Carrot Cake Cupcakes

The last time I made cupcakes for my work my boss came up to me and put in a request for carrot cake cupcakes.  I said I would love to do it, then he proceeded to tell me a story:

He and his wife just went to DC and since they were there they stopped by Georgetown Cupcakes.  If anyone hasn't heard of them, they have their own show and I absolutely love watching it.  Anyway, he said they went to Georgetown Cupcakes and waited an hour and a half in line just to buy one cupcake.  AN HOUR AND A HALF!  I couldn't believe that.  He said once he got to the front, he ordered got his carrot cake cupcake and ate it.  And the hour and a half was worth it.  Then he said, make me a carrot cake cupcake.  No pressure right??  Wrong!  I was excited to make these for him, and now I have to compete against Georgetown Cupcakes.  Great.

So I was looking online and found a couple of recipes, but non seemed right.  How I could tell, I have no idea I have never made carrot cake cupcakes before or really tasted it.  Lovely.  I came across a recipe that used apples in it, and I thought that sounded good so I decided that was the winner.  Thank you http://www.joyofbaking.com/!!

This morning when I came into work I talked to my boss and we decided that he would test them first, be brutally honest and if they sucked we wouldn't put them out.....but he LOVED them!  Wooooooo!!!  Seriously it made my whole day.  He looked like a happy little boy eating his cupcake it was so great.  In the words of Mark Smith "BOOM!!!"  Success.

So this recipe makes about 20 cupcakes, I just added an extra egg, some extra oil, extra sugar and flour to make about 27.  That was risky on my part for not adding more of everything, but it worked!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I actually ended up using around 3 tsps)
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 cups finely grated raw carrots (I only used 1, it seemed like a lot)
1 cup grated apple (approximately 2 large)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts coarsley chopped
1 cup raisins or currants (I left them out)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a large bowl whisk eggs, oil and sugar together
3. In another bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda and ground cinnamon (I added in 1/4 nutmeg as well, you can do what you want!  Add the flour mixture to the eggs, oil and sugar.
4. Fold in the carrots, apples, nuts and raisins.
5. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until done in the middle.

The frosting is the Cream Cheese frosting that I use on a lot of mine so that is on the website.  When I was done frosting I added some of the extra crushed nuts on top to make them look pretty.

Also I got to use my new cupcake stand that I made as well!!  What a success.  Enjoy!