Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Courtney and I planted carrots in the garden this spring and we have been patiently waiting for them to grown for about 5 months.

I'm relatively new at this whole carrot farming thing so we just sort of guessed when they were ready to pull out of the ground.  

We pulled a few to make sure they were ready and then we harvested the whole carrot crop.

These were the smallest of the bunch.

We even had a couple of white carrots. ???

Turns out - Mia liked carrots too.

We ate most of our home grown carrots raw - that's how we like them best but harvesting our little bunch of carrots put me in the mood for carrot cupcakes.  (Hazards of being a baker - even fresh vegetables remind me of desserts.) 

I've been trying to work on my cake to icing proportions lately so I added only a small amount of cream cheese frosting to these delicious cupcakes.  Frosting lovers will probably complain that it's too little but cake lovers will applaud my minimal frosting technique. 

After all - it's a cupcakes made with fresh vegetables.  It's healthy - right?

What better way to enjoy a vegetable?

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound carrots (peeled)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil

Frosting
12 ounces cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Shred carrots in food processor.  Add remaining dry ingredients to carrots.

Rinse out food processor and add sugars and eggs.  Process with metal chopping blade until well blended.  With machine running, add oil in a steady steam through the feed tube and process until blended.

Fold in dry ingredients and carrots.

Scoop into paper lined muffin tins.

Bake 25 minutes at 350.

Combine frosting ingredients and frost as you like.  A little or a lot - it's up to you.

Ciao!