Carrot Cupcakes

 One of the first cakes I ever made on my own was a carrot cake, it was the first recipe I created and one of my favourites. It also very popular with my friends so I am always making it.

The past few weeks my friend Keira had been under a lot of stress from University, today was her hand in day for her coursework so as I treat I told her I would make her favourite cake, only problem was I had run out of self-raising flour and only had enough for one half of the cake. 

I've always wanted to try carrot cupcakes so I decided to mess around with my cake recipe and find a way of turning it into some scrummy cupcakes and these were the results, they basically tasted just like the cake and were amazing! 

Makes 12

  INGREDIENTS

Cupcakes

175g grated carrot
50g sultanas
55g chopped walnuts
125g self raising flour
200g casing sugar
175ml vegetable oil
1tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Cream cheese Icing

200g cream cheese (chilled)
500g icing sugar
110g chopped walnuts
110g butter
1tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

1. Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 (180C/350F). Makes sure your butter is at room temperature

 2. Grate your carrot into a bowl and chop your walnuts, then place to the side.

 3. Sift your flour and cinnamon into a bowl, then mix together

4. Add your sugar and mix together. 

 5. Add your egg and oil and mix together, then add your carrot, sultana and walnuts.

 5. It should look like this, it wont be very runny as it has a lot of things in it.

 6. Add your mixture to your cases and place in the oven for 30 minutes until risen and cooked through, then remove and cool.

 7. For the cream cheese icing, chop the walnuts to very small pieces.

 8. Cream together your butter and cream cheese until smooth.

 9. Add your vanilla and icing sugar and mix together until smooth. If to runny add some more icing or corn flour, if to thick either add more cream cheese or add some milk.

 10. Add your walnuts and place back in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool, then either pipe onto your cupcakes or spread it on, then decorate with left over walnuts. Leave in the fridge to cool and then eat! Just a hint though, it is really difficult to pipe with cream cheese frosting, it doesn't really hold its shape.