Brad's Birthday Cake 2011- Carrot Cupcakes

Usually, my fiancé is a chocolate guy but this year he went for something a little different: Carrot cake! I was really excited to make it since we had recently been disappointed by the cake from a very popular bakery, here in Boston. It was almost like eating a doctored up spice cake from a box mix with some carrots added as an afterthought. I grew up with carrot cake that is dense with carrots, pineapple bits, rasins, nuts, etc. To be fair, the cream cheese frosting was on the Boston cake was perfect! Not too sweet and not too heavy. Anyway, I think part of the problem was that we are accustom to the very proud Southern cake baking tradition. As such, my carrot cake has some distinctly Southern flair with pecans as the nut of choice, and the inclusion of shredded coconut. I made cupcakes so they would be easy to share at his office. I hope you'll try them out and let me know how you like them!

Brad's Birthday Cupcakes

3 cups shredded carrots

1/4 cup golden rasins

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1- 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup melted butter

4 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (f). In a large bowl combine the carrots, brown sugar and sugar. Let them stand for 10 minutes so the sugar can soften the carrots and draw the juice out to make a syrup. Next, add the pineapple, apple sauce, butter, and eggs. Combine by mixing by hand. In a separate bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix by hand until it's all fully combined.

Portion out two tablespoons of batter to each lined muffin tin cup. Bake for 25- 30 minutes (I know that's long for a cupcake, but this stuff is DENSE). You'll know they're done when a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the middle of one of the cakes.Remove the cakes from the tins immediately and cool completely (at least 30 minutes) on a cooling rack before topping with your favorite cream cheese frosting. This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. (Or 12 cupcakes and two 6 inch spring form heart cakes that baked for 45 minutes and overflowed all over the oven, but still turned out fine. (o:)

Happy birthday, Brad!