Carrot and Walnut Cupcakes

After my last post for carrot and walnut cake got a lot of good feedback, I decided to slightly tweak my recipe so they could be cupcakes. They were absolutely delicious and the perfect bitesize amount.

Carrot

Many of the carrot cake recipes are not clear about how much carrots to use and how to prepare them. My recipe requires 200g of whole carrots before they are peeled and grated. To prepare the carrots, use a peeler to take off the top layer of carrot. Then grate the carrots. I prefer to use a Microplane grater as the carrots are not too lumpy in the mixture that way. You can use a food processor to grate the carrot which is a much quicker and easier option however, I prefer to do this by hand as it is more consistent.

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Carrot and Walnut Cupcake

Ingredients:

Cupcake Batter

· 200g Plain Flour

· 100g Caster Sugar

· 100g Light Brown Sugar

· 110g Unsalted Butter

· 3 Eggs

· 200g Carrots (See above)

· 100ml Whole Milk

· 1tsp Baking Powder

· 1tsp Cinnamon

· 1/4tsp Ground Nutmeg

· 50g Walnuts

Cream Cheese Buttercream

· 250g Unsalted Butter

· 150g Full Fat Cream Cheese

· 500g Icing Sugar

· 1tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions:

Cake Batter

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

2. In a large bowl, mix the butter and both the caster and brown sugar.

3. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix.

4. In a small bowl, mix the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add this to the mixture.

5. Sieve the flour and add half to the mixture. Then pour in the milk and vanilla extract

6. Mix in the remaining flour and then the grated carrot and chopped walnuts.

7. Using two tablespoons, divide the batter into 24 cupcake cases and bake for 10-15 minutes.

8. Once they have fully cooked, leave to cool.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

1. Mix the butter vigorously for 5-10mins until it is a pale colour.

2. Add the sieved icing sugar in a number of instalments in order to make sure it is properly combined.

3. Add the cream cheese and vanilla extract and mix until it reaches the correct consistency.

4. It is important to try the buttercream to see how sweet you would like it. If it is not sweet enough, try adding some extra icing sugar.

5. Cover the buttercream to avoid a crust on the top forming.

6. Decorate by piping and some sprinkles. (I used chocolate crunchy sprinkles.)