A Cupcake You’ll Fall In Love With – Carrot Cake Cupcakes

My love affair with cupcakes has brought me to literally going to no end to make sure I’ve tried the best. I also love a great carrot cake so I’ve tried many recipes and by far I found one that I just love. maybe you’ve heard of a show called Barefoot Contessa well with some helps from the reviews on the Food Network website I went with a tweaked recipe of hers.

What You Will Need:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 extra-large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. of nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3 cups grated carrots (less than 1 pound)
• 1 cup raisins (soaked in hot water)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

How To Do It:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat the sugar, oil, and vanilla together in the bowl of an electric mixer.. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/2 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add the grated carrots, raisins, and walnuts to the remaining flour, mix well, and add to the batter. Mix until just combined.

I suggest you soak your raisins in hot water for 20 minutes to soften.

Bake for 22 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting & Toasted Coconut Topping:

• 3/4 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound confectioners’ sugar

Mix frosting together but keep it cool, put it in the fridge if you’re not using it right away. I added a coconut crust and simply toasted the coconut in a frying pan on med. heat on my stove top. The coconut slightly crystallizes so make sure you sift it often. Don’t overcook!

Note: I used all organic ingredients in this recipe.