Fresh Cranberry & Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese & Butter Frosting

Birthday cupcakes for the birthday boy...

Growing up, my mom did not bake. Not a single cookie or a cupcake. She doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. But this didn't mean we lacked in the baked goods area. You see, my parents were members of Price Club or now known as Costco. And Korean Grocers and Bakeries, who needed to bake when you could go pick one up with not much effort.

My dad on the otherhand loves sweets and apparently I get that from him. And I didn't grow up with themed birthday parties or cakes with Rainbow Brite or the Smurfs (for you young bucks reading this, these are the cartoons I grew up with). But I always had ice cream cake on my birthdays. And I preferred this over cake.

Remember this post? Well, i'm ready to share more of what I made for my loves 3rd birthday party. When I asked my lil man what he wanted on his cake, he said, "Winnie the Pooh." Currently in his book rotation are some Winnie the Pooh stories, hence the request. And instead of regular cake, I decided on a ice cream cake from Carvel. Just like when I was growing up. Chocolate ice cream is my loves favorite and it's mine too!

And of course a birthday party is just not complete unless we're graced with the presence of cupcakes. And this time I made mini's and standard sized cupcakes with finely shredded carrots and fresh cranberries topped with a cream cheese & butter frosting. The perfect combination in my opinion.

Printable Recipe
Ingredients
Adapted from Martha Stewart
1 Cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs, Room Temperature
1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1/4 Cup Buttermilk (1/4 cup Fage yogurt and 2% milk mixture)
1-1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1-1/2 Cups Grated Carrots
1/2 Cup Raisins (I used 1 Cup Chopped Fresh Cranberries)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350º and line your mini muffin pan. Beat the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and Fage yogurt together using your stand alone mixer, or by hand until combined well.

My love said that this batter looked like...take a wild guess? Yep.

2. In a large bowl sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder & soda and salt. Add 3/4 of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, mix well. Add carrots and cranberries to the remaining flour mixture, toss to combine then stir into batter and combine well. Fill 2 tsp of batter into each lined mini muffin pan and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I made 2 batches of 24 mini's. Cool completely before frosting.

At this time, there should be some batter left. I made some standard sized cupcakes and baked them for about 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cream Cheese & Butter Frosting
2 Eight oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese
12 tbsp Butter, sliced at room temperature
1 Cup Confectioners Sugar, sifted
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions
1. Place the cream cheese in your stand alone mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or by hand using a spatula or hand held mixture) and on medium speed, mix until creamy. Add the butter pieces one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla and blend well. Frost your cupcakes to your liking.

These cupcakes are light and dainty and they were a total hit with the guests. I made a little more than 50 cupcakes and only a few were left. I have one last birthday post to share with you. In the meantime, I hope all of you are having a great start to the upcoming weekend. Enjoy!