Greg's Birthday

So for Greg's 29th birthday I planned a little suprise party. The menu? Tacos of course, the hubs loves Mexican. The best part of the birthday dinner was my first ever attempt at Carrot Cake, from scratch, with Cream Cheese icing, also from scratch. The inspiration for this little desert was 2 fold. 1 Greg loves Carrot cake and I've never made it before, and 2 I got a new Wilton Cupcake Cookbook from work and the recipie was in it. So the cake actully turned into 12 cupcakes and 1 small round cake. I also used this as an oppurtunity to use my new cupcake stand, also from Joann's....are you starting to see why I come home with little to no paycheck??

So here it goes. Carrot cupcakes:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

4 cups freshly shredded carrots

2/3 cups chopped nuts

Pre heat oven to 350. Line standard muffin pan with baking cups. I don't use the paper ones, I use the Wilton silicon ones. They are easy to clean up, come in cute colors and you put them on a baking sheet, not a muffin pan.

In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking soda; mix well. In large bowl, beat eggs with electric mixer until foamy; add oil in a thin stream and beat well. Add four mixture to egg mixture; mix well. Fold in carrots and nuts. Spoon into baking cups. Bake 18-20 mins or until tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan on cooling rack for 5-8 minutes. Remove cpucakes from pan. Cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Icing:

3 8oz packages cream cheese

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

4 cups sifited confectioners' sugar

In large bowl, beat cream cheese, orange juice and zest with electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add confectioners' sugar. Continue beating until icing is smooth and creamy. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Makes about 4 cups.