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Iconic Carrot Cupcakes & Cream Cheese Frosting
"Everything in excess. Moderation is for monks."
--- Robert Heinlein
Spring Birthday Parties at our house are a call for Carrot Cake
with Cream Cheese Frosting to be center stage. In recent years,
however, we’ve traded our traditional layer cake for cupcakes. The
choice was easy. Cupcakes give us each a little less cake, and a
lot more frosting, especially nice as we now choose to emphasize
the cream cheese and lemon in the fluffy white topping. Cupcakes
aglow with candles also seem to make it more difficult to count
them precisely. That gives us the best of all worlds!
The basis of
these cupcakes was the Silver Palate Carrot Cake, one of the
recipes that made our Shop popular from day one. When we first
shared it in our Cookbook, clients, friends and parents united to
say "If you give away that Carrot Cake recipe, you'll put
yourselves right out of business!" Well, that didn't happen. Our
business grew and everyone simply started making our Carrot Cake.
Sharing secrets is more fun than keeping them. Now, we share these
regularly at Wickwood.
Makes 32
cupcakes. You may easily cut the recipe in half.
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3 cups
unbleached all-purpose flour
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3 cups sugar
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1 teaspoon
salt
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1 tablespoon
baking soda
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1 tablespoon
ground cinnamon
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1½ cups corn
oil
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4 large
eggs, lightly beaten
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1 tablespoon
vanilla extract
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1½ cups
shelled walnuts, chopped
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1½ cups
shredded coconut
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1½ cups
pureed cooked carrots
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¾ cup
drained crushed pineapple
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3 packages
8-ounce cream cheese, at room temperature
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6
Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature|
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3 cups
confectioners' sugar
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1 tablespoon
vanilla extract
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Juice of 1
lemon
1. Preheat
the oven to 350°F.
Generously butter 4 eight-cup muffin tins, or line them with paper
liners.
2. Sift the
dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well by hand. Fold in the walnuts, coconut, carrots,
and pineapple.
3. Fill each
cup about three-quarters full with the batter. Set on the center
rack of the oven and bake until the edges have pulled away from
the sides, the cup cakes are well browned and a cake tester
inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 30-35
minutes.
4. Meanwhile
cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl.
Slowly sift in the confectioners' sugar and continue beating until
fully incorporated. The mixture should be free of lumps. Add the
vanilla and lemon juice and allow to set at room temperature until
the cupcakes have cooled completely. Then frost each cupcake
generously and sprinkle with a little brown sugar or a few chopped
walnuts. Watch them disappear.
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Wickwood Inn | 510
Butler Street | Saugatuck, MI 49453
Tel (800) 385-1174 |
www.wickwoodinn.com
| Bill and Julee Rosso Miller, Proprietors |
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