Carrot Cake Cupcakes

So lately my oven has been acting up and not cooking things evenly. The bottoms of cupcakes would burn yet the tops wouldn't even be browned. I even turned the oven down 25 degrees and cooked these cupcakes for half the time. I even spent $20 on an oven thermometer just to see how off the temperature was. And it wasn't off. $20 down the drain, burned cupcakes in the trash, and still no solution. So I took a new approach. 50 degrees lower, for the full time, on the top rack. BOOM! Came out just right! I have made these cupcakes before in a different oven so I know that the recipe wasn't off. Well that's my story of the week. Now, to these cupcakes.

I'm not normally a fan of carrot cake. I don't enjoy picking chunks of carrot out of my teeth, and frankly, the consistency of carrot cake drives me up the wall. However, I absolutely love the flavor, and I figured if I made it myself, I could finely grate the carrots for a smooth consistency. So that's what I did. They are vavavoom good. The carrots help add moisture to the cake helping to keep it from getting dry and flaky. And what does carrot cake pair perfectly with? Cream cheese frosting. As you might know by now, I have a problem with cream cheese frosting. I mean tonight I sat on the couch with the bowl and small spatula eating the left over frosting. Forgive me weight watchers, for I have sinned. The cream cheese frosting won this round. But, come on. It's cream cheese frosting!

Anyways, many carrot cake cupcake recipes I found had nuts and coconut in it. I wanted a simple, great flavored cupcake with the main focus on the carrot (the raisins seemed like they would just be a great complimentary flavor, like a background singer) and that's when I found this great recipe from Sweetopia. It was everything I was looking for. Of course, I finely ground the carrots and I got to say, I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE these cupcakes! The carrot in the cupcakes are smooth and velvety. The raisins seem to soften up and give the cupcake a little bit of texture (never a bad thing!) So giving it to you short and sweet, they are delectably sinful!

So I just got a package today with new baking cups, boxes, and stands! Yes, I just said cupcake stands. I thought they would be perfect to photograph the carrot cake cupcakes in! Thanks to Oriental Trading I now have the perfect baking cups to make red velvet cupcakes in on Valentine's day and the perfect cupcake stands for my roommate's birthday cupcakes to be in next week. Now back to the carrot cake cupcakes.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
This recipe makes 24 cupcakes

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 3 cups finely grated carrots (about 3-5 large carrots)
• 1/4 cup raisins (the Sun Maid raisins that come in the pocket sized boxes are 1/4 cup)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (Yes this is the right temperature for this recipe, I turned my oven down to 300, I have previously made these cupcakes)
2. Go through the raisins and make sure they have no stems still attached.
3. Finely grate the carrots.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or bowl (with a hand mixer) mix the sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla until well combined.
5. With the mixer off, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each egg, making sure each egg is fully combined before adding the next.
6. Next, mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until completely combined.
7. Add the baking soda and flour, making sure not to over mix the batter so the gluten doesn't get over beaten.
8. Finally, mix in the finely grated carrots and raisins until completely combined. Make sure to scrape down the sides and the bottom and give it another mix, making sure the ingredients are completely combined.
9. Finally, fill the liners 2/3 of the way full with batter and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes then place on a wire rack and let cupcakes fully cool before frosting. Enjoy!

Best Ever Cream Cheese Frosting (enough for these cupcakes)

• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 1 block cream cheese
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 teaspoons vanilla

cream together the butter and cream cheese, until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until smooth and creamy looking. Finally, with the mixer on, add the vanilla, 1 teaspoon at a time, making sure the frosting doesn't get too soft. Top the cupcakes with this amazing frosting for a delicious treat!

Bananas Foster Cupcakes

Looking for something to do with browning bananas? Well look no further! How about some bananas foster cupcakes! I still remember when I first had a caramelized grilled banana slice. I was in elementary school at a girl scout meeting after school and we were making snacks for the whole troop. I was being picked up early that day by my father (I think it was my birthday) but the grilled bananas were taking far longer than expected and I almost didn't get any when they rushed a few slices on a paper plate for me and I got to try the sticky snack. My taste buds went crazy! I had never really liked bananas except in banana bread and in their all natural state before this point (and to this day I still don't) but when I saw the sticky concoction placed delicately on top of a mound of icing, it all came back to me, and I decided I had to take a stab at 'em.

I had never heard of bananas foster before until sifting through cupcake recipes and came across this one at Cupcake Rehab. Of course, I was still curious about what a bananas foster really was. Turns out it originates from the famous New Orleans restaurant called Brennan's, and was created by Paul Blangé. The owner, Edward Brennan, became quite good friends with a man named Stephen Foster after they worked on the crime commission together and Foster became a regular at Brennan's. Some interesting history there for ya. The famous desert is normally made by caramelizing bananas in a mixture of rum, banana liquor, butter, brown sugar, and spices in a pan and when tilting the pan down, the alcohol catches fire. The banana's are then placed atop vanilla ice cream. I tried the recipe with and without rum (I didn't have any banana liquor, but I did have left over rum from the hot buttered rum cupcakes) and there is a slight flavor difference but not enough to make a special trip just to get rum.

So this week I kind of went on a baking frenzy. With bananas. Probably because here in Ellensburg we got hit with a HUGE snow storm and it has been snowing all week long. So instead of freezing my butt off outside, I decided to bake. Alot. I mean staying inside with a warm oven sounds much more appealing then freezing and having a runny nose, at least in my eyes. So I whipped out my handy dandy Betty Crocker Cookbook to make some banana bread. Betty usually knows best right?

And of course, in the spirit of 52 weeks of baking, I made a banana bread like cupcake (because if I'm going to make a banana cupcake, I'm going to use bananas. NOT banana flavoring.) adapted from Brown Eyed Baker topped with an evaporated milk frosting adapted from Cupcake Rehab and my own version of bananas foster on top. Now I know the evaporated milk frosting sounds a little, well, weird. When I first read this, I was dumb founded. I couldn't fathom how this could be appealing in any way. Boy was I wrong. The frosting is a vanilla like frosting, but with a sort of ice cream flavor to it. This frosting pairs perfectly atop the banana cupcake, which is like a banana bread bud lighter, fluffier, and slightly sweeter.

Bananas Foster Cupcakes

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes

• ½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
• 1¾ cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cups pureed bananas
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a stand mixer or bowl cream the butter and shortening together, then beat in the sugar and vanilla until fully combined. With the mixer on low, beat in the eggs, one at a time. Scrape the bowl to make sure all ingredients get combined and add the pureed bananas and buttermilk. I pureed the bananas so the cupcakes wouldn't have chunks and the flavor would be more even.
3. Next, add in the flour slowly with the mixer on, making sure to get out all of the lumps. Add in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and fully combine.
4. Fill the cupcakes 3/4 of the way full (I used a large cookie scoop so all cupcakes would be even) and bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cupcakes sit in the pan for 10 minutes (realize they will cook slightly more while sitting in the pan) then let them fully cool on a wire rack before frosting.

Evaporated Milk Frosting

• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 8 - 8 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 10 tablespoons evaporated milk

cream the butter in a stand mixer or in a bowl with an electric mixer. Beat in the vanilla extract until fully combined. With the mixer on, alternatively add the powdered sugar and evaporated milk and continue to beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Caramelized Bananas

• 1/4 stick butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 bananas
• 1-2 tablespoons rum

1. In a pan melt the butter over medium low heat.
2. in a small bowl combine the cinnamon and brown sugar.
3. Slice the bananas and dip into the cinnamon sugar mixture then place in the butter and cook until slightly browned and softened then flip and add the rum. The second side cooks slightly faster. Place the bananas on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on top of a plate and let fully cool before toping the cupcakes.

For these cupcakes, I used a dark pan and a light pan. The cupcakes in the dark pan came out with slightly burned bottoms while the cupcakes in the light pan came out with just a slightly darker shade of brown then the rest of the cupcake (NOT BURNED though!) 

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

Vanilla chai. This flavor had never really appealed to my ears for the last few years. Actually, the flavor of vanilla chai just sounded..like a face scrunching, upper lip raising, eyebrows squinted type of flavor. Yes I thought the flavor vanilla chai would be that revolting to my taste buds. However, last month when trying the local Thai restaurant's food for the first time I decided to order a coffee flavored bubble tea (ever since my friend introduced me to their bubble tea I have been hooked but had never tried the food). As my heart sank when the server informed me that they no longer carry the coffee flavor, she suggested possibly trying the vanilla chai. As none of the other flavors sounded that appealing like arrowroot and mochi, I decided to just give it a try (honestly because their black tapioca balls in the bottom of the drink are completely delicious) and OH MY WORD! I ran into my roommate's room acting like a kid on Christmas morning telling her to try it because it was SO DELICIOUS! I never thought vanilla chai could taste so good. It reminds me of the part in the movie Julie & Julia when Julie eats her first egg. She thought it was going to be "slimy" yet was completely delicious.

Ever since that night, I have been completely hooked. I mean driving across town and spending almost $8 on a cold vanilla chai bubble tea when it's freezing outside (in the low 20's during the day) with snow on the ground just to have that amazing deliciousness in my life. And when I was looking for cupcakes to try for this year and I came across the vanilla chai cupcake by accident, I couldn't resist. I mean turning an amazingly spiced drink into a cupcake? My dream come true (since I like to find a cupcake recipe for EVERYTHING. It's kind of a problem at times. Like when you have to get up early the next morning yet your wide awake searching through blogs at 2 am.) Anyways, this recipe is quick, and simple. I think after pre-making the spice mix, it only took about 10 minutes to put the batter together. They are light and fluffy, and the frosting! I could of gone with just the frosting and my life would be complete. However, I do think that frosting makes a cupcake. And according to a friend who went crazy for these cupcakes the other day, it's some of the best frosting (since apparently he is very frosting picky). The frosting (in my opinion) would be good as a cream cheese frosting too with the spices mixed in. So without further ado, vanilla chai cupcakes!

this recipe yields 12 cupcakes.

This recipe was adapted from Gimme Some Oven!

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

Chai Spice Mix

• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. chai spice mix
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Frosting: 

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• remainder of the chai spice mix
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a cupcake pan with 12 liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. To make the cupcake batter, cream together the softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, eggs, and chai spice mix and thoroughly beat until well combined.
4. Add half of the flour to the batter and beat until just combined, making sure not to overbeat. Mix in the buttermilk completely then beat in the rest of the flour.
5. Finally, mix in the baking soda and apple cider vinegar, just until combined, making sure not to over mix to make sure the cupcakes don't dome up.
6. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for 18-25 minutes (mine were done after 20). To check the cupcakes, insert a toothpick into the centers and make sure it comes out clean.
7. Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes then finish cooling on a wire rack to prevent grease to form on the bottom of the liners until completely cool.

To make the frosting:

Beat the softened butter until almost creamed then beat in the rest of the spice mix and vanilla. After thoroughly combined, slowly add in the powdered sugar, constantly beating, until completely combined (you might need a little less powdered sugar depending on the consistency of the frosting)

Enjoy!

Hot Buttered Rum Cupcakes

Hot buttered rum. I can honestly say I have never had the stuff. However, the idea of the drink heightened my senses (for some reason the sound of it reminds me of Butter Beer from Harry Potter. Maybe I can make a cupcake from that too!) and for the past few months anytime someone starts talking about a drink or dessert, all that comes to mind is how can I turn this into a cupcake? Kind of a pain if you think about it, spending hours searching through recipes, then finding more great cupcakes ideas, and before you know it, its 2 A.M. Anyways, these cupcakes took some work to complete. More like an entire day. Hello trial and error day! See my problem is once I start something (when it comes to baking that is) I don't stop until its complete. This has caused a lot of midnight baking in the past, and I almost thought today would turn into one of those nights.

For some reason this sounded perfect for my first cupcake recipe of 2012. When I first started making these cupcakes, they kept coming out dry, with burned bottoms and domed tops. Even with modifications, they kept getting worse and worse. Time for a new recipe! Thanks to google.com, I found a hot  buttered rum cupcakes recipe that would be perfect after a few modifications. Since they are BUTTERED rum cupcakes, I decided to add in some butterscotch schnapps since there was barely any butter in the recipe (I mean come on, I feel like you can't go wrong with butterscotch schnapps!) and when the cupcakes were baking in the oven, I can honestly say they smelled just like the name. Hot buttered rum. I sure hope that the drink will taste just like these cupcakes.

This recipe made 11 cupcakes.

Hot Buttered Rum Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

• 2 1/2 tablespoons rum

• 1 1/2 teaspoons butterscotch schnapps

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1 tablespoon molasses

• 1/4 cup butter, melted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 3/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the milk, apple cider vinegar, rum, and butterscotch schnapps, set aside to   slightly let the mixture curdle.

3. In a large bowl (or stand mixer) combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

4. In a small bowl, mix together the molasses, butter, vanilla, and brown sugar until completely combined.

5. With an electric mixer (or stand mixer) mix the butter mixture in with the dry ingredients then mix in the milk mixture. The cupcake batter is on the wet side, I was worried at first about this thinking it would affect the way the cupcakes baked. However, they baked perfectly! 

6. Evenly dispense the batter among the cupcake tin (the easiest way to do this is with a large cookie scoop, one scoop was enough batter for one cupcake) and bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes (or until completely cooked through, I use the good ole' toothpick trick, making sure it comes out clean every time) 

7. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before taking them out of the pan and let them fully cool on a cookie sheet before frosting. 

I would have to say that these cupcakes are some of the easiest cupcakes I've ever made. Putting the batter together was almost as fast as using a box mix! I think from start to finish, they only took me about 10 minutes tops to mix, and put in the cupcake liners. Easy peasey lemon squeezy! These cupcakes would go great with some cream cheese frosting, tomorrow I will post the cream cheese frosting recipe and pictures of the cupcakes fully put together. 

Every cupcake needs frosting, I don't care what people say. A frostingless cupcake? Nonsense! The frosting is what makes the cupcake the way it is. In this case, I chose cream cheese frosting. I mean come on. Who doesn't LOVE cream cheese frosting? I feel like cream cheese frosting could probably cause world peace. Especially this recipe.

Best Cream Cheese Frosting (and easy!)

• 1 stick (1/2 cup butter)
• 1/2 block (4 oz) cream cheese
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons vanilla

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese. When the mixture looks smooth and creamy, mix in the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time (just so it doesn't fly around everywhere). Finally, mix in the vanilla. The reason I said 1-2 tablespoons is because it depends on flavor and how stiff the frosting is at the time it is made. Sometimes the frosting may need more powdered sugar, sometimes less, it all just depends on the day.

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I did!