Smitten Kitchen's Carrot Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting

Spring is in the air with all lovely things I'm allergic to, to boot. In any event, sorry for lack there of posts. Truth be told I started this post before Chris & I took a long weekend in Florida last week, more on that later. Right now I'm writing in between gulps of hot water with lemon & honey (which sounds oh so Samantha from Sex & the City but when you're drinking it because you have a sore throat &  a bit of a bark (cough) it suddenly is a little less sexy).

Nevertheless, I'd rather go to a happy place - cupcakes!

In order to fully celebrate the first birthday of this here blog, I deemed it only proper to make cupcakes to share with the class (aka my office) & my number one supporter, Chris, of course.  So I searched for what is now my favorite carrot cake recipe: Smitten Kitchen's Carrot Cake with Maple-Cream Cheese Frosting.

The cake is really moist & yes your classmates will be reaching for the ones with the most icing because it traditionally just so good & this one's made with maple syrup (double good). Plus, there's carrots, raisins & walnuts in them - that makes it healthy right? Yes, let's call these health muffins - now it's ok if you eat ten.

Get the full recipe here  & click through for my (20+) photo story on making these yummy treats.

PS: Happy friday & happy (early) birthday to my gal Alexis!

Fresh nutmeg is delish & surprisingly easy to grate as you need it. Look for these nutmeg nuggets next time instead of the ground stuff it stays much fresher & tastes better!

 

 

Can't go wrong with cupcake papers with polka dots.

How cute are these mini leopard cupcake papers! Sure beats scrubbing those trays & looks so cute.

Make sure all of your cupcakes are the same size so that they bake at the same rate.  I used two tapblespoons of batter for each mini cupcake & 4 tablespoons (or 1 large ice cream scoop) for each large cupcake.

Make your own pastry bag with a gallon-sized ziplock bag. Cut the tip of one bottom corner of the bag off & inset a pastry tip of your choice.  Then place the bag in a tall drinking glass tip-side down & fold the open bag end over the the glass, this will help keep the bag open while you spoon your frosting into it.  Then push all of the frosting down to the end (like you would with your toothpaste tube) & twist the open end shut so frosting doesn't go flying out. Then pipe your cupcakes which basically means points, squeeze & make a design on top of your cakes.