Carrot Cupcakes and Books
July 1st, 2009 § 1 Comment
This month marked the second meeting of my book club. I never considered myself one to “book club it”, seeing as my tolerance for organized girl time wanes thin. But my friend promised we would be a fun book club filled with brilliant women who had better things to talk about than shopping, makeup and boys. She was right, these ladies are much more fun than I imagined.
Our first book was Sag Harbor by Coleson Whitehead. I was not a fan of the book as it lacked plot and therefore I lacked focus. We then moved on to the teen novels Uglies and Pretties by some full of himself Australian writer. (I have never met him and know little about him, but I am pretty positive in my conclusion. These two books lacked depth and were steeped in terrible character voices reminiscent of Paris Hilton.
As a result our first two book club meetings were less about discussing the book and more about drinking wine and eating good food. Every book club meeting each of us bring something delicious to share with the group. This month I decided to bring yummy carrot cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. I have further decided to share the recipe with you so that you too can bring it to your next book club meeting — or, should you so choose to – eat them sitting on your couch while you watch Roseanne reruns
Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 24 cupcakes
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
4 large eggs
2 1/2 cups grated peeled carrots
Preheat oven to 35o degrees.
Line 24 cupcake molds with papers.
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots and divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each.
Bake cupcakes 15 to 20 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let them cool completely before icing them.
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
With a mixer beat all the ingredients on medium until fluffy. Chill the frosting for 10 to 20 minutes, until it has set up enough to spread smoothly.
Frost your cupcakes with a generous amount of frosting and eat at least 4 of them in one sitting. That’s an order!
I can vouch for the cupcakes. I’m pretty picky about my desserts, but these were awesome. Okay, so I’m not at all picky about my desserts. Still, these were well worth the 30 calories and 1 gram of fat. What?? Could Stacy be a liar??