Obviously, as a chocolate and sweet-things lover, I am not particularly fond of adding healthy things like vegetables to my delicious treats, not even cupcakes. It’s part of the reason I struggle so much with trying to be healthy: Zucchini brownies? No thanks! So this was my first experiment with vegetables in a not-vegetable thing. And it wasn’t half bad (actually, they were amazing!). I do have to admit, though, that these cupcakes are really not any healthier than a regular cupcakes (maybe just because they have some extra vitamins, but as far as Macros go, these are just as bad as any other).

Cutesie little carrot cupcakes with the world’s greatest cream cheese frosting

I was pretty impressed with these babies, but I won’t be making them again any time soon. The  cream cheese frosting on the other hand… Now those I am absolutely making for Merry Unbirthday Party on Saturday! It’s going to be a treat (or much more!) and I will share the frosting recipe with you once I’ve got some other exciting photos. You know, keeping you in suspense and stuff! Trust me, it’s worth the wait – and I never even liked cream cheese frosting before I had this.

Maybe I got a little bit overenthusiastic when I used my new piping bags… Doesn’t it remind you of a huuuuuuge ice cream? One day I’ll show you just how much I thought it did…

Carrot Cupcakes

makes 24

Ingredients

• 6 medium (±12cm) carrots, grated
• 2 ½ cups cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ cups caster sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups cooking oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Prepare your cupcake liners
2. Sift and mix together the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg (save the sugars). Add your grated carrot and mix together until carrots are evenly distributed
3. Mix the eggs and sugars together until they start to foam, then add the oil and mix well
4. Add the wet mixture to the carrot-flour mix, and mix until there are no dry patches
5. Distribute the mixture evenly between the cupcake liners
6. Place the cupcakes in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 15-20 minutes
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before frosting

Tagged: cake, carrot cupcakes, cream cheese, delicious, frosting, piping, recipe, sweets