Carrot Cupcakes and a lot of rain

We had a family picnic on the 1st and I wanted to make some treats so that I could post about it and also have people to share them with. Since I had never tasted a carrot cake I decided to try it and started searching on the web for a good recipe. Of course the first place I always check for recipes is Annie’s or Michelle’s websites and lo! Annie had a recipe for Carrot Cupcakes. Lucky me…So I open my fridge and see that I have a lot of unused carrots lying there (with a lot of other unused vegetables). Armed with the recipe, I remove my food processor from the recesses of my cupboard and as I try to plug it in it just wouldn’t start! (Goodbye dear machine, you will not be missed hehehe) In her recipe Annie says to grate the carrots in the food processor and now I was in a big fix. If I grate them by hand will the recipe work? Will they be too fine and mushy? Well I marched ahead and grated them by hand and used my stand mixer for beating the eggs and sugar. I never realized that this recipe does not use butter until I scanned it ten times and saw it needed only oil. And since I LOVE nuts I threw in a couple of walnuts and omitted the cloves.

In the end they turned out very well and Latif gave them 5 out 5 stars!! They are very moist and flavorful. A perfect treat!! Oh yeah, about the rain... though the cupcakes were a success the picnic unfortunately was not ! The skies opened up and it rained cats and dogs, drenching everyone and everything to the bone. we had to run back home and forget all our barbeque plans for the night :( More on that later though.. meanwhile enjoy these yummy cupcakes.

Recipe Source: Annies Eats

Ingredients

2 ½ Cups All-purpose Flour

1 ¼ Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 ¼ tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Grated Nutmeg

1/8 tsp. Ground Cloves

1/2 Cup Walnuts (chopped) (optional)

1/2 Tsp Salt

3 Cups Grated Carrots (do not grate very finely)

1 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar

1/2 Cup Packed Light Brown Sugar

4 Large Eggs

1 ½ Cups Sunflower or Vegetable Oil

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C and line two muffin pans with cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the grated carrots, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and walnuts and stir gently to mix. Set aside. Beat the eggs and the sugars in a stand mixer* till they are fluffy. While the mixer is on, slowly pour the oil in a thin stream and continue mixing till it is well incorporated (15-20 seconds)

Pour this mix into the bowl with the flour and using a large spoon or spatula gently fold the ingredients till no streaks of dry flour remain.

Fill the cupcake liners (I use an ice cream scoop for this) and place in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

*- Before I had a stand mixer I would use a hand mixer or an egg beater and wooden spatula for making cakes.

The same recipe can be used to make a cake (in two 9 inch round pans or one 13 by 2 inch pan) just increase the baking time till cake is done.

Happy Eating!!