Carrot and Zucchini Cupcakes w/ Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: June 8, 2023

Time to bake again. I signed up for baking once a month for my daughter’s school. I needed new victims for my recipes. Kids like cupcakes with frosting, but they don’t know that these come with veggies. We will see how they like them. My daughter taste tested them and said they were yummy. I wanted to use zucchini, but this time I wanted to try a new recipe. This one I found in the Better Homes and Garden Magazine. It was a recipe for bars, but I made it into mini cupcakes.

Carrot and Zucchini Mini Cupcakes

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1-1/2 cups shredded carrots (3 medium)
1 medium zucchini, shredded (1 cup)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, ginger, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together eggs, carrot, zucchini, brown sugar, raisins, walnuts, oil, honey, and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Divide mixture into lined mini muffin pans.

2. Bake about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

The frosting they suggested was a Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting. Basically 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp lemon or orange peel. I decided I wanted to use the Maple Cream Cheese frosting I had used previously.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

10oz. cream cheese
5 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat at low speed until well blended. Beat in maple syrup. Chill until just firm enough to spread, 30min

Mmmmm….now doesn’t that look inviting.

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Chocolate Coffee Bundt Cake

Dessert

Christiana George

Updated Date:
June 8, 2023

What kind of cake do you bake for a friend who doesn’t like cake? Or dessert for that matter? She’s a girl (aww, woman now!) with peculiar tastes. She’ll buy half a watermelon and a pack of deli meat for dinner, and eat it all with generous scoops of chili garlic sauce. She hates eating fruit in any form except raw. She doesn’t like her veggies. She used to buy a stick of salami everyday after school.

Her one weakness is coffee ice cream, which I took advantage of. Or tried to, rather. I had lofty plans. I was going to make a coffee ice cream cake, with six alternating layers of brownie in between. But then I failed, TWICE, at making the ice cream. So I plowed forward instead with this chocolate coffee bundt cake, courtesy of Big Sur Bakery, via Miss Joy. And I decided to freeze the ice cream anyway—it was a Jeni’s Splendid recipe, and looked absolutely amazing on Megan’s blog. It doesn’t taste quite right, more toffee-flavored than coffee-flavored, but maybe people will believe me if I tell them it’s toffee ice cream?

Anyway, you’ll notice there are no pictures of cake slices. I couldn’t cut it open; I mean, wouldn’t that be wrong? A violation of some basic human right to receive an intact cake on one’s birthday? Chris asked if there was any way to cut a slice and weld the piece back in—what misconceptions there exist about baking—but I’m not aware of this being possible. (Is it possible?)

So, a happy happy birthday to one of my best friends in the world! She turns 26 today, and I’ve officially known her for half my life. Whew! Although by the time you read this, her birthday will have passed. Now off to celebrate. A cake report to follow.

The next day: Good cake, great ice cream, and perfect company! I won’t post the ice cream recipe for the reason mentioned above, but the cake, now the cake, is one I should spread the word about.

CHOCOLATE COFFEE BUNDT CAKE

Recipe from Big Sur Bakery via Joy the Baker

Makes one 10-inch bundt cake

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp brewed coffee
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder (Note: I used regular)
2-1/4 cups sugar
1-1/4 tsp kosher salt
2-1/2 tsp baking soda
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1-1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp buttermilk
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp canola oil
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups, plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, sifted

Directions:

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Well grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan and set aside (Note: I used a 9-inch Bundt pan and there was definitely too much batter. Go with the 10″).

Put brewed coffee and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from the heat and let come to room temperature.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low speed for about 1 minute. Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute. Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The batter will be very loose.

Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean (Note: I baked it for 70 minutes). Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack. Decorate with powdered sugar and serve with ice cream.