Easter Carrot Cupcakes

. Whew, what a crazy last 24 hours!  It's been filled with batches of [botched] cupcakes, a little sleep, full day of work, my mom and brother coming to Omaha for all of 2 hours, and a new little addition to the household for the coming month.

And who is this new member of the family, you ask?!  Well it's that little [big] guy below, my brother's beagle, Leo!

Whether we're prepared for a four dog adventure or not, we got it!  My brother has finals during the first week of May and along with that, working, and productive extracurriculars, his time at home is going to be severely limited.  So, as a good sister would (wink, wink), I offered up my services to watch Leo for the month of May.  My boyfriend and I are both very excited to have this little guy around but...you may want to check back in with us half way during May.  Could be a different story?  Joking!  We'll have our hands full for sure but Leo is such a cute boy, I know he'll fit riiight in with us.

But let's get to these Carrot Cupcakes that I promised you on Tuesday!  Okay, so the overall cupcake turned out great: moist, flavorful, and I must say, so incredibly cute!  And aside from the frosting, this is a one-bowl cupcake recipe!  Can't get much easier than that ☺ But not going to lie, there was a teeny road bump along the way.  I wanted to double the batch since the original recipe only makes a dozen cupcakes (these were for Treat Day at the office and there's definitely more than 12 people in my department!).  However, somewhere along the way something went wrong and I ended up with cupcakes caving into themselves.  In a panic, I started a second batch [without doubling the recipe] and the cupcakes turned out fairly well.  They still didn't look like I remembered but the flavor was there so that's all that matters.  The rest of the way was smooth sailing: a sweet cream cheese frosting, toasted coconut, and a few Cadbury Chocolate Eggs to top off this Easter goodie.  My goal was to end up with a 'birds nest' on top of the cupcake (in the spirit of Easter) and I think I ended up with a pretty good representation.  You can be the judge though.

I truly wish everyone a very Happy Easter and hope that these Carrot Cupcakes make their way onto your dessert table! .

Carrot Cupcakes

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. vegetable oil

2 tbsp. orange juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. all purpose flour

1-1/2 c. finely shredded carrots

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1/4 c. shredded coconut

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 c. powdered sugar

Garnish:

1 c. shredded coconut

1 (10 oz.) package mini chocolate eggs

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 350°F.  Oil or line with muffin cups a standard muffin tin.  In bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil, orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and eggs.

2.  Stir in baking powder, baking soda, allspice, and salt.  Add flour; mix.  Stir in carrots, walnuts and coconut.

3.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.  Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean.  Let cool completely.

4.  Spread coconut for garnish evenly on baking sheet.  Bake 3 minutes and then toss coconut to mix.  Bake additional 3 to 5 minute or until toasted and golden.  Set aside.

5.  For frosting, in medium-sized bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Whisk until smooth.

6.  Frost cupcakes.  Garnish with toasted coconut and place two to three chocolate eggs on top.  

Yield: 1 dozen cupcakes

*My Notes:

• To make the cupcake batter, I only had to use one bowl and mixed everything with a spatula.  So very easy and less clean up!
• I usually shred my own carrots, but for some reason this time around I bought already shredded carrots.  The pieces were a tad bit large, still good, but I would recommend buying finely shredded carrots or just doing it yourself.
• When filling the cupcake liners, I only filled them about 1/2 full.  I personally like the look much better and having a more flat top for the garnishes worked out very well.