Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I made these delicious cupcakes a few weeks ago for my Sunday school class. I tweaked the original recipe quite a bit...it called for white sugar, but I used a mixture of raw cane sugar and maple syrup. I also substituted coconut oil for the vegetable oil and doubled the chocolate and carrots! The original recipe also made a TON of icing...since I was making these for my Sunday school class, I doubled the cupcakes and had just the right amount of icing.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

• 4 ounces white chocolate
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

 

• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 1/4 cups cane sugar
• 2/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup crushed pineapple
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat. Stir until smooth.
3. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream. Set aside.
4. Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in walnuts. Transfer to prepared muffin cups.
5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before topping with the icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts.