Easter | 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.

I know, I know. Easter is over. Still – I wanted to share with you what I made for one of my *favorite* holidays.

{I’m obsessed with Easter for many reasons – but Cadbury Creme Eggs probably top the list}

I initially saw this idea on the Food Network’s website as I was perusing all of their adorable Easter cupcakes. I wasn’t in love with the cake and icing recipes they used but I did love the idea of the little egg nests. I fell in love with this yellow cake recipe; the cupcakes hadn’t been auditioned yet, so I figured I should give it a try. I had also just seen a recipe for an easy vanilla buttercream so that was taken care of, too.

Robin’s Egg Easter Cupcakes

1 batch (12-15) vanilla cupcakes
1 1/2 cups vanilla frosting
1 cup coconut
1 bag Cadbury Mini Eggs (or other Easter candy such as malted milk eggs)
Green and blue food coloring

To make the green coconut grass, place the coconut into a Ziploc bag and add 2-3 drops of the green food coloring. You can make it as green as you’d like; I added just a little to make the green lighter and more of a pastel. Just squish it around in the bag until the color is evenly distributed.

To make the light blue frosting, just add a few drops of blue food coloring to any vanilla icing you wish. I added 3 or 4 drops to the buttercream frosting I used to make it a light Robin’s egg blue. You could also add red and blue food coloring to make purple, or yellow food coloring for yellow frosting, etc.

Frost your cupcakes, then add a small mound of the coconut grass on top. Finish them off with a couple of candy eggs. (Tip: dab each egg with a tiny bit of frosting – this will create a ‘glue’ so they stick to the coconut.)

Best Yellow Cupcakes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 12-15 cupcakes

2 cups plus 1 tablespoons cake flour (see below for what to do if you can’t find any)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F.

If you’re like me and can’t get your hands on cake flour anywhere near you {soon I will remember to actually order some online – promise}, here is what you do. For each cup of ‘homemade’ cake flour, just take one cup of flour, remove 2 tablespoons and replace with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. You then need to sift it a bunch of times (like 5) to give it that superfine and fluffy consistency that cake flour has. Yes, it’s kind of annoying, but it’s a must. You don’t need a sifter (I don’t even have one) – you just need one of those mesh strainers that you use to drain pasta and veggies. Take 2 bowls and sift the flour mixture from one into another for a total of 5 times.

Now sift the baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the flour (or you can add these before you start sifting).

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled – this is what you want). Now add your flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Distribute batter evenly throughout cupcake tin(s). Fill them up a little over halfway, otherwise you will end up with overflowing cupcakes like I did. {They came out fine in the end – all that love nest topping covers up any imperfections.} Bake until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes. Don’t overbake! Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove them and let them cool completely.

Easy Vanilla Buttercream

Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: About 1 1/2 cups (enough for 12-15 cupcakes)

1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
Pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (original recipe called for vanilla bean as well; instead I upped the extract)
1 tablespoon heavy cream

In a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds.

Add confectioner’s sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully incorporated, about 30 seconds; scrape bowl, add vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 20 seconds, then increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.