cupcake Batter:
2 cups Grated Carrots
3 Eggs
1 cup White Sugar
3/4 cup Oil
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
Cream Cheese Icing:
4 oz package of Cream Cheese
2 cups of Icing Sugar
1/4 cup Butter, melted
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Lemon Juice
My sister really got into grating the carrots with the new food processor attachment that my dad gave my mother for Christmas. Great for grating cheese, not so great for carrots. They just kept whipping around in big chunks. Maybe we should read the manual again...We ended up using the hand grater after the first batch.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In a large bowl or mixer, beat eggs.
Add sugar gradually and beat well. Add oil and beat.
Alternate adding carrots and flour to the egg mixture until just mixed.
Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. We had a few mishaps when we made them this weekend...
We burnt the edges of the first batch of cupcakes after putting them in an oven that was
off by 100 degrees! Such things do happen from time to time, but we had plenty of carrots and ingredients, so just make another batch right?
Wrong. As the cupcakes were cooling someone (Hi Mom!) dropped a glass on the muffin tin and it shattered all over the
second batch of cupcakes :(
But we couldn't let this get the best of us, so we grated some more carrots and went for a hat trick.
Thankfully on the third try everything went a-okay. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Pat yourself on the back if you managed to not burn or any, or turn them into small weapons. (Killer Cupcakes!)
To make the icing, beat together the cream cheese and butter until very smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla and lemon juice. With a knife, spread cream cheese icing on top of each cupcake.
Little C thought that they were fanastic and immediately sank her teeth into the creamy icing. I have not idea where she learned to do that ;)
To make as a cake: Pout batter into a buttered, floured 9" baking pan. bake for 55 min. Allow to cool and cover in cream cheese icing.
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