Carrot Cake Cupcakes

This recipe came with my food processor. The original recipe had coconut, pecans and raisins, but I wanted a plain cake style cupcake. The texture is light and very moist, and the cream cheese frosting makes them a special treat. These freeze well, with or without the frosting.

Cake

-6 medium carrots, grated

-2 cups sugar

-2/3 cups vegetable oil

-3 eggs

-2 tsp vanilla

-2 1/4 cups flour

-2 tsp baking soda

-2 tsp cinnamon

-1/4 tsp nutmeg

Grate carrots into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla to carrots. Mix well with mixer, or if using a food processor, process for 8-10 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl and mix or process until sugar is dissolved. Add remaining ingredients all at once and mix or process until just blended.

Pour batter into 24 lined muffin tins (or 2 greased and floured 9" rounds, or 1 9"x13"). Bake at 350ºF for 12- 15 minutes (for larger cakes bake 30-45 minutes) or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean. Cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes (cake pans 10 minutes) and then remove from pans to cooling rack. Once cooled frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting

-4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

-6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

-1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

-3/4 tsp vanilla

-1-2 tsp milk

Mix together all ingredients until you have a smooth frosting. If it is too thick add a little more milk until frosting is spreading consistency. This frosting works well in a decorating bag, and can also be colored with food coloring.

Freezing tip: Place frosted cupcakes on a cookie sheet and place uncovered in freezer until frozen. Transfer in a single layer to a freezer container. This frosting does not freeze hard so do not stack cupcakes. Some icings do freeze hard and then you can layer cupcakes after they are frozen using a sheet of wax paper between layers.