Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Spicy carrot cake, in miniature

Carrot Cupcakes 

I had a lot of fun decorating these little carrot cakes. The best part of baking, I think, is making that sweet swirl on top of a delicious cupcake.

I used my large, open star nozzle for piping the cream cheese swirl. And sprinkled some chopped pecan nuts on top to finish them off.

Sharing IS caring, after all. And I couldn’t possibly eat them all by myself. So I called my old friend Krelin, and arranged a tea date. It was good catching up, especially with some yummy carrot cupcakes in hand.

Here’s how I made my carrot cupcakes. Let me know how yours turn out. 

Time to bake!

Carrot Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Adapted from: Recipes from the Royal Kitchen compiled by Heilie Pienaar 

INGREDIENTS:

For the cupcakes:

60g (¼ cup) butter, soft

¼ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 ¼ cups self-raising flour, sifted

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch salt

²/₃ cup (160ml) low fat milk

½ cup grated carrots (about 2 medium carrots)

1 small handful of chopped pecan nuts

For the cream cheese butter icing:

50g butter

1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted

The juice of half a lemon

1 package (175g) plain, low fat cream cheese

DIRECTIONS:

For the cupcakes:

1.       Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2.       Cream the butter in a mixing bowl, until light. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and creamy.

3.       Beat in the egg.

4.       Mix in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, while alternating with the milk. Be careful not to over mix.

5.       Fold in the grated carrots.

6.       Spoon the mixture into the liners, until about ²/₃ full.

7.       Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean, once inserted.

8.       Remove the cupcakes from the pan, and allow to cool on a wire rack.

For the cream cheese butter icing:

1.       Cream the butter in a mixing bowl until very light.

2.       Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and beat until smooth.

3.       Beat in cream cheese until just incorporated. Do not over mix.

4.       Pipe the icing over the cooled cupcakes as desired. Decorate with the chopped pecan nuts.

Time to decorate!