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: Tweet

Chocolate Cake

In addition to Crisis Bownies, cookies, pie and cheesecake, I like cake.

Not just this kind of cake:

But cake, cake.

You know, Devil's Food cake, pound cake, Angel Food cake, red velvet cake... Just, cake. I decided that today was a good day for cake - a lazy Saturday at home with my kids, unrelenting snow outside, yes. Time for cake. I didn't want a lot of cake though, just enough for the 3 of us for a few days without leaving use feeling like complete gluttonous deviants. I also was out of eggs, so it limits what kind of cake I can make.

For our super-chocolate cravings,  this vegan chocolate cake really delivers. You really would not know that this cake is vegan unless someone told you. Of course, there is nothing vegan about the buttercream frosting. Nothing dietetic either, but it is so worth it. :)

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Makes one 10 in. round cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup brown sugar*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/8 cup vegetable oil
• 1  tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Sift flour, sugar, salt,  baking soda, and cocoa together in a large bowl.
3. Add the vinegar and stir. Pour in the oil and stir well. Pour in the cold water and mix until everything is well-combined.
4. Pour batter into a round 10 in cake pan that has been buttered or sprayed with butter-flavored cooking spray.
5. Bake for 30 to 35, or until cake tester inserted comes out clean. 
6. Put the pan on a rack and let cool for a half hour and then turn the cake out onto a rack to finish cooling before frosting.

Simple Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

• 3 T salted butter
• 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar (approximately)
• 3/8 cup milk (approximately)

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
   
2. Add the cocoa power and stir to combine well.
   
3. Stir in the vanilla extract and mix.
   
4. Add the confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time and alternate with a litlte milk to moisten it, and beat, not stir, but really beat it well to break up all the clumps of the powdered sugar and get it into the mixture.
   
5. Continue to add the sugar and milk and beating, tasting as you go, until you have the taste and consistency that you like.

Notes:

• I really prefer brown sugar to regular white granulated sugar in chocolate baked goods. I swear I read something once that said that the molasses in the brown sugar enhances and intensifies the chocolate flavors. I think that brown sugar also tends to make baked items moister because it is already wetter than regular white sugar.

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