Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Today, a dull, bitterly cold, grey day in February, I'm all about brightening up the outlook with some yummy cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting and the very brightest sprinkles I could find.

Carrot cake is a really easy cake to make. It's pretty much guaranteed to turn out deliciously moist due to the water content of the carrots. You could make this recipe as a sandwich cake with the cream cheese frosting serving as a sandwich layer in between, and on top. Alternatively you could make it in squares. 

Emi's school is having a cake sale this afternoon, so I'm going down the cupcake route to max-up the number of units for the punters.  

PREPARATION TIME

30mins

BAKING TIME

20-25mins – if you make it as a cake you’ll need to allow another 10 minutes baking time.

MAKES

18 generously-sized 😃  cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

For the cake mixture

·       200ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

·       250g plain cake-making flour

·       2 tsp baking powder

·       ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

·       2 tsp ground mixed spice

·       ½ tsp salt

·       200g light brown soft sugar

·       3 eggs

·       250g coarsely-grated carrots

·     

For the frosting

·       200g soft butter

·       200g full-fat cream cheese (a family-sized tub of Philadelphia)

·       ½ tsp vanilla extract

·       50g icing sugar

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. 
2. While you wait, prepare a muffin tray with paper cases. 
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt, and mix together in a large bowl. 
4. Add the sugar, breaking up any larger lumps, until evenly blended.
5. Crack the eggs into the measuring jug with the oil and beat together until smooth and uniform.
6. Pour the oil mixture into the dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Add the carrots and stir until evenly distributed. If the batter is too stiff, add a tablespoon of cold water. 
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared paper cases in the muffin trays.
8. Bake for 20-25mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 10mins, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
9. For the frosting, put the butter in a large bowl and beat until creamy, smooth and pale. Add the cream cheese and vanilla, and beat until blended. It's really important to use butter that's at room temperature, and to beat it really well so that it's smooth and creamy, before adding the cheese. If you're not careful on these two points the icing can turn out lumpy. It's not the end of the world if it does as you can push it through a coarse sieve to remove the lumps, but it's a bit of a faff and really adds to the washing up.
10. Sift in the icing sugar and work it in gently into the creamed butter/ cheese with a spatula. Don't overwork it otherwise the icing will lose its texture and go a bit too runny. The frosting may improve by sitting in the fridge for a while.
11. Liberally apply the frosting using a palette knife, and then add a generous helping of sprinkles to complete the look.

Best enjoyed after school with a nice cup of Rosy Lee.

All the best for now,

Bonny x