Crunch, Crunch, Carrot Cupcakes.

Carrots. Carrots. Carrots.

To be honest, I've never ever been a fan of this vibrant, crunchy, sweet vegetable. Adding it to cake was something that I was afraid to do. But no longer am I a carrot cake virgin. In all seriousness, putting carrots inside of a delicious cake is the only way you will ever get me to eat carrots. I mean it.

This post is dedicated to my sweetest friend, Lisa. Happy Birthday! Wishing you the best for another wonderful year! Love you : ) 

Her favorite is carrot cake, and I can't believe I've been making her everything but carrot cake for the many years I have known her. But finally, the day has come!

Enjoy my readers, this a super delicious, not-to-sweet but moist cake.

Carrot Cupcakes

Yields: 24 regular sized cupcakes, 12 jumbo sized cupcakes, or  (1) 13x9 One Layer Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups oil (vegetable preferred)
• 4 room temperature eggs
• 2 cups of regular all purpose-flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon 
• 2 cups of grated raw carrots (I used about 4 medium sized carrots)
• 8.75 oz. can of crushed pineapple (drained)
• 1 cup of golden raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F Degrees. Mix together all the wet ingredients: sugar, oil, and eggs. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Combine with egg mixture, until well combined - be sure not to over mix the batter. Next, add in carrots, pineapple (drained), nuts, raisins, and blend. Turn into greased and floured pan 13x9x2 pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool on wire racks. For cupcakes, line with paper liners and fill three quarters of the way up. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For jumbo sized cupcakes, it took 25-27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting: This is a pretty simple frosting because you don't want to overpower the cake.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 8oz. package of cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 2 cups of confectioners sugar, sifted

Combine the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy for about 2 minutes. Slowly add your sugar, until it is well combined with the butter mixture. Add in vanilla and mix. Make sure cake/cupcakes are cool before frosting. (For piping onto cupcakes, you might want to double the batch of this cream cheese frosting)

*This recipe is credited to my Mom's dear friend, Nell. Thanks so much for sharing with me your book of delicious recipes! : )

Bring it on 2012! I'm ready!

Hi readers! Happy 2012!

To start off the brand new spanking year, I had my first order of 2012! Yay! Here are some sparkly New Year's Cupcakes! They are Red Velvet with a tangy cream cheese frosting! Super yummy.

Before I send you off and running (to go and watch the Laker game---yes the NBA is back!), the recipe that I used was fantastic! If you are looking for a very moist and tender red velvet cupcake, you've found it here. For the cream cheese frosting, its not so sweet but has a tang from the added extra cream cheese which makes it really creamy! And its fantastic because its not an overpowering amount of powdered sugar that goes in here. So please check out the linked blogs for great recipes, you won't regret it!

Special thanks to: "Carrot Top" Mom and Our Best Bites blog!

 All of the decorations (besides the sprinkles) are fondant dusted with edible glitter. To make the curls, I cut out strips of fondant (they don't have to be perfectly straight) and used the tip of a small paint brush to get the even curled look. To get the edible glitter to stick to the fondant, the box suggests using lemon juice or clear vanilla extract and mix a small amount of the glitter (because it goes a long way!). I ended up using a water/edible glitter combo to brush it on the fondant (which is cheaper if you don't have the clear extracts on hand).

Thanks for reading! Have a safe, healthy, and happy start to the year! Cheers!