Recipe: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Could it be?! YES! Ronalyn has actually baked something homemade. I mean, it’s only been 3 months! My goodness.

Well, an old friend asked me if I could bake cupcakes for her daughter (and my Goddaughter) this week. She’s in preschool and they have to bring something in for Show & Tell, but they do it by letter and they’re on the letter ‘C’! So, she my friend asks me to bake carrot cupcakes! Like I said, I haven’t baked in FOR-EV-ER, but I just had to do it! And boy oh boy… I’m glad I did! Oh, and I enlisted the help of Janelle because she loves to bake as much as I do! (We’re going to open up a bakery…wait and see!)

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
From Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes
Makes 36 cupcakes (but the book says 24) + 4 cups of frosting

Print this recipe!

You’ll need:
For the cupcakes—
- 1 lb carrots, peeled & finely grated
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- 2 cups sugar
- 1½ cups vegetable oil
- 1½ tsps pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
For the frosting—
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 12 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 lb (4 cups) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- ¾ tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Cupcakes—
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract. In another bowl. whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Stir flour mixture into carrot mixture until well combined. (Heck, you don’t even need a mixer to really make these cupcakes, but I love my Tallulah—my Kitchen Aid mixer, she makes baking so much easier!)

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 23-28 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.

Frosting—
(My favorite part of the recipe!) With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, cream, sugar, and vanilla extract until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (Okay, I lied—you have to add all of these ingredients one at a time, until combined, but you don’t really have to. Our frosting turned out great!)

It smelled like Fall in my kitchen the night we baked these little treasures. I will bake them again in the near future, that’s for sure. Some things you can add to this recipe are: raisins, walnuts, pecans, or coconut shavings atop the frosting. Possibilities are endless! I choose to omit such ingredients because these cupcakes were made for 4 year olds! Who knows what kind of food allergies/taste buds I’m dealing with here? Just kept it simple and it worked out for the best.

A note from the teacher! Guess they were a hit! :)

In other news, I’m heading South this weekend! It feels good to end my busy work season with a getaway! I’m happy I’ll far from all the hustle and bustle even if it’s for a little bit. I’ll let you know all about it when I get back! Til then, my friends!