Weekend Bakes

Source: http://www.sliceoffeist.com/2011/02/seven/
Photographer: http://www.mrlentzphotography.com

Carrot cake cupcakes

There's been a lot of construction these past few weeks and I'm finally

feeling the full weight of it. Monday to Saturday, construction next door 

starts up at 8am every morning (not so bad at the weekday). Everyone

in the house is getting grumpy with the lack of sleep and we all hate

being at home in the daytime. So to offset all the grumpiness in the

house I'll bake us some carrot cake cupcakes tomorrow. Should be a

great dessert and a nice little snack to bring into uni tomorrow. Looking

forward to it!

07.02.2011

Carrot and Ginger Cupcakes

Makes 40 cupcakes, 24 muffin size

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups canola oil

4 large eggs

3 cups grated peeled carrots - approx 9-10 large carrots (hand grating makes it finer and be sure to sieve out the liquid)

                  1) Preheat oven to 180°C.

                  2) Line the cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.

                  3) Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend.

                  4) Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. 

                  5) Add flour mixture and stir until blended. 

                  6) Stir in carrots, walnuts and raisins, if using them. 

                  7) Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each.

Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

400g cream cheese, softened

 25g unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

In a stand mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.

I used a sheet of parchment paper, folded it in half and snipped off a bit of the end to create a piping effect (highly not recommended - looks and refilling is rather messy).