Week 8 part 2, March 27th, 2014~ Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Two cupcakes in one week!?! I have clearly lost my mind! I made these for a friend's birthday! She loves carrot cake and she rarely lets herself indulge in sweets and all things bad for you so I obviously had to make these if she was willing to eat them. I don't know much about carrot cake I have only had it a couple of times. It has just never been something I go for-there is usually something I like better available. All I knew was that I wanted a recipe that had pineapple in it because I love pineapple and the friend I was making them for loves pineapple too. So I found a Paula Deen recipe that had pineapple in it and I thought well Paula is southern and I think carrot cake is kinda southern so this recipe must be good. The batter was a weird consistency so I was kinda nervous but these cupcakes were sooo good! They were moist, flavorful, and the pineapple candied. The friends that ate them (who love carrot cake) went crazy for these cupcakes too; so they must be good! Then the cupcakes are just topped with a standard cream cheese frosting and I was kinda lazy and just sprinkled pecans pieces on top. I wanted to go all out and put little carrots on top but I was at work for like 10 hours that day and hadn't really slept in 3 days...so I am pretty impressed with myself. This recipe makes 24 cupcakes but I only made 6. This doesn't always work out but this one worked out fine. I divided all the ingredients by 4 EXCEPT for the baking soda and powder, I only divided those by 2. So on with the recipe!

4 eggs

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 8-oz. can of crushed pineapple, well drained
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Small pinch of ground cloves
• 3 cups grated carrots, (I just used shredded carrots from the grocery store because I already had them and they worked just fine)
• 1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, apple sauce, sugars, pineapple and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
3. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and small pinch of ground cloves.
4. Stir in carrots.
5. Fold in pecans.
6. Pour into muffin tin lined with beautiful paper or foil liners.
7. Fill each liner 3/4 full.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 min.
9. Let cupcakes cool completely.
10. While cooling, prepare frosting.

• For Frosting:
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• fresh coconut, shaved and toasted for garnish (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
2. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
3. Pile the frosting high on the cooled cupcakes and garnish with the toasted coconut if desired.

Recipe came from grouprecipes.com