I finally made them! I have had carrot cake cupcakes on my list for quite some time now, yesterday I went and bought everything and then I got too hot and opted for a nice quiet nap instead. This morning when I woke up I immediately went straight into the kitchen and starting whipping up these light and fluffy cakes. I can’t wait to bring my sister one tomorrow when I go to Murrieta, as carrot cake is her favorite she will be my toughest critic, I hope. I used Ina Garten’s recipe for the cake but added pineapple for extra tenderness. I can’t wait to try one for myself when I meet Jim for lunch. Yay! For baking in the morning and beating the mid-day’s sun.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 extra-large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3 cups grated carrots (less than 1 pound)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 4 oz. Can of Pineapple Tid Bits
• 2 Packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tsp. Powdered Ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Beat the sugar, oil, and vanilla together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/2 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add the grated carrots, raisins, and walnuts to the remaining flour, mix well, and add to the batter. Mix until just combined.
2. Line muffin pans with paper liners. Scoop the batter into 24 muffin cups until each is 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and cook for a further 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack.
3. For the frosting, cream the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Add in Ginger once smooth.
4. When the cupcakes are cool, frost them generously and serve.

I have been meaning to bake some cuppies but without a/c it never seems appealing. Today I was supposed to meet my Mom in Murrieta but she was running late and cancelled so I decided to do something with my afternoon so I baked some cuppy cakes! I started out with Pineapple Upside Cupcakes but I had enough batter for about six more cuppies. After I had baked the plain cupcakes my wheels were spinning as to what I was going to do with them, I had a bright idea that I should try peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. I didn’t have any grape jelly (I really think this will taste better) so I used what I had, good ‘ole strawberry jam. These two cupcake recipes were so easy and I seriously did everything with cleanup within an hour and a half, leaving me enough time to blog about them, take a bite or two and then go to work. What a chock-full-of-a-cupcake-day!

Ingredients for Pineapple Upside Cupcakes and PB&J Cupcakes:

• 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (I used Pillsbury Reduced Sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup Pineapple Juice (reserved from pineapple tidbits)
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 6 Cherries, halved
• 1 Can Pineapple tidbits
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup Butter
• 3/4 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
• 1/2 cup Jelly
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
• 1/2 stick Butter, at room temperture
• Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix pineapple juice, oil, eggs and cake batter together until there are no lumps.
3. In a small saute pan, melt butter and brown sugar together until completly melted.
4. Spray Muffin pan with Pam and spoon one teaspoon of sugar mixture into each cup.
5. Place one half of a cherry into the center of the sugar mixture and then arrange pineapple tidbits around the cherry. Spoon batter 2/3 into each cup.
6. Bake for 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cupcakes rest for about ten minutes and then invert them and let rest until all the cupcakes come out clean out of pan.

For PB&J Cupcakes:

1. Use a cake batter of your choice, I used the left overs from my Pineapple Upside Cupcakes.
2. Bake for fifteen minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
3. With a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip add in strawberry jam and place tip directly into cupcake and fill cupcake until full.
4. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, cream cheese and mix with a handheld mixer until creamy. Mix in one cup of powdered sugar at a time, adding in a little bit of milk in between.
5. Place frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a tip of your choice and frost cuppies.
6. I dusted mine with dark chocolate but any candy would work; reeses pieces, peanut butter cups, chocolate wafers, etc.