Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Yesterday I promised you I’d tell you how I make these carrot cake cupcakes, and I wouldn’t want to let anyone down, so here goes. These do start with a cake mix, but I honestly think it’s so I don’t have to measure anything, because a lot of fresh ingredients go in too. It’s still reasonably easy and the cupcakes (or cake, if you prefer) really come out good, especially with this easy cream cheese icing.  This recipe has many inspirations – I got the pineapple and extra egg from a recipe that used to be on the side of the carrot cake box, the milk from my friend’s cake mix hack (as seen yesterday), which also includes an extra egg, and the carrots are my bright idea! The icing is also good on red velvet cake, chocolate cake, pumpkin cake, or with a spoon out of the bowl (hmmm…how would I know that?) The only thing it’s not great for is cake decorating, but we’ll discuss that too. So, without further ado, may I present carrot cake cupcakes!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes – makes 24 cupcakes

1 box carrot cake mix
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Peel and shred carrots. If your carrot cake mix has a packet of dehydrated carrots and raisins, throw it out. 🙂 Mix cake mix, milk, vegetable oil and eggs with mixer for 2 minutes, until well-blended. Fold in carrots, pineapple, raisins, and walnuts with a spoon until they are mixed in well. I don’t often use the raisins because I don’t like raisins, but I’ll put them in when I’m baking for others (especially when I want to be sure I won’t eat any, ha ha). The opposite holds true for the walnuts – I like them, but so many people are allergic to nuts these days that I only use them if I’m 100% sure no one is allergic. Why is that – when I was a kid, I knew people who were allergic to seafood and strawberries and even chocolate, but everyone ate nuts. Now people can’t even breathe the air where nuts are without serious allergic reactions – not just breaking out, but closing throats and stopping breathing…scary stuff!

If making cupcakes, use paper or foil liners. Personally, I like the foil liners for these because these cupcakes are moist (apologies to people who hate that word) and the paper liners look kind of “greasy”. Up to you. Fill cupcake cups 1/2 to 2/3 full and bake for 18-22 minutes.

Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting – will frost 24 cupcakes with some left over

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 oz. butter, softened
2 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Let cream cheese and butter soften in mixing bowl. Add vanilla extract. Add sugar in small batches and mix well (keep mixer on low and shut it off when you’re adding the sugar unless you want your kitchen covered in powdered sugar, which isn’t usually a good look). When all sugar has been mixed in, scrape the bowl, turn the mixer up to high, and mix on high for a minute.

Put icing in refrigerator to cool before icing cupcakes. If you’re just spreading icing, it doesn’t have to cool more than 15 minutes, but if you’re using a decorating tip, let it cool for about 45 minutes.

This is not the greatest icing for cake decorating using a decorating tip, because even when it’s cooled, it is still pretty soft. If you really want to use it for decorating, add an extra half-cup sugar to firm it up and leave it in the fridge for 1 hour. I prefer it in its “normal” state because it’s not overly sweet, but I did want to give you that option. I did the little star on the cupcake shown above with normal icing refrigerated for about an hour and they held up just fine, but I wouldn’t do anything more than that with this.

Enjoy and remember if you’re eating carrot cake, you’re getting your daily requirement of vegetables in! At least that’s what I keep telling myself. I mean, if you use the walnuts, they’re protein, as are the eggs and the cream cheese…you’ve got a complete and balanced meal right there! This sounds good, doesn’t it? 🙂