Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Well I managed to burn all of the cupcakes in this recipe. I’m going to call it a “fail” since I’ve used this recipe before without any problems. I’ll have to check my oven to see if it’s running hot. I had a plan to salvage them by slicing off the bottoms, but they looked so short and silly I could not convince myself that they deserved an appearance at Easter dinner.

I was fortunate to snag an invite to the Conforti-Lawson-Pugliano Easter dinner, and lucky for me they weren’t counting on my dessert. It was a good thing I had also picked up a couple of bottles of wine to bring. My Easter dinner included gnocchi with meatballs, chicken braciole, ham, ham pizza (like a quiche), kielbasa, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Then we had pineapple squares, ricotta cheesecake, red velvet cake, and pizzelles. What an amazing feast…thank you Mrs. Conforti!

Mixing in the carrots, walnuts, and coconut

Everything looked fine up to this point…

Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing
Source: Everyday Food
Makes: 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup shredded coconut, plus more for garnish
8 ounces bar cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. In a bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil, orange juice, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and eggs.
2. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, allspice, and salt. Add flour; mix. Stir in carrots, walnuts, and coconut.
3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about 2 Tbsp batter per cup). Bake until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 25 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
4. While cupcakes are baking, combine cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and remaining 1/2 tsp vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth.
5. Frost cupcakes, and garnish with shredded coconut.