Who knew vegetables could taste soooo good! Growing up, I never liked carrot cake. It all changed on my 20th birthday when my sweet sister Judy had one specially made for me by the Hyatt Regency pastry chef. I was forced to eat it. I've enjoyed it ever since. I appreciate a recipe that does not call for fancy ingredients, nor fancy gadgets. I didn't even need my electric mixer, just a regular whisk to mix all wet and dry ingredients.
I began the morning preparing to make these cupcakes and scanned the recipe to see that it asked for one vanilla bean. Have YOU ever purchased a vanilla bean? They are outrageously expensive, so I settled for 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. In this economy, I am not paying an arm and leg for one vanilla bean. I enjoyed whisking the dry ingredients because of the spices, a nice blend of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. I used an ice cream scoop to fill the liners 3/4 full which makes it so easy to insure cupcakes are all the same size. Baked for 25 minutes and forgot to rotate due to chores.
Cream-Cheese Frosting:
I made sure to do a double batch of this frosting when I made the Red Velvet. This tangy, creamy frosting complimented the light, not too dense, spicy cupcake.
I have always raved about Magnolia Bakery's carrot cake, but this recipe takes the cake.
Delicious! You can't go wrong with this recipe.
ReplyDeleteGreat tasting! Classic, but never boring. Carol, as my kids say, "you are the best cook" and they are talking about you, not their mommy! This ranks in the top three of your desserts that I've been priviledged to try; those are the chocolate cupcake with cream cheese middle, and the incredible pumpkin crunch!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy all of you enjoyed the carrot cupcakes. I really think it's the ginger and other spices that enhance the flavor of this cupcake. I forgot to mention that I omitted the raisins; I do not care for them and I will purposely pick them out of desserts. But I agree, the cream cheese frosting is pretty tasty!
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