Best Ever Carrot Cake Cupcakes

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A few years ago I made some cupcakes for a friend and somehow that turned into a full time job! These days I make a lot of cupcakes. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas or improvements on old recipes. I had been using a carrot cake cupcake recipe from a well known cupcake cookbook, (that shall remain nameless) and it was good. Adequate...tasty enough but nothing to write home about. Earlier this week I was asked to make some carrot cake cupcakes so I started Googling recipes and came across this one. The name grabbed me right away, The Best Ever Carrot Cake Cupcakes. That was exactly what I wanted. Not just it's an okay, tastes pretty good, carrot cupcake but The Best EVER! With pineapple and applesauce in the batter, I knew these would be a super moist cupcake. I decided to top them with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Guess what?? These really are The Best Ever carrot cake cupcakes.
I may still look to perfect other cupcake recipes but my search for the perfect carrot cake cupcake is over.

Best Ever Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Printable recipe

Ingredients:

4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 8-oz. can of crushed pineapple, well drained
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Small pinch of ground cloves
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans

For Frosting:

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

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Milk
Toasted pecans, chopped (optional for garnish)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, apple sauce, sugars, pineapple and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and small pinch of ground cloves. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecan. Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers. Fill each liner 3/4 full. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 min. Let cupcakes cool completely. While cooling, prepare frosting.

Frosting:
In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add milk a tablespoon at a time, if needed to get a smooth consistency. Top with the toasted chopped pecans.

Source: Paula Deen for Smithfield

A perfect dessert for Thanksgiving!

Carrot Soup with Rosemary Apple Bread

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Yet another reason to love Autumn...the return of soup! Unless it's served cold, not much soup gets eaten around here during the summer month's. So I always look forward to cooler temps because I enjoy making soup, all kinds, almost as much as I enjoy eating them. The pot of goodness gently simmering on the stove. The whole house scented with the smell of its promise of warmth and comfort. It's like curling up in a warm blanket.
In the last week or so we've had temps that dropped into the 40's at night and I started craving a good bowl of soup. Carrot soup has long been a favorite of mine. As with most soups, carrot soup is open to your interpretation. A variety of herbs and spice can be used to flavor carrot soup. Use you imagination. This is my favorite way to make carrot soup. The secret to this soup is the apple, it lends a wonderful hint of sweetness to the carrots. This soup is wonderful the day you make it but even better a day or two later. It holds up to a week when kept refrigerated, so make a little extra!
Looking back at my past few posts, I guess you could say I've been on a bit of an apple roll! I've had a plethora of apples as of late and have been looking for ways to use them all. I came across this recipe for rosemary apple bread and thought it would be the perfect companion to my carrot soup. They were so good together, I decided to post both the recipes. This bread delicious, the hint of rosemary is wonderful with the apples. Don't be scared away because it's a yeast dough. You won't believe how simple it is to make, it's almost disaster proof.

Carrot Soup

Ingredients 

1Tbl. butter
1 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1onion, peeled and chopped
1sm clove garlic chopped
1 small green apple, peeled and chopped
1 small russet or other starchy potato, peeled and chopped
1 1/4 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
6 cups water
dash of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup (or more if you want it richer),whipping cream
Salt and pepper

Directions

In a 6-quart pan, over medium high heat, add butter, garlic and onions sprinkle with a little salt and cook, stirring often, until onions are soft. Add water, carrots, apple, potato coriander and ginger (I add a little salt and pepper here too. This helps you to achieve great layers of flavor). Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until carrots are tender when pierced 20- 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Transfer to a blender or using an immersion blender, blend until smooth.  Be careful when blending hot liquids as the mixture can spurt out of the blender. Return to the pan and add cream, stir over high heat until hot. Add salt and pepper and nutmeg, to taste.

( Print Recipe)

Rosemary Apple Bread 

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 package quick-rise yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
1 cup diced peeled Granny Smith apple (about 1 small)
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons butter, melted

Preparation
Combine 2 3/4 cups flour, salt, rosemary, and yeast in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add water, stirring until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Knead in apple. Place the dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Shape dough into a loaf; place dough in an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Gently press dough into pan; cover. Let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Bake at 375° for 45 minutes or until bread is lightly browned and sounds hollow when tapped. Brush top with butter. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack. source: Cooking Light, Nov. 2003

(Print Recipe)

Carrot Muffins

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I somehow ended up with two large bags of carrots in the vegetable bin in my fridge. Don't really know how. Carrot fairies maybe??
Anyway I needed to use some of the carrots right away. These muffins seemed like the perfect use for excess carrots! While not as healthy as the oatmeal banana muffins, they have lots of fruit and a little oatmeal, so I tell myself they're kinda healthy. Well health food or not they are tasty little muffins!

Carrot Muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups grated carrot, squeezed mostly dry
1 lg Granny Smith apple peeled, grated, and squeezed dry
1 (8-ounce) container crushed pineapple, well drained
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup walnuts roughly chopped (optional)
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liner or use a silicon muffin pan.
In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Add carrot, apple, pineapple, oats, and walnuts, mix together until well combined. In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Pour egg mixture into the fruit mixture and stir until combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan filling muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake until wooden toothpick comes out clean about 35 minutes. Remove from pan and place on wire rack to cool completely.