Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
These Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting are a great alternative to carrot cake. Think of it as portion control!
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Icing:
- 1 ounce white chocolate, (like Bakers)
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Carrot Cupcakes:
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups shredded carrots, (shred easily with a food processor or by hand)
- 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
- In small microwave safe bowl, heat white chocolate in small intervals in the microwave stirring until melted. Cool to room temperature.
- In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Mix in the heavy cream.
- For the cupcakes: Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in the carrots and crushed 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 1/2 cup walnuts saving the remaining walnuts for topping. Fill muffin cups almost to the top.
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Do not overbake. Cool completely on wire racks.
- Frost cooled cupcakes with frosting. For fancy decorating fill a re-sealable plastic bag with the frosting and snip off the corner to pipe it on. Or for even fancier decorating, use a Wilton 2D tip to pipe on the frosting. Sprinkle with remaining walnuts.