Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When I was younger, I never really understood the concept of "carrot cake" or "zucchini bread" - the concept of vegetables and desserts just did not click with me. Why would anyone mix vegetables to create sweet desserts? But now that I've been exposed to many delicious carrot cakes, I love it. Sometimes I even crave it!

The reason why I started to bake this is because it was one of my friend's birthday! For all these years, I still remembered that carrot cake is her favorite! Since I haven't baked them in a while, I thought it would be a great opportunity to bake my friend something sweet on her birthday :)

Servings: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk 
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 cup grated carrots 
• 1 cup coconut flakes (I used sweetened) 
• 1 cup crushed pineapple (no sugar added canned pineapples) 

Cream Cheese Frosting: 

• 1 8oz cream cheese (I used Trader Joe's light cream cheese) 
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• In a medium bowl, mix: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. 
• In a small bowl, combine grated carrots, coconut flakes, and crushed pineapples. 
• In a large bowl, combine the soy milk, vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. 
• In the wet ingredients, combine the dry ingredients in about 2-3 increments. 
• Once that is combined, add the carrot mixture and gently fold it in the batter. 
• Bake for about 20 minutes 

Cream cheese frosting: In a medium bowl, stir cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth.

The texture of the dough 

Nice and domed after out of the oven

The cream cheese frosting

Finishing product !

I've had many different varieties of carrot cakes - some of them include raisins, less coconut, more carrots, etc. What I think is unique about this recipe is that I added pineapples. I never really thought why I had to included pineapples, but it really helped withe consistency of the cake (:  A typical carrot cake will include some decorations made with frosting (you know what I'm talking about, the carrot shaped decorations) but I thought I'd just shred some raw carrots as the topping. I just wanted to reduce the amount of unnecessary food coloring.

I also wanted to share what a joy it was to bake for my friend. Although I am a sweet tooth, I love the act of baking and even more I love the concept of baking for others. It's one of those hobbies that bring joy to myself and hopefully, it brings happiness to those I bake for. Everyone has their own way to de-stress and baking does that for me as a form of therapy. Many people thank me for baking them something but I'm the one who needs to thank for letting me pursue to continue to live my life on purpose (: What an incredible feeling!!

With that being said, from my kitchen to yours, Happy Baking!

Smiles,
Mei