November 20th, 2011.
I got this birthday present from my soon-to-be sister, mother, and father-in-law. They know that I'm crazy about baking cupcakes, so they bought me Martha Stewart's Cupcake book for my birthday. There are sooo many variations of cupcakes that i would like to try to make, so i started out on carrot cupcakes first. I didn't use some of the ingredients in the recipe due to the short time that i had last week. And i forgot to take the picture of the carrot cupcakes (do'oh!!). Here's the recipe, it's delicious!
Ingredients for the cupcakes:
- 1 pound carrots (about 450 g), finely grated
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar (i only use 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup buttermilk (you can use sour cream or plain yogurt to substitute)
- 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved (simply use vanilla powder)
- 1/2 cup golden raisins (i didn't use this, cos many people don't like raisins)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger (didn't use this)
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (also didn't use this)
Ingredients for the frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (additional)
- 1/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
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Make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line mini muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together carrots, eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla-bean seeds, and raisins. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Stir flour mixture into carrot mixture until well combined.
Divide batter among liners, filling 3/4 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, 23 to 28 minutes, rotating tins halfway through. Transfer tins to racks to cool for 10 minutes. Remove from tins; let cool completely.
Make frosting: Beat cream cheese and butter with 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar. Continue to beat while adding remaining sugar 1/4 cup at a time. Add vanilla, and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
