Falling for carrot cupcakes

It's been quite a while since I blogged about my cooking or baking - but it doesn't mean I haven't been! I've just (surprisingly) had more exciting things going on than feeding myself. I actually have 2-3 food blog entry drafts right now that I'm waiting for steam to finish! But since this post seemed timely - I made these to welcome the first day of Fall on Monday - it's going to be posted *dagnabit* today!

Fall ~~ my absolute complete and total FAVORITE time of the year. Technically my love of the season begins closer the mid-October than September (I love it when the weather gets cool), but The First Day Of Fall is an exciting day for me all the same. It signifies harvest and apple cider and pumpkins and orange, red and yellow. It means crisp, cool nights and beautiful sunny warm days and apples, pears and squash. It means light sweaters and closed-toe shoes and scarves; throw blankets and spiced cake. It means family. Fall makes me so very happy!

So to celebrate - I baked up some carrot cupcakes with luscious cream cheese frosting. I had the carrots in the fridge from a couple weeks back - plans for carrot salad with raisins and pineapple (definitely a warm weather dish) fell to the wayside somehow. But the carrots - while no longer fresh, were still fine for baking. And since the weather cooled (a bit) and Fall came in - I decided to welcome it.

How do I love my Cuisinart? Let me count the ways... 1, 2, 3, 4...

I've joked before how I think I might eat anything if it was slathered with cream cheese frosting. But Mom's carrot cake recipe is actually quite excellent even on its own. She throws in a can of crushed pineapple! I've had thoughts of making this with whole wheat flour to make a more "hearty and healthy" muffin too. But haven't yet tried it.

Carrots, raisins, pineapple and pecans

So I took Mom's recipe for carrot cake and made cupcakes instead. That way I could easily pawn them off on folks at work! I was NOT about to eat a 9x13 cake aka 28 cupcakes! Well I suppose I very easily could - but then I might become too large to fit in my chair to ever sit down and blog about it.
I wasn't thinking clearly and made enough frosting for a layered cake - that means almost double what I'd need to top cupcakes. You know what that means? I might have to make an apple cake to welcome the Fall too. Oh too bad, so sad!!

Whatever shall I do with the leftover frosting??

I don't really think they are - but carrot cupcakes seem like a reasonably healthy dessert to me. I mean heck - it's better than the donuts I'm thinking of frying with leftover pizza dough, right? (I keep hearing it totally works!)

It's so decadent - I have to drink a glass of milk every time!