Kid Bites: Creamy-Cheesy Frosted Easy-Peasy Mini Carrot Cupcakes

Summer finds us always looking for fun and creative ways to spend the days - often times inside from the sweltering East Coast heat. One pastime that is loved by my kids (I wonder why...?) is baking and moreso, decorating baked goods.

So the other day, we made mini carrot cupcakes and decorated them with cream cheese frosting. Preparation of the carrot cake was easy, and my eager kids did most of it - from grating the carrots, to weighing the ingredients - while I sat back and thought about how much time it would take me to clean up this mess that was unfolding right before my very eyes! Workspace was limited to my kitchen island, so things didn't get too out of hand.

When it came time to frost, I pulled out a good assortment of tips, gave each kid a bag of frosting and let their imaginations take the helm. It was great to see them tryout out different tips and trying to create their own little masterpieces. My son piped out an interesting abstract version of a dinosaur while my daughter made beautiful flowers.

Try these carrot cake cupcakes with your kids. You'll create a fun-filled memory they'll never forget and you'll have dessert ready for that evening, too!

Easy-Peasy Mini Carrot Cupcakes with Creamy-Cheesy Frosting
(modified from The French Culinary Institute's The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts Carrot Cake recipe)

Yield: ~24 mini cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 large egg, room temperature
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/4 c canola oil
1 c grated carrots
1/2 c chopped walnuts (optional)

Place mini muffin liners in a 24-cavity mini-muffin tin and set aside.
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk the egg until it's broken up. Then add the sugar, canola oil, and grated carrots. Mix well. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and fold the dry ingredients into the wet. Next, add the carrots and fold in gently being careful not to overmix. Lastly, fold the chopped walnuts into the batter if you are using them.
Using a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, place one scoop of batter in each mini muffin liner. The batter should come half-way up the sides of the liners. This amount will produce a nice dome-like top to your cupcakes - perfect for frosting.
Bake these cupcakes for 15-20 minutes. A toothpick tester will come out clean when they are ready to come out of the oven. Take the cupcakes out of the tin and let them cool completely.
Meanwhile, let's make the frosting:

Frosting:
1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 stick (4 T) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t lemon zest
Milk
Extra confectioners' sugar

In a bowl, using an electric beater, beat the cream cheese and butter until well combined. Using a slow speed on the beater, start adding the confectioners' sugar. When it's all been added, turn up the speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and beat for another minute. Depending on the consistency of frosting you are trying to achieve, you may add milk (to loosen) or confectioners' sugar (to thicken), one tablespoon at a time. Frost the cupcakes.

Store these cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Elmo Birthday Party

This past weekend I made a few cupcakes for a friend who's baby was turning one. The party was "Elmo" themed and it seemed only fitting to make Elmo cupcakes. I had been wanting to make some sort of Elmo cake or cupcake for a while, so I was excited to use this opportunity to do so.

The cupcakes were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I like to use these flavors for the little ones because I feel it's slightly healthier than doing just a vanilla or chocolate cake. They're having a veggie - carrots and a protein - cream cheese! Ok, well, sorta...

The birthday boy was so adorable! He just dove right into those cupcakes when his mommy put them in front of him and he kept going until his parents decided he'd had enough. It was the first time I truly enjoyed watching one of my edible creations be torn apart.

I had such a fun time making these cupcakes and they were so well received that I cannot wait to make these again - maybe even the whole Sesame Street monster crew next time!

A Smashing Birthday!

It's the week between Christmas and New Year's - a time for thinking back on the year past and pondering the year ahead. It's a time for celebration, enjoying the warm holidays and ringing in the new year. In my world, along with all this, it's also creating two cakes for some friends' birthdays being celebrated this week.
The first was a Lego cake for some family friends whose sweet and dear 1-year old absolutely adores these fun building blocks. The birthday boy's mom, Carolyn, is a photographer with her own blog and business. Please check her page out, as she is extraordinarily talented! She photographed our family recently and I just adore every single picture she took! I will be posting some pics from our photoshoot very soon so check back for that.
The cake was a first for me in that it had to be egg-, dairy- and nut-free, not to mention I had never designed a Lego cake before.
I created a carrot cake recipe which used flax seed as a replacement for eggs. Flax seed meal is a great alternative to using eggs in baking. One heaping tablespoon of flax seed meal blended with 1/4 cup of cold water until it becomes the consistency of a beaten egg (about 2 to 3 minutes) is the way to use this substitution. My friend wanted a smash cake for her son - a mini-spin off of the larger cake. If you've never heard of smash cakes, they are mini cakes that are created, usually for 1st birthday parties, so the birthday boy or girl can enjoy his or her piece of cake without destroying the actual cake. Most often, they are mini, complementing versions of the larger cake.

This cake, while my toughest project yet, was still fun to make. I enjoyed determining the logistical assembly of the Lego man and the building blocks. The carrot cake tasted delicious, so I was happy to use it rather than the more standard vanilla or chocolate.
During this process, I confirmed without any hesitation that I am my toughest critic. The moments leading up to the presentation of your cake are always a bit stressful, in anticipation of everyone's reactions. All my worries were unfounded. When I revealed the cakes, they expressed such joy and excitement that clearly I had been overreacting.

I was so thrilled to have had made this sweet little boy's first birthday cakes and so honored that my friends wanted me to do it for them. Furthermore, I was elated to see the delight in my friends' faces when they saw and then ate the cake. This is why I do what I do. Happy 1st Birthday, Elliott! We love you.