Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Cupcakes.

Cake. Mmmm, cake. This reminds me of my kids' all-time favorite blog post not written by their mother (they are a loyal couple of kids, I give them that):  The God of Cake. You should read it if you haven't already. The kids love it when I read it aloud, complete with funny voices and the occasional sound effect.

But anyway, back to cupcakes:

Sometimes I just get a hankering for some cake or a cupcake, but I never actually need an entire cake or 3 dozen cupcakes. Yesterday it was carrot cake that I wanted badly, but I couldn't justify baking an entire carrot cake  or 3 dozen cupcakes the day before I head out of town for Thanksgiving, so I did my best to cut my usual recipe way down. I ended up with 8 tasty little cupcake morsels, which is a good number for the 3 of us to demolish in 24 hours without feeling gluttonous.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Makes 8 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
• 3/4 cup carrots, shredded 
• heaping 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• heaping 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

For the frosting:

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese softened at room temperature
• approximately 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare a 8 wells of a muffin tin with cooking spray or paper liners. I used silicone cupcake baking cups sprayed with a bit of cooking spray.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl.
3. In another bowl mix together the egg, oil and sour cream until smooth, then add the vanilla extract.
4. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Then add the grated carrot and combine.
5. Fold in the chopped pecans and fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way with the muffin mixture.
6. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
7. Place the pan on a cookie rack to cool and then frost with cream cheese frosting when totally cool.
8. Make the frosting by beating together the softened cream cheese and butter with a hand mixer on medium-high speed until everything is mixed together and smooth. Add the vanilla and mix well. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar a bit at a time as the mixer is running. Stop occasionally to scrape down the bowl. Mix until smooth and use immediately.

Notes:

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