Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these for an wedding shower. They were a huge hit. The pineapple helps keep them moist and gives them a really nice texture.




Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Carrot Cake

2 cups ground carrots

1 15 oz can crushed pineapple, drained well

¾ cup vegetable oil

1 ½ cups white sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking soda

Dash/tsp salt

Raisins, mini chocolate chips or walnuts optional (1 cup)

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes

IN large bowl combine carrots, pineapple oil and sugar. Add eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add flour mixture and mix well. Stir in raisins and nuts if desired. Batter will look runny, as though it needs more flour. This is normal.

Pour into greased (and floured if you want to) pans. Bake for 45 minutes (closer to 15 if you're doing cupcakes), or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. It will brown a lot so don’t worry if it looks like it’s getting too brown.

Cream Cheese Frosting from Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from several sources
Makes 6 cups
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With a handheld electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat, on low speed to combine. If too soft, chill until slightly stiff, about 10 minutes, before using.

Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When I was little I never liked red velvet cakes. I was always disappointed that they were not chocolatey enough (or at all). John's dad wanted Red Velvet cake for his birthday, so I looked for a good recipe. I have never gone wrong with Smitten Kitchen so I tried this recipe.

It has more chocolate than most recipes so it is much better (in my opinion) than the normal recipe. Plus, it has a volcano as the last step!

smittenkitchen.com/2007/09/red-velvet-cake/
Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from “The Confetti Cakes Cookbook” by Elisa Strauss via the New York Times 2/14/07
Yield: 3 cake layers or ~35 cupcakes

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring or 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tablespoons of water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.

Cupcake variation: Since this has been published, many readers have written in to express that it adapts well to cupcakes. The yield is approximately 35 cupcakes, with the liners filled only 3/4 of the way, and the baking time should be between 20 to 25 minutes, but check in on them 2/3 of the way through in case your oven gets the job done faster.
Cocoa Notes

Some red velvet cakes have no cocoa, others have up to half a cup. The less cocoa, the brighter the red, and the less food dye is needed to give it the desired hue. This cake has more cocoa and quite a bit of red dye, but as you cans see from the picture, it is a real stand-out red. Feel free to use less, but make sure you dissolve it in 6 tablespoons of water to compensate for any moisture lost.
Dutch versus Non-Dutched cocoa: This recipe uses baking soda, so it calls for non-Dutch-Processed cocoa. The reason is that Dutch-Process cocoa is neutral and will not react with baking soda, so it can only be used in 1) recipes with baking powder or 2) recipes with enough other acidic ingredients that will compensate for the lack of acidity. However, you’ll notice that this recipe has both vinegar and buttermilk in it, or quite a bit of acidity, leading me to wonder if either kind of cocoa could be used with success. I had non-Dutch on hand, so I used it, but if you only have Dutch and try this recipe, let us know if it works. Personally, I prefer the Dutched stuff because it usually is of a higher quality with a more delicate chocolate flavor.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from several sources
Makes 6 cups
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With a handheld electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat, on low speed to combine. If too soft, chill until slightly stiff, about 10 minutes, before using.
Icing Notes:

Technique: Cake decorators will always tell you to ice a cake in two batches, first a “crumb layer” and then the more decorative one. Though I rarely bother, in this cake in particular, with its dark hue barely disguised by a thin layer of frosting, it is especially helpful. To do this, place a small amount of frosting on the cake and spread it over the entire surface that will be iced, thereby anchoring wayward crumbs in place so that they will not mess up the final product. A few minutes in the freezer or longer in the fridge will firm this up so that you have an ideal surface to build the real layer of frosting upon. (I did a rushed, half-assed one, hence the visible crumbs in the final product.)
Quantity: The recipe here creates an amount of frosting that allows for a thin coat between and over the cake layers. I found it to have the ideal cake-to-frosting balance for this recipe. However, you might want to double the recipe if you prefer a more decadent, padded frosting layer.





Mixing Red Velvet Cupcake, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

red velvet cupcake batter, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Red Velvet Cupcake , originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Key Lime Cupcake

Key lime Cupcake

Ingredients

* 1 18.25oz box lemon cake mix
* 1 3oz box lime jello
* 1 cup sour cream
* 1 cup milk
* 4 eggs
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup key lime juice
Frosting:
* 1 8oz package cream cheese-softened
* 1/4 cup butter-softened
* 1 tablespoon key lime juice
* 1 teaspoon lime zest
* 4 cups confectioners' sugar-sifted


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour a 9" x 13" x 2" baking pan.
3. In a large mixing bowl,sift together cake mix and jello.
4. Add sour cream,milk,eggs,oil,and lime juice and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool completely.
8. Frosting:
9. Combine cream cheese,butter,lime juice and zest.
10. Add sugar and beat until smooth and spreadable.
11. Frost cake.
12. Sprinkle extra lime zest over the top for garnish.


ingredients for key lime cupcakes, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

key lime cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

key lime cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Key Lime Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

Pumpkin Caramel Cupcakes

pumpkin caramel cupcakes, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

My friend asked for a chocolate, pumpkin, caramel cake for his birthday. This is what I came up with. It is perfect. The chips give it some extra texture and the cream cheese frosting keeps it from being too sweet.

Cupcake:

* 2 cups sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 4 large eggs
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* pinch of ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups pumpkin puree or cooked mashed pumpkin
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preparation:
Directions for pumpkin cake
Combine sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl; stir into oil mixture, beating well. Stir in pumpkin puree and vanilla. Add chocolate chips

bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean..

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
2 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
9 oz powdered sugar, sifted (2 cups)

Combine cream cheese and butter on medium speed until blended. Add vanilla and beat until combined. On low add powdered sugar in 4 batches and beat until smooth between each batch.

Caramel sauce
simplyrecipes.com/recipes/caramel_sauce-print/
Ingredients

* 1 cup of sugar
* ½ cup water (optional)
* 6 Tbsp butter
* 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Method
1 Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan.optional: add a half cup of water to the sugar, this will help the sugar to cook more evenly, though it will take longer as the water will need to evaporate before the sugar will caramelize.

2. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on.

3 As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

4 Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably. This is why you must use a pan that is at least 2-quarts (preferably 3-quarts) big. (Check here for an explanation of why adding the cream makes the mixture bubble up so much.)

5 Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.
Makes a little over one cup of sauce.

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting, originally uploaded by queenofthemoodswingset2.

I've made lemon and coconut cakes before but I've never had one come out so moist and perfect as this one!

Lemon Layer Cake
adapted from : smittenkitchen.com/2007/09/layered-lemon-love/

1-2-3-4 Cake
This cake gets its name from its proportion of ingredients: 1 cup butter and milk, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs, and from cupcakes to layers cakes, as a basic, white cake, it does not fail. Yield: 3 9-inch layers (for the purpose of this cake) or 24 cupcakes (good to know, eh?)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs (at room temperature)
3 cups sifted self-rising flour (sift before AND after measuring. Use a spoon to scoop flour into measuring cup)
1 cup milk (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325°F (original recipe was 350). Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (start checking at 15 minutes if you are making cupcakes).

Lemon Curd
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
From the Joy of Cooking: This makes a sensation filling for sponge rolls or an Angel Food Cake. You can also marble it into a cheesecake.
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
3 lemons, zest grated and juiced
Place the ingredients in the double boiler over boiling water. Don’t let top pan touch the water. Cook and stir until mixture begins to gel or thicken ever-so-slightly. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate it to thicken. This keeps, refrigerated, for about 1 week.

Cream Cheese Lemon Frosting (from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
6 oz cream cheese (softened)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup butter softened
4 1/2-3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon zest

Beat cream cheese, lemon juice, and butter until light and fluffy, gradually add 2 cups sifted powdered sugar. Add remaining between 2 1/2 and 2 3/4 cups of powdered sugar and beat until spreading consistency. Add lemon zest and mix.


Lemon Layer Cake Assembly: Add 1 tablespoon of filling to the cake pedestal. Run hands along the side of the cake to remove excess crumbs. Place the cake layers on the pedestal, spreading filling between the layers and on top. Spread the top of the cake with the remaining filling. Frost top and sides of cake with frosting.

Optional, but delicious: press sweetened coconut flakes into the frosting.