she paints the kitchen red

Carrot Cupcakes

One of the birthday girls requested for carrot cake so I began leafing through my collection of cupcake/cake recipe books and came across this one. It turned out great – really moist and chockful of nuts and raisins. The cream cheese frosting, without a doubt, really complemented the cupcake.

Adapted from Cupcakes! by Eleanor Klivans:

makes about 18 cupcakes

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
3/4 cup fine/caster sugar
2/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely grated carrots (about 2 carrots)
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

2. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture and then the carrots, raisins and walnuts.

3. Fill each liner to about 3/4 full. Bake until the tops feel firm and a toothpick/skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Frost when cool.

lemon curd cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

for one of my best boyfriends; the one whom i have known since secondary 1, the one who i danced to “build me up buttercup” with, the one who was silently there through my darkest days. 🙂