Somehow I ended up with a 12 cup bag of walnuts. I found the bag in my cupboard last week and I’ve been determined to use them all up before the expiration date. I’ve already made (a) Cranberry Walnut White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies; (b) Cinnamon Apples with Walnuts over Vanilla Ice Cream; and (c) Chocolate Chunk Jam Layer Bars. All that, and I STILL have about half the bag left!
Tonight I decided to make carrot cake, but instead of a 9-inch cake, I wanted to make cupcakes. The recipe came from Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes. I’ve made this recipe twice, and the cupcakes came out exactly the same both times. It’s not an overly sweet recipe, which is the way my husband likes it. I prefer my carrot cake a bit sweeter, but his co-workers and family members really enjoyed these. Maybe because I made them into cupcakes they remind me more of muffins than cake.
I tried one batch with crushed pineapple, drained, and one batch with the juice. There was no discernable difference in my opinion. As for the frosting, I made my own version (see below).
Ingredients
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Cake:
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tbsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups olive oil or grapeseed oil
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
- 2 cups of shredded carrots
- 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple
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Frosting: (Makes enough for 2 batches)
- 16Â oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 Tbsp butter, room temp
- 1 to 1 1/2Â cup of confectioners’ sugar (depending on texture and taste)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- A few dashes of cinnamon
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Method
1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 cupcake pans liberally with Pam or other non-stick spray. (I have given up on paper liners with cupcakes–they always seem to stick to the paper. I find spraying the pans liberally produces a sturdy “shell” around the bottom of the cupcake which makes them stand up nicely. I haven’t had any stick to the pans yet.)
2 Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well with wooden spoon or paddle attachment. Fold in walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple. Batter will be stiff at first. After mixing in nuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple, batter gets much thinner.
3 Pour or spoon batter into cupcake pans. I use an ice cream scoop to spoon the batter into each cup. This ensures they’re all the same size and is much neater. Set on the middle rack of oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until edges have pulled away from sides and a toothpick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
4 To prepare frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly add in the confectioners sugar and beat until mixture is free of lumps. Stir in vanilla and cinnamon.
5 Once cupcakes are cooled, frost. Keep any unused frosting refrigerated and I would also recommend refrigerating any frosted cupcakes as well.
These are also great as is, without frosting. Store covered for 1 week (although they won’t last that long).
