Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

 I wish everyone a Happy Easter! I will be enjoying mine at my mom's house with my family and some of my husband's family.  I wanted to share with you the recipe for my Carrot Cake Cupcakes with a Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting that I made.  Carrot Cake is one of my favorite cakes to eat! Instead of buying the cream cheese frosting to spread on top I decided to make my own.  I just took a basic frosting recipe and adding my own twist of Whipped Cream Cheese.  I also made half plain cupcakes and the other half with Raisins and Nuts, this way I can please everyone!

Click Here for Printable Recipe:

Cupcake Ingredients:

* 2 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour

* 1 1/4 tsp. of Baking Powder

* 1 tsp. of Baking Soda

* 2 1/2 tsp. of Ground Cinnamon

* 1/2 tsp. of salt

* 1 lb of Carrot

* 1 1/2 cups of Granulated Sugar

* 1/2 cup of Granulated Light Brown Sugar (you can use regular light brown sugar too, just pack it down)

* 4 Eggs

* 1 1/2 cup of Vegetable Oil

* Optional Ingredients: Golden Raisins and Chopped Walnuts

Procedure:

* Pre-heat oven to 350 Degrees

* First Prepare the Carrots by: Peeling the Carrots and then finely shredding or grating them in a food processor on the shred setting. If you do not have a food processor then just grate them with a grater (It will take much longer that way!). 

* Transfer carrots to a bowl and set aside.

* In a large bowl sift together the Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt, and Cinnamon. 

* Fold in Carrots and set aside.

* In a food processor, process the Sugar, and Eggs for about 20 seconds. With the machine running, slowly pour in the Vegetable Oil through the feed tube and let run for another 20 seconds.

* Pour Wet Mixture in with the Dry Mixture and mix well with a spatula.

* Place Liners into a muffin tin and Scoop Batter into the Muffin Liners (I use my cookie dough scooper for this).

* Bake for 24 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes our clean. 

* Lift each cupcake out and place on a cooling rack.

* At this point I add Golden Raisins and Chopped Walnuts to the remaining batter. The reason for this is because some of my family likes their cupcakes plain and some like them with raisins and nuts, so I usually make the first 12 cupcakes plain and the last 12 with the raisins and nuts.Everyone can be satisfied then! :)

* While the cupcakes are cooling, go ahead and make the Frosting.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

* 12 oz of Philadelphia Whipped Cream Cheese

* 6 TBSP. of Unsalted Butter at room temperature

* 1 TBSP. of Vanilla Extract

* 4 Cups of Sifted Powdered Sugar

Procedure:

* In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium high speed until smooth.

* Mix in the Vanilla Extract

* Slowly beat in the Sifted Powdered Sugar, increase the speed and beat until smooth.

* Once the cupcakes are fully cooled you can go ahead and pipe or spread the cream cheese on top! (I used a plastic bag and tip to pipe it on)

Enjoy!