A labor intensive cupcake recipe with a wonderful result

I had only been up for about an hour when it began to snow. Thank heavens I went to the store yesterday so I had everything I needed for a fun snow day activity. I am planning to go to a holiday party tomorrow night (weather permitting) and I wanted to try this recipe for carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

This recipe is labor intensive: it calls for 1 1/2 pounds of grated carrots, which I grated by hand as I prefer not to buy ready-cut vegetables. The batter was also thick and a bit hard to work with. I was a little concerned when I put these in the oven but my concerns soon melted away (and I hope the snow piling up outside will do the same very soon!) as the wonderful aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg filled the air.

When I took them out of the oven, they looked and smelled amazing. I couldn't wait to crown them with cream cheese icing.

After allowing them to cool, I made the cream cheese icing and iced the cupcakes. Like any good cook, I sampled my work. These are amazing and here is the result.

1 1/2 pounds of hand grated carrots

Carrot cupcake batter

Carrot cupcakes ready for the oven

Carrot cupcakes cooling on the table

 Cream cheese icing

One dozen carrot cupcakes in a cupcake pan

Carrot cupcakes frosted with cream cheese icing