Recipe- Mouthwatering Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Everybody’s favorite Carrot Cake, in cupcake form! Topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting, they’re ultra-moist and beautifully spiced. These little friends are completely irresistible, but a total breeze to make.

Ingredients

440g / 14 oz (1 can) crushed pineapple in juice , drained but RESERVE juice

Wet Ingredients

1/2 cup milk , at room temperature (full fat best, low fat ok)
1/2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice or other clear vinegar
2 large eggs , at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or canola)

Dry Ingredients

1 1/3 cups flour , plain / all-purpose
1 1/4 tsp baking soda (aka bicarb soda) (NOT BAKING POWDER!)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

Stir-ins

1 1/3 cups shredded carrot , 1 medium carrot peeled
2 tbsp coconut , shredded or desiccated (unsweetened)
1/3 cup walnuts or pecans , roughly chopped (ie. measure after chopping)

Cream Cheese Frosting

180g / 6oz cream cheese , at room temperature
90g / 6 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (17°C/62°F)
3 1/2 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Decorating (optional)

1/4 cup walnuts or pecans , moderately finely chopped

Method

- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types). Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.

- Canned pineapple: Drain crushed pineapple well, reserving the juice. Measure out 3/4 cup pineapple and 2 tbsp pineapple juice.

- Whisk Dry Ingredients: Whisk Dry ingredients in a large bowl.

- Whisk Wet Ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vinegar, eggs, sugar, oil and the 2 tbsp pineapple juice from Step 2.

- Add-ins: Stir in carrot, crushed pineapple, coconut and pecans into the Wet ingredients bowl.

- Combine Wet & Dry: Pour Wet into Dry ingredients, stir only until flour is no longer visible. Batter will be lumpy (from the stir-ins) and thick, but runny.

- Fill muffin tin: Divide batter between 12 holes. (A 3-tbsp levered ice cream scoop makes life super-easy here.)

- Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and fully cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

- Cream butter: Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or whisk attachments for hand mixer), beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.

- Cream cheese: Add cream cheese then beat for 1 minute until smooth.

- Icing sugar: Add 1/3 of the icing sugar, then starting on the lowest speed (to avoid a powdery explosion!), beat until mostly incorporated. Add half the remaining icing sugar, beat it in, then the remaining icing sugar.

- Fluff it! Beat on high for 2 minutes until fluffy. Add vanilla and salt, beat briefly to incorporate.

- Pipe: Transfer to piping bag fitted with a round tip (or ziplock bag with snipper corner). Pipe on to cupcake, sprinkle with chopped walnuts or pecans if desired.