Ultimate carrot cake cupcakes

Is there anything better than being handed a carrot cake cupcake with a cream cheese frosting on top? I think not.

Ingredients:

Cakes:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 large shredded carrots (2 1/2 cups of carrots)

Frosting:

12 ounces cream cheese – softened

4 ounces butter – softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Whisk oil, eggs, and vanilla. Fold into dry ingredients – this batter will be thick (I burned out the motor on my small beaters with this one).

Fold in carrots.

Distribute batter evenly between 12 cupcake cups.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the centers of the cakes spring back to the touch.

Let cool completely.

Combine frosting ingredients and pipe, smear, or slather onto cupcakes.

Eat.

Hints: For the frosting, because I’m too cheap to buy myself frosting piping bags I put the frosting in a ziplock bag and just snip the corner off with a pair of scissors. It’s the same principle as a piping bag and works fine.