My Cypress Sky was born on St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't too thrilled about it but My Man was, because his family loves celebrating St. Patrick's Day. I had never celebrated St. Patty's Day, until I married My Man. They eat corned beef (how did I live my whole life without it?), cabbage and carrot cake. Is that carrot cake part Irish? No idea. I have no idea about that carrot cake. And my poor little Cy Sky will be stuck with that exact same meal every birthday her whole life, and green as her birthday theme color. Anyways, with carrot cake being the cake she will forever eat every birthday, I've decided to find ways to spice it up a little. This year, cupcakes. Very magnificent, I know. But, let me say. They were so so good. You should make them. And, then eat them all. There are so many carrot cake cupcake recipes out there with so many ingredients i.e. wheat flour, apple sauce, chunked apples, spices, etc...I seriously have limited time when baking or cooking or anything, so I chose the fastest one. And, I loved it. And it was fast, and it was good. But, I did change up the recipe quite a bit. Find the original here.
Chunky Carrot Cake Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
1 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c grated carrots (use a hand grater---the largest holes)
2/3 c oil
2 eggs, beaten
approx. 1/2 c water. Add this last, because the amount of water you add will depend on the texture of the batter after mixing everything together. When I had finished adding all of the ingredients from the original recipe, it was not a batter AT ALL. I think it's because I grated the carrots instead of using the food processor. So, add the amount you think makes the best better. I had added about 1/2 c.
Cream Cheese Piping Frosting I doubled the recipe
8 oz cream cheese
8 tbs butter
1 c powdered sugar(she uses two.that was way too much for me)
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cupcake pan or line it with liners.Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl, making sure to beat the eggs a little before adding them in. Add in the water at the end. Spoon them about 3/4 full into the cups. Bake for 15 minutes (that time is based off of my oven). For the frosting blend the cream cheese the butter and vanilla together (make sure the cream cheese and butter are softened) until smooth. Add in the cup of powdered sugar or however much you choose to at the end. Adjust to taste and texture. Separate into two separate bowls, and dye one of them green(or whatever color you want). Spoon each color side by side into your piping bag. I just used a zip lock and cut the tip with a little dip so that the frosting would come out round. Check out this video that shows you all sorts of cool ways to use zip locks to use as your piping bags. It's the one I learned it from! Refrigerate cupcakes (optional, but I like them cold).
