Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I have wanted to make these ever since I had a vision of how elegant a cupcake might look with white frosting topped with a little stacks of toasted carrot shreds. Besides - carrot cake (including carrot cake in cupcake form) is so often overlooked! Maybe people think it sounds too healthy with "carrot" in the name, but carrot cake is one of my favorites because of the density and variety in the texture of the cake.

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com as a base, and modified it from there. I found these little cakes to be moist enough (a difficult task to make a cake that's moist enough for me) and have a perfect blend of spices. The recipe would be great just used to make carrot muffins, if you omit the cream cheese icing.


Ingredients

Cake

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots (plus 1/4 C for garnish)
  
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 C raisins
  

Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 cupcake cups. (I liked using the metallic silver - if anything can make a cupcake elegant, they can!)
   
2. Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting.
4. For the frosting, beat together ingredients in a bowl 'til smooth and creamy. Place in refrigerator until the cupcakes have cooled and are ready to frost.
5. For the toppings, place the extra 1/4 C carrot shreds on a baking pan and place in oven at 200 degrees F until they dry out (about 15 minutes, but make sure to check them so they don't get burned).
6. Generously frost the cupcakes, and sprinkle just a pinch of carrot shreds on top of each.
7. Admire, then devour!*

*Cupcakes may be stored in refrigerator for about 2 days in a sealed container without losing their moist-ness if not immediately devoured.