Flour's Classic Carrot Cupcakes

Whoaaaa

July?? When did that happen??

Time Summer passes way too fast.  I hope the next couple of weeks pass ever so slowly...

In the last post, I wrote about having extra leftover ingredients.  It's a pet peeve of mine, having leftover spices or ingredients.  So when I made my first layer cake, this Red Velvet Cake, I had a large cup of frosting leftover.  What to do with a large amount of extra cream cheese frosting?

Make carrot cake!

Well...  carrot cupcakes!

Em made an awesome carrot cake with cute little carrots for her recital almost a month ago.  These cupcakes may not be as pretty and decorated, but these cupcakes were super delicious! Plus, they were from Joanne Chang's Flour book!

After L said that the carrot cake she made was one of the best she has ever tasted,  I knew that I had to try it for myself! While my favorite carrot cake is made by a friend as one of our Thanksgiving traditions, this cake on the same level as the Thanksgiving cake perfection.  

After shredding 4 carrots and successfully getting little orange bits everywhere -on me, the counter, the floor, the sink- I realized that recipes that call for shredded ____ or the zest of ____ actually mean a lot of that ingredient.  There's a lot of carrots in carrot cake, like there is a lot of lemon zest in lemony things!

The batter with carrot already added... you can see the tiny bits floating around!

Recipe (adapted from Joanne Chang's Flour, makes one 8-inch 2 layer cake, or 16 cupcakes)

Cake

2 eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp nonfat buttermilk (I never have buttermilk, so I substitute with adding1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup milk!)
1 cup and 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 cup tightly packed shredded carrots (~4 carrots)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup toasted and chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting -left over from Red Velvet Cake

1 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
8 oz cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces, softened
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Preheat to 350 degrees.
Butter, flour and line a 8-in round cake pan with parchment paper. Or line muffin tin.
Beat together eggs and brown sugar until mixture is light and thick.
In a small bowl, whisk oil, buttermilk, and vanilla together.
Slowly pour the oil mixture into egg-sugar mixture.
In another bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger together.
Fold flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
When most of the flour has been incorporated, add in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts. Bake the cakes for 30 minutes; bake cupcakes for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting!


Frosting

With mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add cream cheese 1 piece at a time and beat unti lincorporated.
Beat in vanilla and salt.
Refrigerate until use. Frosting can last up to 5 days in the fridge.

If you're making cupcakes, just frost once cool!
If you're making cake, remove the cake from the pan and split into 2 layers.
Place the bottom layer cut-side up and frost.
Place the next layer cut-side down and press to adhere. Frost away!

Just spotted this on Nerdist, super cool!!

Linked to Sweet as Sugar Cookies ,Mangia Mondays