Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I’ve been wanting to make cupcakes, and since Easter is this weekend, I thought carrot cake ones were appropriate. After all, what could be more fitting for a holiday that celebrates a giant rabbit? What’s that? The holiday isn’t about a huge, mutant rabbit you say? I’m pretty sure it is. Although, there are a lot of chocolate eggs on the candy aisle, as well, so perhaps that’s where the confusion comes in. I’m about 97% certain even mutant bunnies don’t lay eggs. Anyway, all that aside, these are fabulous cupcakes that you should make, even if you don’t plan on sharing them with said rabbit.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• ⅔ cup flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ - ¼ teaspoon each of other spices
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ cup buttermilk
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• ½ cup finely grated carrot 

First things first. Grate your carrot on the fine side of your box grater and set it aside. Then, turn the oven to 350° and drop cupcake liners into your pan. You'll need 6. Now onto the spices. Place a teaspoon of cinnamon and your other spices into a small dish. I used about ⅛ teaspoon each of nutmeg, mace, ginger, cloves, allspice, and just a pinch of cardamom. You can use any combination of those you'd like.

Stir those together and place them in a mixing bowl, along with the rest of the dry ingredients.

Whisk until everything is evenly distributed. Then add the buttermilk, butter, and vanilla. (make sure they’re all room temperature)

Mix on lowish speed until it comes together. It’ll look something like this.

Turn the speed up to medium high and let it go for a good 90 seconds or so. It will become nice and light and smooth.

Scrape down the sides and mix for another 30 seconds, then add the egg. (also room temperature)

Beat until it is thoroughly incorporated.

And last but not least, add the carrot. Feel free to also add nuts or raisins if that’s your thing. Hubby’s allergic to nuts, so if I want them, I just have to put them on top of the icing so we can be sure which ones have them. And well, raisins are just evil.

Stir those in and spoon the batter into cups.

Fill them about ⅔ full. (I always like to place things like this on a sheet pan, just in case.)

Turn the oven to 425° and pop in the cupcakes. Leave them at that temperature for 5 minutes and then turn the temperature back down to 350°. Continue baking them for an additional 12 – 15 minutes.

If you insert a toothpick into the center of one, it’ll come out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.

After 2 or 3 minutes, remove the cupcakes to a cooling rack.

Now, carrot cake wouldn’t be carrot cake without cream cheese frosting, right? So let’s start on that.

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 – 2 ½ cups powdered sugar 

*I should probably mention that these recipes don't match up very well quantity wise.  The cupcakes one will make 6 cupcakes, while the frosting one will make more than enough for a dozen.  Feel free to double one or halve the other.  

Make sure the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature, then beat them together until they’re nice and smooth.

Add the vanilla and salt and mix until it’s incorporated.

Sift in the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time.

Beat well after each addition, and scrape down the sides.

Continue to add the powdered sugar until you’ve reached the consistency you like. I needed 2 ½ cups, but it was a rather humid day, so you may not need that much if you’re in a dry climate.

Pipe or spread the frosting onto your cooled cupcakes.

Et voilá!

They are certainly beautiful just as they are, but I thought I’d show a few ideas for dressing them up. I have one with chopped pecans, one with a light sprinkling of ground allspice, and one with a pinch of cinnamon. Anyway you do it, they are going to be absolutely fabulous!

Otto's usual snack when he gets hungry is carrots, so he was sure I must be making these carrot cake cupcakes for him.  

So Easter, what are your thoughts?

Cake Pan Pancakes

Yes, I know I’ve been on a bit of a breakfast thing, but I’m ok with that.  I am perfectly content eating breakfast foods any time of day, especially when Hubby is out of town on business.  Not only is this recipe perfect for being able to feed a crowd all at once, but even if you are eating by yourself, you can still make the whole pan, and just reheat pieces in the microwave when you want them. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 cup flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoons baking soda
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 1 egg 

First things first.  Preheat your oven to 350° and butter an 8x8 pan. 

Place all your dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.

In a separate vessel, (I like to use a glass measuring cup) pour your buttermilk.  Because you’re using oil rather than butter in this recipe, you don’t have to worry so much about the ingredients being room temperature.  It’s ok if everything is cold.  Go ahead and add the egg.

Oil

And vanilla.  And no, that’s not a typo in the ingredients list.  I really did use a tablespoon.  If you’re not a huge fan of vanilla, feel free to cut it back to a teaspoon or two. 

Whisk that together and pour it over the dry ingredients. 

Gently stir/fold that until it just comes together.  You don’t want to overstir it.  It’s ok if it’s somewhat lumpy. 

See, lumpy. 

Pour it into your prepared pan and level it out on top. 

Into the oven for about 20 minutes.  It’ll be light golden across the top when it’s done.

A toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. 

Go ahead and cut it into squares and serve them like you would any other pancakes. 

And speaking of any other pancakes, if you want to make these into flavored pancakes, it’s easy to do.  Before you put the pan into the oven, just sprinkle over whatever addins you want.  Blueberries, chocolate chips, pecans, anything you want, really.  You could even do crumbled bacon if that’s your kind of thing.  For me, nothing is better than just a plain old, vanilla pancake.  What’s your favorite variety of pancakes?