Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

This past weekend, my mother-in-law asked me if I could cover the desserts for our Easter dinner. She works as an executive assistant and her work has been pretty hectic. Of course I responded with, “Absolutely! I'd love to help out!” I was trying to decide what I was going to make and so as I began to look up recipes for Easter desserts, I came across several carrot cake recipes. I’ve never really been a fan of cake with vegetables in it so that’s probably why I didn’t think of it on my own. But the orange color makes it perfect for this holiday. One thing almost stopped me from choosing this dessert – I had never made carrot cake before. My husband warned me that his granny was always saying how hard carrot cake is to make so I was a little scared. But I went with it anyways… and it turned out great! The recipe I chose has pecans and no raisins. I personally don’t like raisins but you could always add them in if you want. Also I found the cutest picture of a carrot cake with little decorative icing carrots on top so I decided to place a little carrot on each cupcake. It was adorable! Here is the recipe I used…

Ingredients

 4 eggs

 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

 2 cups white sugar

 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 2 teaspoons baking soda

 2 teaspoons baking powder

 1/2 teaspoon salt

 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

 3 cups grated carrots

 1 cup chopped pecans

 

 1/2 cup butter, softened

 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

 4 cups confectioners' sugar

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place cupcake liners in a muffin pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

 I chose to forego the pecans in the icing since they were already in the cake batter but you can always add them in the icing too if you wish. I hope you enjoy!

(For the decorative carrots, I just whipped up some orange and green icing and used an icing bag to pipe them on.)

White and Dark Cookies

Today we had my in-laws over for lunch after church. We had barbecue chicken, corn, and some potatoes. So I was trying to think of the perfect dessert for this menu. Since I had to be in church Sunday morning, I knew I’d have to bake this dessert the night before. I decided to keep it simple and go with cookies. I ransacked my pantry to see what options I had for cookies. I immediately saw some white chocolate chips and thought white chocolate macadamia nut cookies! I proceeded to make these cookies and when I got to the part where I fold in the nuts and chips, I realized I had no macadamia nuts! So I went back to the pantry and found some semi-sweet chocolate chips. I decided to throw those in and see how they turned out. I have to admit I felt like a professional chef changing up this recipe. They were delicious! The white chocolate chips were super sweet and the semi-sweet chips gave that cocoa flavor. They were absolutely to die for! So I’m going to share the recipe with you with the changes I have made…

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

As always, make sure you use room temperature eggs. Also, these cookies are not going to spread out as much as most cookies do, so try not to make the cookie dough balls too big. Hope you all enjoy!