Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Carrot cupcakes unintentionally flooded with maple cream cheese deliciousness (intentionally delicious)


I was at a café today and they had the most amazing looking carrot cupcakes. I wanted one.
But I am a cheap ass. I was not willing to spend half an hours wage on a little cupcake. So I rode my aunts bike through the rain home, with my second hand jacket and my bag which I have had since I was 15 (I'm totally a cheap ass) and made my own kick ass carrot cupcakes.

I searched my favourite recipe sites for a recipe and found this one from
Smitten Kitchen. I added and subtracted a little. I used left over carrots which I bought from my favourite little farmer man, who has a stall on Stavanger's main square. He has the best, cheap, fresh, quality vegetables, never smiles but is still totally adorable. The cupcakes were really really good. The icing was too runny, I added too much maple syrup and didn't have enough icing sugar left. I bad. Slightly more tricky to devour, but totally worth devouring. And much more satisfying than those expensive café cupcakes.

Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
3 cups grated peeled carrots
1 cups coarsely chopped hazelnuts
24 squares of quality dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, hazelnuts. Put a dark chocolate square in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Divide batter among cupcake moulds, filling 3/4 of each.

Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

2 packages cream cheese, softened
120 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
A small handful of grated carrot

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.

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