Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this for a halloween bake sale at work.

Pastry:
1 C flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 C granulated sugar
1/3 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C vegetable or canola oil
1 1/2 C lightly packed finely shredded carrots (I used 2 carrots)
1/3 C dried cranberries (or raisins or omit)
(Next time: 1 tsp of orange zest)

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 bar of cream cheese (4oz)
1/4 C maple syrup

Optional topping: finely chopped toasted pecans



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease them.

Shred your carrots on a box grater (be careful, mind your knuckles) or in a food processor with a shredding disc, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together.

In a food processor or blender, blend the granulated and brown sugar with the eggs until throughly combined. With the machine running, slowly pour in the oil and continue to mix until the mixture has lightened in color and is somewhat thicker, about 30 seconds. Pour it into the dry ingredients and add the shredded carrots and dried cranberries and mix until no streaks of flour remain.

Divide the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 17 to 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake in the center of the pan comes out clean. Rotate the pan halfway into baking time. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool on a rack to room temperature.

As the cakes are cooling, take out half a bar of cream cheese and let it soften a little. To make the frosting, simply whisk the cream cheese with the maple syrup until smooth. Frost the cupcakes when they have cooled and top with chopped pecans if preferred.

Makes 12 cupcakes