Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Candy Corn Cream Cheese Frosting

This is not how I originally intended to do these cupcakes. I wanted to do a fun yellow, orange, and white cake with bright swirly frosting as well, but then I scoured the web only to find that they’ve been done a million times over! I also wanted to avoid dumping tons of food coloring into both the cake and frosting, so I went the natural route.. carrot cake! I made these last Easter and I’ve been craving them ever since! They’re fluffy, rich, and addicting! Adding festive candy corn to the top makes them the perfect Halloween treat!

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(Makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

A pinch of salt

2 eggs

½ cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 ½ cups finely grated carrots (2-3 large carrots)

For cream cheese frosting:

4 oz (half of a package) cream cheese, softened

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Candy corn

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C) and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

(1.) In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. (2.) In a separate bowl, lightly beat two eggs. Stir in applesauce and grated carrot. (3.) Pour carrot mixture into dry ingredients and stir until mixed well. (4.) Fill muffin cups ¾ of the way full with batter.

Place in the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool within the pan for 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack to finish cooling for another 10 minutes. While waiting for cupcakes to cool, prepare frosting.

In a medium sized bowl, mix cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract with an electric mixture until creamy.

Slowly add the powdered sugar about a ½ cup at a time until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrape any excess powdered sugar from the sides and mix again.

Once cupcakes have cooled, spread frosting on with a butter knife, use a pastry bag and frosting tip, or just place in a large zip-lock bag and cut the tip of the corner off. Add 3-4 candy corns to each cupcake and you’re done!

I meant to get an in-between bites photo, but I kind of inhaled the cupcake before that could happen! :X

Enjoy!