Food: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Carrot cake is one of my favourite cakes (the other one is cheesecake, in case you were wondering haha), so I thought I would give this recipe a try, as I can't find a shop-bought one that tastes just as I want it to! (Once I discovered asda carrot cupcakes, they were amazing, of course the next time I looked for them they didn't have them anymore ;( )

Ingredients
(serves 16)

2 eggs
175 g/6 oz molasses sugar
200 ml/7 fl oz sunflower oil
200 g/7 oz coarsely grated carrots
226 g/8 oz wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
whole nutmeg, grated (about 1 tsp)
115 g/4 oz roughly chopped walnuts

topping

115 g/4 oz half-fat cream cheese
4 tbsp butter, softened
85 g/3 oz icing sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp grated orange rind

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until well blended and add the sugar and oil. Mix well. Add the grated carrot, sift in the flour, baking soda and spices, then add the walnuts. Mix everything together until well incorporated.

2. Grease and line a 20-cm/8-in round cake tin. Spread the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the centre of a preheated oven, 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5, for 40-50 minutes until the cake is nicely risen, firm to the touch and has begun to shrink away slightly from the edge of the tin. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin until just warm, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

3. To make the topping, put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat together for 2-3 minutes until really smooth.

4. When the cake is completely cold, spread with the topping, smooth over with a fork and allow to firm up a little before cutting into 16 portions. Store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week.

Some of my recipe modifications: that time I didn't have wholemeal flour, so I used self raising plain flour with a bit of oats mixed in for fibre. I normally use less sugar than indicated and even though I used a tiny bit less oil than the recipe, found the cakes to be a bit oily. I used full fat cream cheese but didn't add any butter. Don't forget that when baking cupcakes they need less time in the oven. 

What's your favourite cake?

xo

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