Mini Carrot Cupcakes

These mini cupcakes are good any time of year, but they seem like a nice little taste of Fall to me!  I found the original recipe in a magazine.  I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe and I think these little cupcakes are even yummier now!

Mini Carrot Cupcakes

1 cup flour (I used unbleached)
1/2 cup almond meal
1/3 cup sugar (I used organic)
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup apple butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (about 3 medium)

Frosting:
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24* mini-muffin cups with paper liners or spray with nonstick spray.

Whisk together the flour, almond meal, granulated and brown sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk the eggs, oil, apple butter, and vanilla in another bowl, and fold into the flour mixture, stirring just until blended. Stir in the carrots. Spoon into the muffin cups, filling them halfway. Bake until a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.

To prepare the frosting, combine the cream cheese and honey in a small bowl. Stir until smooth.  Dab a teaspoonful onto the top of each cooled cupcake.

*This always makes more than 24 mini cupcakes for me - maybe it depends on the size of your pans.  I was able to make 36 mini cupcakes from this batch.

Do you enjoy mini cupcakes for dessert (or breakfast...*ahem*)?  What's your favorite mini dessert?

This post is linked to:
~ Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace
~ Chic & Crafty Party at The Frugal Girls

Have a delicious day friends!

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

It's Friday again - time for some CHOCOLATE!!!

I LOVE the simplicity of the recipe I have for you today! I found it in a little cupcake book of mine. This is the cupcake version of a chocolate chip cookie - no frosting needed! So yummy! I really like how the recipe only makes 8 cupcakes (you can double or triple recipe if needed) and it only uses 5 ingredients.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

7 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 cup superfine sugar (regular granulated works too)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup self-rising white flour (make your own self-rising flour)
Generous 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin pan with 8 paper liners.

Put butter, sugar, eggs, and flour into large bowl and mix together with electric mixer. Beat together until just smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter evenly into paper liners.

Bake cupcakes in oven for 20-25 minutes, until well risen and golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

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I had to split one in half for me and hubs to try and then you know I had to split another one in half to get a decent picture. Ah - the sacrifices I make for my blog. :)

I'm linking this post up for Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam! Go check out all the yummy recipes!

If you're a cupcake fan, you might also like:

• Almond Baby Cakes
• Caramel Mud Cakes
• Cupcake Cones
• Mini Carrot Cupcakes
• Mochaccino Cupcakes

Have a wonderful chocolatey day my friends!

Tea For Two-sday ~ Tea Cup Favors and Mini Caramel Mud Cakes

It's still Tuesday - even on the East coast - so I'm posting this!  I recently helped co-host a tea party for some lovely ladies and wanted to share a couple things.

I did my favorite kind of favors - tea cups and saucers that the ladies get to keep!  In order to do this, I have to start ahead of time looking at yard sales and thrift stores.  My goal is always to pay $1 or less per cup and saucer (sometimes I spend a little more if I'm not finding what I like).  The best way I've found is to go to Good Will stores where they have cups ad saucers separate.  If you spend a while searching, you can find cups and saucers that match, but were separated.  Then they're only 49 cents for each cup and each saucer!

This time I collected over 20 of them and put a tea bag and a truffle in each one.  Here's a picture of a few of them:

I also helped with the food.  One of the recipes I made was Caramel Mud Cakes from my Cupcakes cookbook - but I made them into mini cupcakes.  Aren't they cute?

Sadly, by the next morning the powdered sugar had melted into the cupcakes and you could barely make out the hearts.  So don't do that part ahead of time!  :)

Caramel Mud Cake

1 stick butter, chopped coarsely
3 1/2 oz. white chocolate, chopped coarsely
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup self-rising flour
1 egg

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line 6-hole oversize (Texas) or 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper baking cups.  (I made 36 mini cupcakes.)

2.  Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, honey, and milk in small pot; stir over low heat, until smooth.  Transfer mixture to medium bowl, cool 15 minutes.

3.  Whisk sifted flours into chocolate mixture, then egg.  Divide among baking cups.

4.  Bake large cakes about 40 minutes, small cakes about 30 minutes. (I baked the minis 15-20 minutes.)  Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.

5.  Sift powdered sugar onto cakes in desired design.  On full-sized cakes you can use lace or a doily to make them pretty - didn't work right for me on the minis so I used a little heart stencil I had.

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They turned out cute and they were yummy, but I would much rather have experienced the full flavor of a standard sized cupcake!

I hope you found a new idea to try!  Have a lovely day/evening/night my friends!