Here comes fall. Today is Columbus Day that means no work. I spent the entire day on my feet making dinner for every day of the week (and yes, I am so sick of cooking right about now), and cleaning up out in the garden. We are so blessed to have so much space for our garden, and it's been so fun to grow all different kinds of things. Today I picked carrots and potatoes and transplanted some of our strawberry plant babies.
Potatoes went in the oven with garlic and a little butter. Mmm mmm. Our carrots got washed and peeled and ended up in this delicious carrot cupcake with cinnamon cream-cheese frosting. Oh wow! And the best part. I made some of the little mini cupcakes too. I think they're even worse for you than the bigger ones. I can pop one in my mouth in one bite - nothin to it. I got the recipe from thecupcakerecipes.com and modified it a little bit by using cinnamon in the frosting instead of orange.
My Aha moment of the day. Utah is at a much higher elevation than the rest of the cooking world (I know...genius). Really I've always know this, but I haven't, noticed how much of a difference it makes until I started making cupcakes - following the recipes exactly - and to my horror, I would check back at half the bake time and my alien cupcakes had risen right over the edge of the wrappers and down the sides of the cupcake pan. This is about cupcake try #5 for me and I finally figured out that you have to fill the cupcake papers half full or less. It also helps if I preheat the oven to 25-50ยบ higher than the recipe calls for and then turn the temperature back down when I put the cupcakes in the oven.
Classic Carrot Cupcake with
Ingredients
1 (9 ounce) pkg frozen sliced carrots - not me! Garden fresh
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil - next time I'm going to try using applesauce instead. It's a great substitute for oil in lots of baking recipes
4 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook carrots according to pkg directions until tender. Drain & mash in a large bowl. (I don't like chunky carrots in my cake, so I used a food processor to make them almost smooth) Add sugar, oil & eggs, beat well. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt. Beat into carrot mixture. Stir in chopped nuts. Pour batter into cupcake pan lined with baking cups. Bake 20 minutes (it took 25 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool and frost.
Ingredients for Frosting
1 pkg (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp grated orange zest (from 1 orange)
Frosting Directions:
Blend cream cheese & butter in a large mixing bowl on low speed until combined. Stop the machine & gradually add the sugar, blending with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is well combined. Then add the orange juice & zest to the mixture. Increase the mixer speed until the frosting lightens & is fluffy, about 1 minute. Use at once to frost your cupcakes.
Makes approx. 23 cupcakes.