Carrot Cake Cupcakes

It’s carrot cake in a cupcake!  I love carrot cake, but cupcakes are just easier when managing very large groups of people like 50 or more.  These were moist and flavorful.  I loved the cream cheese icing too!  These were so simple and fast to make when using the food processor.   But don’t forget the white sugar.  They turn out like muffins instead!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
yield 24

2½ cups (12.5 oz) all-purpose flour
1¼ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. salt
1 lb. (6-7 medium) carrots, peeled
1½ cups (10.5 oz) granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1½ cups canola, safflower or vegetable oil

For the frosting:
12 oz. cream cheese (not softened)
7½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3¾ cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 muffin pans with 24 liners.
2.  Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.
3.  Using the food processor, shred the carrots.  Toss your shredded carrots into the flour mixture to coat.
4.  Rinse out your food processor and put the normal blade in there.  Add your granulated sugar, brown sugar and eggs.  Process for about 20-30 seconds.  Drizzle the oil through the feeding tube while the machine is running.  Whip that up for about 30 seconds until light colored and frothy.   Add this to your carrot/flour mixture and stir until all the flour is incorporated.
5.  Divide batter between cupcake liners.  I use my 3 Tbs. cookie scoop (large cookie scoop) for this.
6.  Bake 20-22 minutes.  After 10 minutes out of the oven, remove the cupcakes from the pan to cool on wire racks.  Cool completely before adding frosting.

Frosting:
1.  Beat cream cheese and butter on medium with the paddle attachment.  About 2-3 minutes later it should be creamy and smooth.
2.   Switch to low speed.  Add powdered sugar a little at a time.  Fully incorporate and then add the next installment.  When it is all in, add the vanilla and beat on medium until fluffy and smooth.  Make sure to beat the cream cheese in like crazy especially if you are piping it through a pastry bag or you’ll get lumps and the piping will not come out of the bag.

Recipe from Annies-eats.net

**I’ve read several other carrot cake recipes that cut down the vegetable oil to 1 cup from 1 1/2 cups.  Just an idea to try.  Many reviews said that the cake was just as moist.  Now these were not reviews on THIS recipe, but just other carrot cake recipes I’ve come across.**