Carrot and Cream Cheese Cupcakes

These carrot cupcakes are a big favourite of my housemates and there was a lot of excitement when they heard I was cooking them again. I think in the cupcake form carrot cake is even more moist and delicious than it is as a large cake hence why they are so popular. This recipe is a combination of several carrot cakes that I have made and is super yummy. 

To make 12 of these beauties you will need:

175g brown muscovado sugar

200g self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp mixed spice

zest and juice of 1 orange

2 eggs

150ml sunflower oil

200g grated carrots

For the icing:

100g soft butter

300g cream cheese (full fat)

100g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

you will need a 12 hole muffin tin

1. Preheat your oven to 180c or gas mark 4 and line your muffin tin with cupcake cases. In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, mixed spice, bicarb of soda and orange zest together. 

2. Measure the oil in a jug and then whisk the two eggs into it. Add this mixture to your dry ingredients in the bowl and combine.

3. Add your grated carrot and orange juice and mix well (carrot cake mixture does not photograph well so I will spare you the off putting picture!)

4. Divide your mixture between the cases and bake for 20-22 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. 

5. Make sure your butter for your icing is super soft and then mix all the icing ingredients together. Your icing should look like this:

6. Once your cakes are completely cool, smooth your icing over the top using a knife. I then decorated my cupcakes with edible glitter (my new baking obsession!) and fondant carrots.

Happy baking xxx