carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Before I say anything about my food, what the heck happened to Blogger? I don't post for like, two weeks, and now everything is different. I don't know where anything is! 😮 But whatever. Live and learn I suppose. But, yeah, you're here for carrot cake cupcakes! And ohhh boy, these cupcakes are amazing. I had never made carrot cake before, but now I know why. Do you know how long it takes to grate 4 cups of carrots? Longer than you'd think. Like, the better part of half an hour. Times like these really make me wish I had a food processor, I would have had those suckers ready in 2 minutes flat! But besides the carrot grating part, these little cupcakes were easy as pie. Well... easy as eating pie? Pie isn't really all that easy to make, I don't know why people say that. ANYWAYS, I know you guys don't care about my talking about completely random and unrelated stuff, and would much rather have me go right to talking about these cupcakes.

Hi gorgeous! You tasted delicious. The combination of carrots, cinnamon, and nutmeg make this recipe perfectly fall-ish without being obnoxiously so. It's a lovely transition recipe to try to (finally) wrap up summer and welcome autumn! Oh, and if you think that little cupcake up there looks too plain, what about this?

I personally thought they were totally adorable with a sprinkling of cinnamon on top, but if you're one of those people who don't really like cinnamon too much (aka my dad...) you can leave them plain. Or just do half and half! The cupcakes were good, but don't even get me started on the homemade cream cheese frosting. I had never made cream cheese frosting from scratch before, and I really don't like the kind that comes in the tub, especially cause the thought of what is actually in there grosses me out. But homemade is a whole different story! It was sweet and tangy and barely vanilla, and it complemented the not-very-sweet cupcakes perfectly.

I made some carrot cake cupcakes in miniature and some regular ones, as the recipe said it would yield 24 cupcakes... but I got 24 regular cupcakes plus 24 minis! But that's okay, extra cupcakes never hurt anyone 😉 And the frosting wasn't enough for all of them, but they're really good unfrosted so I really don't mind. It's like banana bread or zucchini cake muffins, just...carrot. It's delicious, embrace it. Oh, and since there's a bunch of carrots and whole wheat flour and everything in here, these are basically a health food. So, don't feel bad if you end up eating an extra... or 4.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Sweetopia
Yields: 24 regular cupcakes + 24 minis, or probably 36 regular

for the cupcakes
2 cups white sugar
1 ⅓ cups vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups white flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon salt
4 cups grated carrots (about 6 carrots)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans and one 24-cup mini muffin pan with liners. 
In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, combine oil, sugar, and vanilla. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add in about half of the dry ingredients. Toss the carrots in the other half of the dry ingredients, then add in the batter. Using a large cookie or ice cream scoop, fill the large cupcake molds about ¾ full; use a tiny cookie scoop to fill the mini cupcake molds! 
Bake your regular cupcakes in your preheated oven for 22-25 minutes, and your minis for 12-13 minutes. Cool completely, then frost!

for the frosting
1 8oz. package of neufatchel cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the neufatchel cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add in the powdered sugar, beat until smooth. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container until needed.