5-Stars!

(above) 5-Star Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

If a recipe has almost 3,000 five-star ratings from people all over the world, you know its got to be good. Today I tried this recipe from Allrecipes.com and was not disappointed. Why do I like this recipe?

1. Its easy and surprisingly quick to make.
2. The cake is pretty much as good as carrot cake can get.
3. I'm going to consider it healthy. It has a lot of carrots in it, really!
4. The frosting is now my stand-by cream cheese frosting.

I halved the original recipe to make twelve cupcakes. I also made quite a few alterations after reading the reviews it got on the website. I used a half light brown sugar and half-white sugar combination in the cake and added a quarter teaspoon of allspice and an extra half teaspoon of cinnamon to the half-batch I made. I also used a little more than half the confectioners sugar called for in the frosting. As you can see, each cupcake got a generous dollop of frosting, which was perfect since the frosting (with the alteration) wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. I love the frosting for its rich and creamy texture and flavor. You can see from the photos that it pipes nicely as well.

(above) The wet ingredients + the sugar(s).

(above) I halved the recipe and used 1 1/2 cups of shredded carrots (around 1 1/2 large carrots).

(above) Halving the recipe gives you twelve perfectly sized cupcakes.

(above) I like how the tops of the cupcakes don't have too much of a dome.

(above) Making the frosting (cream cheese left, butter right).

(above) I didn't use a frosting tip to ice these. Instead, I used a frosting bag with just the coupler. I like the look of these!

(above) Carrot cupcakes.

Five-Star Carrot Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
   In a large bowl, beat together 4 eggs, oil, white sugar, brown sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, allspice and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in walnuts. Divide evenly into two 12-cup cupcake pans.
2. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool on a wire rack.
3. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Notes: The above recipe has my alterations included. It is also makes double of what I made today since I halved the recipe. You can find the original recipe here.