Carrot cupcake with Cream cheese frosting

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting

I like the idea of baking fruits and vegetables into cakes. It makes for wonderfully flavoured, moist cakes with distinctive fruity undertones. These cakes rarely need any more adornment. I used the carrot cake recipe from pinchofyum (halved her recipe to make 15 cupcakes) because it was the simplest carrot cake recipe that I could find that didn’t call for applesauce. These carrot cupcakes are all about carrots and carrots only. They turned out really soft and moist and tasted great. These cupcakes are delicious had out of the oven or chilled.

Cream cheese frosting just adds even more oomph to the carrot cupcakes. I used the leftover frosting from the red velvet cupcakes to frost 9 of these carrot cupcakes. My family is not a huge fan of frosting, so I am always on the lookout for frosting-less cakes that taste good on their own and these carrot cupcakes fit the bill perfectly. My finicky family really liked these carrot cupcakes! So full marks to this recipe.

Also I feel better to have used up fruits/vegetables that may otherwise just grow old in our fridge. Our fridge is like a museum, dig deep and you’ll find a long forgotten gravy from 2 weeks back, 2 hardened chappathi dough balls, a wilted, dying cucumber and sour curd that has soured 10X times. I excavate these historic pieces from time to time but not often enough as is apparent.

I am sending this off to Neela's Dish it out "Carrot & Cheese" event.

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins
Serves: 15

Ingredients

Flour – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Cinnamon – 1 tsp
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Grated carrots – 1-1/2 cups
Eggs – 2
Vegetable oil – 3/4 cup

Method

1.      Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease and line the cupcake pans

2.      Sift flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda together. Add sugar to the flour mixture.

3.      Beat eggs in a bowl till light and frothy. Mix oil and grated carrots in another bowl.

4.      Add the eggs to the carrot mixture and beat well for 1-2 minutes. Add flour mixture to the carrot mixture and beat till all the flour is properly incorporated.

5.      Use an ice cream scoop to spoon the batter into the cupcake pans making sure to fill only 3/4 of the cup.

6.      Bake for 30 minutes or till a tooth pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

7.      Cool and frost as desired. For cream cheese frosting check here.