The holidays are comin’ up, so I always like to keep a batch of fresh cupcakes in the kitchen! And, these here Carrot Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Icing are just perfect for all your guests! You can use different food colorings for each holiday and top the icing with a little something to make it festive! Try orange food coloring for Halloween and top with a web or spider decoration. For Thanksgiving, sprinkle some crushed pecans on top. And, try green or red food coloring for Christmas, topped with a peppermint candy. Any way you decorate them, these little cupcakes are DEE-LISH!!!
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Southern
PREP TIME
20 mins
COOK TIME
15 mins
TOTAL TIME
35 mins
INGREDIENTS
For the cupcakes:
1 cup unbleached flour
1 /2 teaspoon baking soda
1 /2 teaspoon baking powder
1 /2 teaspoon salt
1 /4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 /2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1 /2 cups grated carrots
2 eggs (beaten)
2 /3 cup vegetable oil
For the icing:
8 ounce package of regular cream cheese (softened)
1 cup butter (softened)
1 /2 teaspoon vanilla
Sprinkle of salt
3 cups powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
Cupcakes:
Preheat your oven to 350°.
Git out a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon into the bowl and stir to blend.
Git out another separate big mixing bowl and add together the carrots, the oil, the eggs and the vanilla.
Now, add the flour mixture to the carrot-oil mixture, a little at a time, until blended. You don’t wanna overstir the batter…just stir ‘til blended.
Git out your 12-cup muffin tin and place the paper liners in each cup of the tin. Then, fill each cup about three-fourths of the way up of each cup.
Place the filled muffin tin in your preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Everybody’s oven cooks differently, so after the 15 minutes, pull out the oven rack, stick a toothpick into a center muffin. If it comes out clean, they’re done. If it’s still a little bit gooey, let them cook for another 3 minutes. They should be nicely browned on top.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven when they’re done, and let them cool on a wire rack while we make the icing.
Icing:
Git out a medium-sized clean mixing bowl and a hand mixer. If you don’t have a hand mixer, you can knock yourself out with a whisk. I’ve used both. Mix together your softened cream cheese and butter on a medium-high speed ‘til nice and smooth. Then, add the vanilla and mix that in with the mixer.
Now, turn your mixer down to low (so it don’t go flyin’ everywhere!) and add your powdered sugar, a little at a time, ‘til blended and smooth.
After the cupcakes have cooled, we’re gonna pipe the icing onto the cupcakes. If you have a cheesecloth piping set, use that. If you don’t, then spoon out some icing into a plastic baggie or bag, cut a hole in the end and evenly squeeze out or pipe the icing onto each cupcake. Or…you can just frost ‘em. Anyway you do it, these here cupcakes are the BEST!
NOTES
You can use food coloring for the icing depending upon the holiday. For Halloween, try orange and top with a spider or web decoration. At Thanksgiving, you can top the icing with crushed pecans. For Christmas, use green or red food coloring and top with a peppermint.