When my children were small, I had an L shaped kitchen with a bar to the side where they would perch on the stools and lean over the counter to help me mix and shape cookies and of course, taste the dough. I like to think that as dough connoisseurs, we know even before something is baked if it is going to taste scrumptious. My son has become the world's best chocolate chip cookie baker; my daughter has started her own small catering business: making cupcakes for her friends for special occasions.
She's made cupcakes for weddings, valentines' day parties, little and big girl birthday parties,
wedding showers, office parties and just for fun.
She makes red devil or carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, vanilla or lemon creme cupcakes with vanilla frosting, chocolate and chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting. The cupcakes are made from scratch, never from a box. She decorates them with an eye to the type of party - but they are always delicious. Whatever the client wants, she can bake!
Here's our favorite recipe for carrot cake cupcakes. If you just want a great tasting cake, this recipe makes a wonderful single layer round cake, frosted with cream cheese frosting.
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Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
makes 8 to 10 cupcakes or 1 8-inch round cake layer
Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease cupcake or muffin cups well with shortening, or place paper cupcake holders in each cup. Paper cupcake holders work best. If preferred, cake can be baked in one round 8 inch pan, greased, and with a cut out parchment paper round placed on the bottom of the pan, also greased and floured.
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (or single layer cake)
Mix together and reserve in a bowl:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsps cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
Mix well in a large mixing bowl:
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs @ room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grate and reserve:
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
Add flour mixture to sugar & egg mix and mix lightly. Add grated carrots and
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
Fold nuts and carrots lightly until incorporated. Do not mix too much, cake will be too heavy.
Pour into prepared pan.
For cupcakes, bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For round cake, bake 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on a cake rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the cake rack to cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
Beat:
3 oz. cream cheese
With
1 1/2 Tbls. cream or half & half
1 tsp vanilla
Slowly incorporate and beat well:
1 to 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
To ice the cupcakes:
Spoon the frosting into cake decorating bags (if you don't have any of these, you can use a large ziplock bag - just spoon the frosting into the corner of one of the bags). Snip off the tip of the bag, making a small hole (or snip the corner of the ziplock bag) to pipe the frosting onto the top of the cupcake. If you want to be more creative, snip a jagged edge on the tip or corner, the piping will not be smooth but will have swirls. Start with a small snip/hole, if you need to go bigger, you can snip more, but if the hole is already too big, you'll have to remove the frosting into another bag. Squeeze the frosting out of the bag in a swirling, circular fashion on top of the cupcake. Decorate with nut halves or sprinkles. NOTE: If you want to color the frosting, spoon 1/2 of the frosting into one bag, then use food coloring to tint the remainder. Pipe the white frosting first, then spoon the tinted frosting into another bag and snip the corner with a very tiny hole for piping or writing.
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