Cream Cheese Frosting | 20something cupcakes

Carrot cake, I’ve learned, is a love-it-or-hate-it type of dessert.

Personally, I can’t understand what there is to hate about carrot cake. I suppose it has something to do with the idea of vegetables sneaking into one’s dessert.

I can think of someone who would never be appalled to find carrots in cake form: that’s right, the Easter bunny! Listen – I know I don’t have kids yet, but Easter is still one of my favorite holidays, and I absolutely love the idea of making a carrot cake for the Easter bunny. It’s like baking cookies for Santa. It’s fun. It’s festive. And kids or no kids, it’s sure to put you in the holiday spirit.

I don’t like any raisins or nuts or canned pineapple in my carrot cake – I prefer it to be pure and simple. I went with Deb’s recipe on Smitten Kitchen after going back and forth with Alton Brown’s recipe, as I was worried that Alton’s would come out too dense for cupcakes. I may try it in the future for a layer cake.

One of the common themes or suggestions I discovered while reading various recipes is that the more finer the grate you get on the carrots, the lighter the cake batter is going to be. Now, the easiest way to grate carrots is using the food processor, but it also produces a pretty thick grate. Using a box grater is better, and using a Microplane zester is ideal. I won’t lie to you – it’s also a big pain in the booty. Deb’s recipe calls for three cups, and I had one 16-ounce bag of carrots. By the time I peeled them, and grated them down to the heads and tossed those (careful because you don’t want to grate your fingers as I often do!), I had about three cups. Listen – the way I see it, just tighten that core, and get a mini-workout in as you grate. It’s a good arm workout. You may even break a sweat.

As for the frosting, cream cheese is the obvious choice for carrot cake or cupcakes. Here, we just kicked it up a notch by adding my latest favorite secret ingredient: white chocolate. It adds another level of richness and sweetness that you just can’t get from powdered sugar alone.

If you love carrot cake, you must try this recipe. And if you think you don’t like carrot cake, I triple-dog-dare you to try this recipe. These cupcakes are so moist, so perfect – you won’t even believe vegetables are capable of producing such lushness.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
1 pound carrots, peeled and finely grated using a Microplane (about 3 cups)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line 24 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots. Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake cupcakes 18-20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing them.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

White Chocolate Cream-Cheese Frosting

Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more if needed
3 1/2 ounces (1 bar) white chocolate, melted and cooled

Beat all ingredients in stand mixer on medium speed until combined and fluffy. Taste for sweetness, adding more sugar if necessary. Chill the frosting for about 10 – 20 minutes until it has set up enough to spread or pipe properly.

This was a very special cake, for many reasons.

For one, it was the first time I ever used a pastry bag and actually liked it – which was a big moment for me. Another reason is that I made it for a BFF’s party celebrating her man, who recently became an official citizen of the United States. He’s from Canada, and although he’s lived here his whole life, he was still super excited because he has serious American spirit; we were excited, too, because it gave us a reason to throw a huge party complete with every classically American dish you can think of, and a whole lot of sweet tea vodka and apple pie martinis.

And, you know, it also represents our country’s independence. So that’s cool, too.

You should probably {at least} consider making it this weekend, because not only is it as festive as it gets, it’s also beyond delicious. I literally can’t even tell you how obsessed people were with this cake – I heard everything from it’s the best cake they’d ever had, to intense threats recommendations to open my own bakery. The cake itself is a sponge cake, so it’s super dense and moist, and it has so much flavor – thanks to a heavy dose of butter. The icing is a cream cheese/buttercream variety, and it was also a huge hit – everyone loved how the tartness of the berries complemented it. It takes some time to pipe the icing and place all the berries on top, but I promise you – it’s not that hard, and that means a lot coming from someone as pastry bag-challenged as myself.

{What I finally figured out: you must use a big enough pastry bag! Get plenty of icing in there, but make sure you don’t overfill the bag so that you can fold the top of it over your hand}

Flag Cake

Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten

18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 cup sour cream at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

For the icing:

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese at room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For your stars + stripes:

2 half-pints blueberries
3 half-pints raspberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour (or use Pam for baking) an 18 by 13 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan. I think my sheet pan is actually 18 x 12 x 1, and it worked out just fine. I think it’s a little tricky to find a pan this exact size recommended – so use what you have. If it’s something much smaller, like a half sheet pan, you can always split the cake into 2, or halve it – which would be an especially good idea if you have a smaller group, because this recipe makes a ton of cake.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until smooth.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. No over-mixing! Pour into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.

Like Ina, I served this cake right in the pan. If you want to turn it out onto a board before frosting, use parchment paper when you grease and flour the pan.

For the icing, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mixing just until smooth. Easy-peasy.

Spread three-fourths of the icing on the top of the cooled sheet cake. If you want to, you can outline the flag on the top of the cake with a toothpick, though I didn’t find this step necessary. Fill the upper left corner with blueberries. Place 2 rows of raspberries across the top of the cake like a red stripe.

Put the remaining icing in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Hold the bag with the edges folded over your hand (see below), and use your other hand to spatula the icing into the bag. Make sure to use a big enough bag, and to fill it about halfway or a little more. Squeeze the icing so that its pushed down to the tip and there’s no air in the bag, and squeeze the icing out gently. Try doing a little practice run on your counter, if you’re an amateur like me.

You want to try and gently squeeze it out as evenly as possible when you’re doing the stripes. I certainly didn’t do a perfect job, but once I figured out how to hold the bag and did a few practice lines, I started getting the hang of it.

Pipe two rows of white stripes below the first stripe of raspberries. Alternate rows of raspberries and icing until the flag is completed. I didn’t have enough room to do the last 2 stripes of raspberries, so I ended up just piping extra icing there – just make it work! Pipe stars on top of the blueberries. I probably got a little carried away here and did too many white stars – you can try spacing them out a little better than I did for a closer result to Ina’s.

End result: an imperfectly perfect + richly delicious flag cake, sure to steal the show.

Have a fabulous {and safe} Fourth of July, dolls!