Baking with Van - Carrot Cupcakes

Hey guys,

let's bake some 'healthy' cupcakes together!

Having way too many carrots at home, I've decided to bake some carrot cupcakes.

And I have to admit, these were my first cupcakes ever - until then I've just baked muffins.

So let's call it an experiment and let the show begin. :-D

What do we need first? Exactly...

The ingredients:

The ingredients

Muffin dough:

• 2 large eggs (I had only small ones so I've used three eggs)
• a dash of salt
• 70g sugar
• 100g grounded nuts (I've used a mixture of almonds and hazelnuts - that's up to you)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 75g rasped carrots

Cream topping:

• 100g soft butter
• 150g cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar
• and some decoration of your choice, I used lemon peel

Preheat the oven to 175°C and prepare a muffin cake pan by setting some muffin paper forms in it. You can also just butter your cake pan if you want.

After separating the egg yolk and the egg white (1) you add the dash of salt to the egg white and whisk it until it's stiff using a mixer (2). Pay attention that you do not chip the remaining stiffed egg white from the mixer - all your work would be for nothing. ;)

Now, intermix the sugar until you have a shiny mixture (3).

Nearly finished with the muffin dough, add the egg yolk, intermix it again, and fold in the remaining nuts, flour and carrots carefully (4).

Step (1) to (4) in pictures.

Now you can fill your dough in your prepared cake pan and put it in the oven for 20 - 30 min.

Now it's time to put the dough into the oven and let the kitchen smell tasty!

In the meanwhile you can prepare the cream topping. Stir the soft butter and the cream cheese until you have a fluffy mixture (5). Now, add the icing sugar (6) and stir the mixture (7) until all ingredients are evenly mixed (8).

The cream topping creation!

 Took your dough out of the oven and let it cool down.

Yummi, now the muffins are ready for the topping!

Now, it's time for the topping.

You can fill the cream in an icing bag or just use a spoon to put it in your muffin dough. Me, I've used an icing bag. I'm not practised using a spoon for this. I wouldn't be happy with the result. ;-)

That's the fun part! :-)

When your done you can decorate your cupcakes. You might have expected that I use a marzipan carrot for decoration but I've decided to go with some lemon peel. The lemon aroma makes your cupcakes smelling and tasting so fresh - I love this, wow. :-)

I want to eat all ! And you? ;)

Now, you have delicious carrot cupcakes!

I hope you enjoyed the recipe. If you bake them send me some pictures, I'd love to see your cupcakes.

Kisses,

Van

...and do never forget to have fun during baking and smile! :-)

...smile...