Carrot Cake

I really like carrot cake, it's spicy, sweet, and for the longest time, the only version of carrots I could eat!  I hated carrots for the longest time, so in cake, they seemed better.  Carrots and I are on friendlier terms now.  I love going to the farmer's market, and carrots are in season right now.  I decided to use them creatively by baking carrot cupcakes.  The recipe I used is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but the cream cheese frosting is not vegan at all.

First I grated 2 medium sized carrots in my food processor.  Next come the wet works.

Combine 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup of canola oil, 1/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1 tsp vanilla in a bowl.

In another bowl combine the dry: 2/3 cups flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and ground ginger.  I also grated some fresh nutmeg into the mix, as well as a sprinkle of clove.

Slowly add the dry to the wet, this is called the muffin method.  Yes, carrot cake is a muffin, technically.

After this is combined, fold in the carrot.  You can fold in raisins, or nuts.  I decided against it.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 26 minutes.

I toasted up some hazelnuts to sprinkle on top of my little cakes.

Next comes the frosting.  1 pack of cream cheese, 1 stick of unsalted butter, 2 tsp vanilla extract, and enough powdered sugar to make it a frosting.

After 26 minutes in the oven let's look at these cakes!

They're...concave...I'm not quite sure what happened, but I suspect that I added too much carrot.

I just don't know what went wrong.

(Derpy is from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, if you've seen the show, you'll get the joke.  If you haven't seen the show, you should!)

Oh well, let's ice them, they can still be pretty!!

And look at that!  You wouldn't even know they were concave.  I hope you enjoy this recipe, and check back soon, I'll be having another vegan adventure!

Enjoy!