Carrot cupcakes

My parents always said “eat lots of carrots, they are good for your sight”. Not that I had problems with my eyes but parents always want their kids to be healthy. It’s just a memory from my childhood. Whenever my mom cooked chicken soup (polish: rosół), she always peeled extra carrots for my sister and I to eat it and I heard those words.

I never baked carrot cake in Poland but I ate it couple times in Canada and I love it, so I decided this will be my first recipe in the new year.

Actually I decided to turn carrot cake into carrot cupcakes :)

Ingredients below make about 12 regular size cupcakes. Enjoy!

2 cups raw shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tespooons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cream cheese frosting:
3 ounces cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoon orange juice

Mix together carrots, sugar, orange juice, eggs and vanilla sugar. Combine the remaining ingredients. Put baking cups into the baking tin, pour the dough into 3/4 of each cup and bake at 350 F degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

To make frosting mix together cream cheese, icing sugar and orange juice until the texture is smooth.

When cupcakes are cool, decorate them with frosting, put a pecan on the top of each one or a mini carrot to make it look pretty.