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The best ever carrot cupcakes

I know, I know, calling a post ‘the best ever carrot cupcakes’ is a big call. I said it for The Best Ever Chocolate Mud Cake and so far everyone who has tried it has agreed so you’ll just have to make these and tell me what you think.

For my beautiful grey and yellow baby shower last year, my only job was making mini carrot cupcakes with yellow icing. Mum was very specific in her directions.

The best ever carrot cupcakes

I really wanted grey and white cupcake cases to go with the yellow icing but try as I might I could not find them anywhere. I ended up ordering some from eBay which claimed to be grey but when they arrived they were more of a charcoal-black.

It was back to the drawing board where I decided to make little toppers and use white cases instead. If you’d like a copy of the file to print your own please ask.

The best ever carrot cupcakes

Anyway back to the cupcakes. When my grandma heard I was tasked with carrot cupcakes she said ‘you’re making your mother’s recipe aren’t you, it’s the best?’ Now who am I to go against something like that especially coming from my grandma.

I’m not sure where mum’s recipe originated from but it is in my folder of recipes mum typed for me when I went off to Canada for 3 months nearly 10 years ago and she has been making it forever.

The base recipe is carrot but where it calls for 2 cups of grated carrot, you can substitute some crushed pineapple, coconut, mango or mashed banana or any combination. Can you guess which one I went with? Yes you’re right I added a little mashed banana.

The best ever carrot cupcakes

The result is a moist but still light and fluffy little cake that will have you hiding the wrapper so you can sneak another one. It can be made up as a cake (cook it for about 40 minutes) but I think bite-sized is just perfect.

So will you give them a go and see if they live up to their name? Don’t forget the cream cheese icing though – it’s the, well, the icing on the cake!

The best ever carrot cupcakes

The best ever carrot cupcakes

The best ever carrot cupcakes

Yield: 36
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

  • 1 cup raw sugar
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 3 free-range eggs
  • 1 1/3 cups plain wholemeal flour
  • 1 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 1/3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/3 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups of grated carrot or any combination of coconut, mango, mashed banana or pineapple to equal the two cups (I used 1 banana and the rest carrot)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Icing

  • 120g (4oz) cream cheese
  • 240g (8oz) icing (confectioners) sugar
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan-forced (350F) and line three 12-hole mini muffin tins with liners.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil.
  3. Add the eggs one-at-a-time and whisk them through.
  4. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.
  5. Fold through the grated carrot and walnuts.
  6. Divide the batter between the cupcake liners.
  7. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean.
  8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
  9. To make the icing, beat the butter and cream cheese until soft then add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy (beat in colour if using).
  10. If the icing is too thick, add a little water and if too thin, add a little extra icing sugar.
  11. Pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes.

 

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