Carrot Cupcakes

It was my co-worker’s birthday last Friday and since I have been away (jury duty… ugh) I completely missed it. I actually didn’t even know except it was brought up when I was out to lunch yesterday. I thought it would have been fun to bring in something to celebrate. Also, I was told they felt slighted because I never bring treats to that side of the office. Originally, I thought about making a cake but the thought of transportation scared me a bit. (I really need one of those cake carriers from BB&B) Then I thought about making little carrot cake cupcakes. I have never made a carrot cake and it was definitely something I wanted to try. I found a recipe on foodnetwork.com with a 5 star rating and decided to give it a try. The only problem was that the recipe used apple sauce and I have never used apple sauce as a substitute for oil. I am also not a huge fan of trying to make treats healthy. That is why they are treats, right? Despite my reluctance, the 5 star rating won me over and to tell the truth I have been eating so bad lately, making things a little lighter could do me some good.

I have never wanted to own a food processor so bad in my life. Grating carrots was a very tedious process and a number or times I ended up grating my fingers. Very annoying. I also did not feel like buying whole wheat pastry flour and used all purpose flour instead.

I thought the cupcakes came out a little dry and plain myself, but BP II seemed to like them. The icing was amazing as always so I was fine using the cupcake as a vehicle for more icing. So much for eating lighter.

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup natural applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Directions

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

2.) Sift together the first 6 ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar and eggs until well combined. Whisk in the applesauce, vanilla and carrots. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts.

3.) Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

4.) With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts. The cupcakes should be stored in the refrigerator.

Spiced Cream Cheese Icing

4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
¼ teason of cinnamon
4 TBL of room temperature butter
1 package of cream cheese

Combine last 5 ingredients with a hand mixer. Then, slowly add powdered sugar until smooth.

Also, for a pretty application, spoon icing into a Ziploc bag. Snip corner and squeeze icing towards the opening. It is the poor man’s pastry bag and better yet, no cleaning afterwards!