Thursday, September 4, 2008

Classic Carrot Cake in Cupcakes!

There was a time when the thought of making carrot cake would make me freak out, having had some less than stellar results with previous carrot cake recipes. But now I can safely say I have found the recipe that works for me. I have made this recipe several times over, and have yet to stuff it up. I got it from here, which is one of my fave stops for recipes and awesome pics. I especially like this recipe cos the cake is super moist. Also, even though the recipe calls for nuts, I always leave them out cos I hate carrot cake with nuts. But if you must, add 1 cup of chopped walnuts. Another thing, I try to cut down on the oil, and substitute half of it with unsweetened applesauce, and it's worked just fine.
Good Ol' Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1½ tsp fresh nutmeg
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1¼ cups firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup canola oil
¼ cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp finely chopped crystallised ginger
3 cups firmly packed shredded carrots

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices into a bowl. Whisk together.
3. Beat eggs and sugars together until well combined, about 2 minutes. At low speed, add the oil, melted butter, milk, vanilla and ginger and mix until blended. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, mixing until just blended. Add the carrots (and walnuts, if using) and fold into the batter. Pour batter into prepared cake pans or cupcake papers.
4. Bake cupcakes for about 23 minutes, until they are dark golden brown. Mini babycakes take about 15 minutes.
5. Cool cakes on rack, and then frost with your fave cream cheese frosting.

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