Brazilian Carrot Cupcakes!!!

First I must begin this post by saying that in general I do not really care for carrot cake. I think it is something with the consistency that I just don't like. So I was thrilled to see a Brazilian carrot cake recipe on The Chew (I am pretty obsessed with that show!) here is where you can find the recipe courtesy of Johnny Iuzzini. Now why is it Brazilian? I know you are dying to know, he said on the show is that the real difference is that this carrot is pureed and traditional carrot cake is shredded so it is a different  consistency. I will list the original recipe and also note the changes I made.

The reason I made these cupcakes is that my family was going to get together at my aunt's house to celebrate my cousin's birthday and also my grandma's birthday. My cousin doesn't like cake but I know my grandma's favorite cake is carrot so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe :)

Here are my ingredients (carrots and eggs are from my local farmer's market)

Ingredients:

1 lb. of carrots

4 eggs

8 oz. of oil (1 cup I used canola because that was what I had on hand)

16 oz. of sugar (2 cups I only used 1 1/2, but will try one cup next time)

9 oz. of flour (I used a rounded cup)

1 tablespoon of butter (omitted because it was for the cake pan, I made cupcakes)

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt



Step 1: prepare your pan with butter and flour (do this if you are making a cake, I knew I would be taking this to my aunt's house so I opted to make cupcakes, and in general I just love making cupcakes more than cakes) and preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Step 2: Sift together dry ingredients and peel and roughly chop the carrots.

Because my blender is not top quality and because I really wanted to make sure I got a good consistency I shredded my carrots, it took a couple of extra minutes but I think it was worth it.

Step 3: In a blender combine carrots, eggs, oil and sugar. Blend until the mixture is completely smooth. Transfer to a bowl and fold in the dry ingredients.

I took the folding in part literally and had a little bit of flour left unincorporated, OOPS, next time I will use a whisk! 

I was very excited to use these colorful cupcake liners I got a while back at Michael's, I tend to buy cupcake liners like crazy! 

Ready for the oven! I have to admit that the batter was pretty runny and I was a little bit nervous that they were not going to come out good so I only cooked half at first and then when they actually worked I baked the other half, also because the batter was on the runny side I didn't want to overfill for fear that I would have a big mess since the batter was on the runny side. 

Fresh from the oven, I love that you can still see the all the beautiful colors of the liners (it always makes me sad when I have pretty liners and I make chocolate cupcakes and you can't see the liner anymore). Also, the recipe called for 40 min. of baking, since I made cupcakes as opposed to a 9x13 pan, I baked for 25 min. and it was the perfect amount of time. 

I know traditionally carrot cake is usually served with cream cheese frosting but I wasn't sure that would go over well with everyone so I played it safe and used regular vanilla (store bought) frosting. The recipe also included a homemade chocolate frosting recipe that I didn't make this time but I will one day. I also purposefully left some of them unfrosted because my grandma and mom don't care too much for frosting.

 I love this cupcake carrier from the Martha Stewart line at Macy's (she can really do no wrong in my eyes I love almost everything she makes) the white trays the cupcakes are on turn over and are completely flat to transport cookies or a pie (big thank you to my cousin Crystal for introducing me to this amazing carrier!). There is a cupcake missing, I couldn't resist, but the recipe made 24 cupcakes filled about 3/4 of the way with the batter. 

My grandma blowing out a candle on one of the cupcakes :)

I will also say that having had one of the cupcakes fresh from the oven and then a couple more the next day at the party I noticed a difference. The next day the carrot flavor was much more pronounced and the color was also a bit more vibrant. In general they are very light and fluffy, these might just be my new favorite cupcake!



Next time I make them I am going to try only a cup of sugar (I have a lot of diabetes on both sides of my family as well as my husbands side) and I am also thinking about trying to cut out half of the oil by replacing it with applesauce. In general I am just excited about these, everyone loved them at the party too :)

Happy baking everyone!