Tasty Tuesday: What's Up, Doc?

I’m not a huge cake fan, mainly because cakes have a tendency to be dry and pretty tasteless. In my opinion, cakes are merely a vehicle to transport the deliciousness of icing into my stomach! But there is one cake where I like the cake part just as much as the icing. Well, to be honest, almost as much. I recently made these cupcakes and they were so, so good. Without the icing they tasted like a really yummy muffin. Then a few weeks later I made this recipe again in the form of a bundt cake. Again, it was super moist and delicious.

Here is what you need to make Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing:

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 ¼ cups white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¾ cup oil

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups shredded carrots

¾ cup crushed pineapple

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 ¾ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. salt

2 ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. ground nutmeg

¼ tsp. ground ginger

1 ½ cups chopped walnuts (optional)

3 ounces white chocolate

1 ½ packages cream cheese, softened

¾ cup butter, softened

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. orange extract

3 cups powdered sugar

3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Remember you can manipulate this recipe into a cake form, muffin form, or bundt cake form so tweak until you find a style that you like!

Cake:

Beat together eggs, white sugar, brown sugar in a bowl.

Mix in oil and vanilla.

Fold in carrots and pineapple.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist.

Fold in ½ cup walnuts.

Transfer to muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. You will need to adjust baking time if you make it as a cake. It took about 40 minutes for my bundt cake. I just kept checking it with a toothpick until it was done.

Cool completely on wire racks before topping with icing and sprinkle with remaining walnuts.

Icing:

In a small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature.

* Imagine picture of white chocolate melting in saucepan since I must have forgotten to take one!*

In a bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth.

Mix in white chocolate, vanilla, and orange extract.

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until the mixture is fluffy.

Mix in heavy cream.

 Not good for a diet, but so good to eat and perfect for fall!

Love, love, love carrot cake, cream cheese, and fall in the tree house,

Chelli