Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

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  • 24
  • Average
  • 15 mins
  • 15 mins
  • 20 mins
  • Average budget

Ingredients

  • For cupcakes:
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon table salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1¼ cups canola oil
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 cups grated, peeled carrots
  • Optional: ½ cup raisins and/or 1 cup crushed walnuts.
  • For frosting:
  • 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • ¼ cup pure maple syrup

Preparation

Step 1

For cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.

Step 2

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend.

Step 3

Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them.

Step 4

Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

Step 5

For frosting: In a stand mixer, beat all the frosting ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.

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I like to grate the carrots by hand — actually, that’s a lie, I don’t enjoy it one bit — because I want it very finely grated for a soft batter. The food processor works, too, but the pieces are a bit thicker.

To make a carrot layer cake: Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans instead of cupcake molds. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and bake the layers for about 40 minutes each, or until a tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off paper; cool cakes completely.

(From Smitten Kitchen)