Page 25 Carrot Cupcakes

"A well-loved American layer cake is scaled down to cupcake form. Golden raisins give these cakes added texture, but you can omit them. You can also add one cup walnuts or pecans; toast them, let cool, then finely chop before stirring into the batter at the end, after the flour mixture. Unfrosted carrot cupcakes make delicious snacks." - Martha

Whenever I make carrot cake I always think to myself how good it'll taste and how carrot cake is one of my husband's favorites. But, I also always forget how LONG it takes to peel and grate all of those carrots! One full pound of carrots is required for a full batch. I liked the fact that even though Martha recommends using two bowls, one for liquid/one for dry ingredients, I managed to use only one bowl by mixing my carrots and eggs, etc and then sifting the dry ingredients into it. I like a one-bowl recipe.

This recipe calls for a vanilla bean seeded and scraped or the pure extract...I used the extract because my beans were too dry. (Spent too much time in the frig without use, I guess.) I also added to the recipe some dried cranberries (flavored like cherries) because I only had one tiny box of golden raisins in the house. Usually, my boys won't eat raisins anyway, so this was a great substitution. I did not add the pecans...I forgot.

I made one sheet of regular-sized cupcakes and one sheet of minis. I liked the look of the minis but you know what that problem is? You never remember how many you've had and before you know it, they're half gone! Minis are very easy to eat and forget about. I baked the minis for 18 minutes each and the regular cupcakes for 28 minutes each with the convection going.

I chose to use the cream cheese frosting (no one in their right mind should ever choose otherwise) but I didn't have any coconut on hand for garnishing (Oops! It's in the freezer, I just remembered.) but I like the tiny touch of frosting, shaped into a heart, rather than the whole cake being covered anyway. These definitely make a great quick and healthy snack for the kiddos coming home from school on any given afternoon.