Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting {Recipe}

The last few months has seen me trying out a healthier lifestyle.  All this baking has not been very good for the waistline!  However, I could not stay away from my oven too long, so I decided to make something a little healthier and satisfy my craving for cake.

This carrot cupcake recipe is from the book 'Bake me I'm yours...cupcake love' by Zoe Clark.  There are some delicious looking recipes as well as the prettiest cupcakes you could find in this book.  So I decided to try out the carrot and pecan cupcakes.

I tweaked the recipe a little, substituting some of the ingredients I had in my kitchen.  The cakes turned out moist and nutty, with a hint of cinnamon. I topped them off with a cream cheese frosting.

Recipe for Carrot cupcakes (makes 12)

125g soft brown sugar
120ml canola oil
2 eggs
190g self raising flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
280g grated carrots (about 4 medium carrots)
50g chopped pecans (add more or less to your taste)

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Line cupcake tin with cases.
3. Whisk sugar and oil together.  Add eggs, one at a time, and whisk til combined.
4. Add flour, baking soda and cinnamon.
5. Mix in grated carrots.
6. Fold in pecans.
7. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre of cake comes out clean.
8. Cool for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe for Cream cheese frosting

60g butter, soft
120g cream cheese
1tsp vanilla extract
400g icing sugar, sifted (add more or less according to taste)

1. Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla.
2. Add sugar, a little at a time, beating well between each addition, until smooth and creamy.
3. Frost completely cooled cupcakes.

I used a 1M tip for the three designs in the photo.

• The rose swirl in the front is done by starting in the middle, and working your way around until the edge.
• The high swirl starts at the edge, working your way around, overlapping round and round until you get to the peak.
• The stars are done simply by squeezing the tip once, stopping and lifting up. Repeat stars all over the cupcake.

I made the little carrots out of fondant, shaping the orange fondant into long tear drops, and sticking some green fondant on the top for the shoots.

Happy baking! :)