Surprisingly Good Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I made these for my auntie (Auntie J--not Jo) yesterday because she chopped off my hair yesterday. I say these were "surprisingly" good because I normally hate carrot cake, although maybe my tastes have changed. Got this recipe here (see my version below). It required a lot of time and effort, but I'd still consider it easy. Once you prep everything (shred the carrots, soak the raisins, drain the pineapple and carrots, chop the walnuts, etc.), it's pretty simple.

Dang stupid shadow. Need to work on my lack of photography skills. Here's what 3 cups of grated carrots looks like (wayy good arm workout!). For some reason I kept thinking about how much carrot this recipe requires, and then I remembered I was making carrot cake. Smart.

I forgot to add in the raisins so I added those last (I don't think that matters).

Raw:

Baked:


One of the best things about these is that they have great texture with their pineapple, raisins, and walnuts. Oh! And tons of carrots, of course, although you can't really feel the carrots.

I opened that one on purpose to get a picture of the inside.

So moist and tasty. I'd lower the sugar even more next time though.

HERE is the original recipe. I fixed it so that I could make 16 cupcakes instead of full cakes (cut everything in half, prepped the night before, and excluded the cream cheese frosting). Here's what I did:

• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup raisins (soaked in water overnight)
  
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cups white sugar *actually, a little less
  
• 1/2 cup canola oil (because I didn't have vegetable oil)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained (I measured & drained this the night before and then drained it again the day of)
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots & brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes and then stir in raisins.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Grease and flour muffin/cupcake tins (I used one 12-cup tin and a 6-cup tin).
4. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light.
   
5. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla.
   
6. Stir in the pineapple.
   
7. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed.
8. Stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into pans.
9. Bake for 30-ish minutes in the preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean.
   
10. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.