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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Yerba Mate
When my Argentinian in-laws first introduced me to this drink, I did not like it at all. It was much too bitter and I didn’t like the idea of everyone sharing one straw. After working with them for several years and seeing them drink it all day, I did try it again and again. One day I finally took a liking to it. My sisters-in-law add a little sweet and low to the carafe of water that is poured in the mate or add an orange peel to the mate itself. My husband likes it plain and bitter.
It is supposed to be good for weight loss, although all the baked goods I have been making lately and bringing to the office kind of cancel that out. It does have caffeine, so at least it keeps me going all day.
Yerba Mate is kind of like a tea. The leaves come from a small tree or shrub. The ground up leaves are placed in a vessel called a mate. There are different kinds of vessels. I have one that is a hollowed out gourd, another that is wood on the inside and silver on the outside, another that is all glass. This one that we use at the office is porcelain. The water is heated up, but not to a boiling point. Then the water is poured over the mate leaves. You drink from the mate with a straw called a bombilla. It has a filter at the bottom to strain out any bits of leaves and it is usually made of silver. Once one person drinks from the mate the water is then refilled and passed onto the next person.
There is a whole ritual for the preparing, serving and drinking of the mate. You can check out these 2 sites:
Argentinians are pretty serious about their mate, the bring it everywhere, even to the beach. When I went to Buenos Aires last year I saw people on the street carrying thermoses and their mate, drinking as they walked. It’s almost like a drug.
I am used to drinking now and drink it everyday at the office. It is supposed to have a lot of health benefits. And it does go well with sweets!
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